Usability Issues in Mental Health Applications

User reviews of apps are critically important in open mobile application markets, including the App Store and Google Play. Analyzing app reviews helps reveal any usability issues faced, desired improvements, and could also provide insights to guide future app designs. As a result, there is a growing demand for analysis of app reviews to enhance app usability, user experience, and hence improve overall app adoption. This is particularly true for apps targeting sensitive issues such as those promoting mental health. In this paper, we present the results of an analysis of 106 mental health app reviews from the App Store and Google Play. We mined and analyzed 1236 distinct reviews to identify usability issues. We classified app usability issues into six categories: bugs, poor user interface design, data loss, battery and memory usage issue, lack of guidance and explanation, and internet connectivity issue. The results could guide app designers on how to design apps especially those tailored to mental health to improve their usability.

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