A study by Kent Business School (KBS) into user-perception of a personal physiotherapy app has enabled the developers to gain unique insights into their user base and redirect the app accordingly.
The findings of the EU Interreg-funded study will also contribute to teaching on the School’s BSc Marketing and MSc Marketing degrees.
The study, which was conducted by Dr Ben Lowe, Professor of Marketing, and Dr Des Laffey, Senior Lecturer in E-Commerce, focused on user perceptions of the Injurymap app and how they evaluate it. Injurymap is available for a range of mobile operating systems.
To aid the study, Injurymap provided free access for 12 months to the University of Kent’s staff and students, to allow them to use and test its functionality and application over the year. These users, along with hundreds of other users globally, were surveyed at the end of the test period. The University’s Kent Sport also provided guidance to the KBS team.
The study identified the key barriers to adoption and continued use of the app. It also showed the app was perceived to be high in levels of engagement, functionality, aesthetics and information value. These app characteristics were also shown to influence key consumer app evaluations such as attitude, satisfaction, future usage intentions, star rating and the Net Promoter Score. App “stickiness”, however, was harder to influence for such a health app because once it has achieved its objective users (e.g. lower pain levels), users are more inclined to stop using it. This poses a particular challenge to health app companies.
The findings have proved invaluable to Injurymap, with co-founder Ulrik Borch saying: ‘The research has given us extremely well-founded insights into how our users perceive the app. Also, it has shed a light on how to further increase the value of Injurymap. For example, we have learnt that there is a substantial share of users who would like to continue use the exercises beyond the recovery phase, in order to prevent a relapse.’
Dr Laffey said: ‘We enjoyed researching the hugely important area of health apps which will stimulate further research and also provide insights for our teaching on the BSc Marketing and MSc Marketing degrees. We learnt a lot from Injurymap, both in terms of seeing a dynamic start-up and also the area of health apps.’
Ulrik Borch added: ‘I am very grateful to the team at Kent Business School, and to the students and staff that provided feedback or guidance. Working with Kent Business School on this project has provided us with information that will not only improve our product but more importantly the experience of all our users both now and in the future.’