Development of an Innovative User Centered Design Driven mHealth App for Female Athletes- “The Coral App”

Decision support tools aimed at female athletes and coaches, which could aid in enhancing the relationship between the Menstrual Cycle (MC) and its impact on training and performance, are noticeably absent in the literature. This absence may be attributed to the global under-discussion of the MC topic, which has often been perceived as taboo within the sports community. This article delineates a User-Centered Design (UCD) guided research and innovation process for an mHealth App, namely the “Coral App.” This personalized decision support tool is tailored for female athletes and coaches to augment their comprehension of the MC and its impact on training and performance. The fully operational Coral App was meticulously designed and field-tested through collaboration with a multidisciplinary team comprising expert coaches, athletes, sport and health researchers, and designers. The design process of the Coral App comprised of three stages: (i) User studies involving focus group and semi-structured interviews with coaches and female athletes, (ii) Iterative design of the Coral App with experts, and (iii) Longitudinal field testing of the fully functional Coral App with 26 recreational athletes and one coach over the course of a year. The System Usability Scale (SUS) and User Experience Scale (UEQ) were employed to gauge user feedback on usability and experience. The study results concluded that the perceived ease of use and usefulness are indicators of higher user acceptance intention of the Coral App among female athletes. This is particularly significant for establishing tracking, communication, and education regarding the MC and comprehending its impact on performance. This article contributes to the much-needed literature on female-focused innovation of decision support-related mHealth services within the sports domain. Furthermore, it illustrates the value of UCD in furnishing a framework for collaboration with relevant stakeholders to develop research-driven innovative solutions, especially concerning the MC, a topic often shrouded in stigma and deemed taboo internationally.