Adolescents' Assessment of Two Mental Health-Promoting Mobile Apps: Results of Two User Surveys.

backgroundThe importance of mental health promotion is irrevocable and is especially important at a young age. More mental health-promoting mobile apps have been developed in the last few years. However, their usability and quality have been rarely assessed.

objectiveThe aim of this study is to investigate how adolescents assess the usability, quality, and potential goal achievement of Opp and NettOpp. Opp is a universal mental health-promoting mobile app aimed at 13- to 19-year-olds, and NettOpp is a mobile app for children and adolescents between 11 to 16 years of age that have experienced negative incidents online.

methodsA total of 45 adolescents tested either Opp (n=30) or NettOpp (n=15) for a period of 3 weeks and answered a questionnaire. The System Usability Scale (SUS) was used to measure the usability of the apps. A SUS score above 70 indicates acceptable usability. Items from the Mobile Application Rating Scale were adapted for study purposes and used to measure the quality and perceived goal achievement that Opp and NettOpp might have on adolescents' knowledge, attitudes, and intention to change behavior. Furthermore, adolescents could answer an open comment question.

resultsOpp had a mean SUS score of 80.37 (SD 9.27), and NettOpp's mean SUS score was 80.33 (SD 10.30). In the overall evaluation, Opp and NettOpp were given a mean score of 3.78 (SD 0.42) and 4.20 (SD 0.56), respectively, on a 5-point scale, where 5 was best. Most adolescents who evaluated Opp rated that the app would increase knowledge about mental health and help young people deal with stress and difficult emotions or situations. Most adolescents who evaluated NettOpp agreed that the app would increase awareness and knowledge about cyberbullying, change attitudes toward cyberbullying, and motivate them to address cyberbullying. Some adolescents stated that Opp was difficult to navigate and consisted of too much text. Some of the adolescents that tested NettOpp stated that the app had crashed and that the design was a bit childish.

conclusionsAll in all, this study indicates that Opp and NettOpp have good usability and that adolescents are satisfied with both apps. It also indicates that the potential goal achievement of the apps, for example, increasing knowledge about mental health (Opp) or cyberbullying (NettOpp) is promising. While there are some comments from the users that are more difficult to solve (eg, Opp is too text-based), some comments helped improve the apps (eg, that the app crashed). Overall, the user evaluation provided valuable knowledge about how adolescents assess Opp and NettOpp. However, more extensive effectiveness studies are necessary to measure their actual goal achievement.