Assessing Usability of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) Related Mobile Applications: A Multimethod Evaluation

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a common hormonal disorder that affects women of reproductive age and can cause various health complications. Several mobile applications have been developed to help manage PCOS symptoms and lifestyle changes. Since users from varied backgrounds need to use such applications, usability and user experiences are the most important quality attributes that need to be assessed and addressed in developing PCOS applications. Therefore, the objective of this study is to assess the usability of PCOS apps for women to manage their condition more efficiently and effectively. To achieve this objective, three mostly used PCOS related mobile applications (Ovia, AskPCOS, and PCOS Tracker) were evaluated using the Heuristic Evaluation (HE) and the System Usability Scale (SUS) approaches. As an outcome, the HE evaluation identifies a noticeable number of usability problems with their severity and offers design recommendations for improvement. The outcome also showed that while Ovia offers the best usability with the fewest (n = 20) usability issues, PCOS Tracker exhibits the most critical usability concerns (average severity = 2.45). In terms of SUS scores, Ovia scored the highest SUS score (75.90) that makes it the most user-friendly, while AskPCOS demonstrated moderate usability with a SUS score of 62.70). The PCOS Tracker app showed a SUS score of 51.80 and faced significant usability challenges.