Investigating usability of mobile health applications in Bangladesh

Background Lack of usability can be a major barrier for the rapid adoption of mobile services. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the usability of Mobile Health applications in Bangladesh. Method We followed a 3-stage approach in our research. First, we conducted a keyword-based application search in the popular app stores. We followed the affinity diagram approach and clustered the found applications into nine groups. Second, we randomly selected four apps from each group (36 apps in total) and conducted a heuristic evaluation. Finally, we selected the highest downloaded app from each group and conducted user studies with 30 participants. Results We found 61% usability problems are catastrophe or major in nature from heuristic inspection. The most (21%) violated heuristic is aesthetic and minimalist design. The user studies revealed low System Usability Scale (SUS) scores for those apps that had a high number of usability problems based on the heuristic evaluation. Thus, the results of heuristic evaluation and user studies complement each other. Conclusion Overall, the findings suggest that the usability of the mobile health apps in Bangladesh is not satisfactory in general and could be a potential barrier for wider adoption of mobile health services

A Critical Review of Concepts, Benefits, and Pitfalls of Blockchain Technology Using Concept Map

Blockchain is relatively a new area of research. However, a surge of research studies on the blockchain has taken place in recent years. These research studies have mostly focused on designing and developing conceptual frameworks to build more reliable, transparent and efficient digital systems. While blockchain brings a wide variety of benefits, it also imposes certain challenges. Therefore, the objective of this research is to understand the properties of blockchain, its current uses, observed benefits and pitfalls to provide a balanced understanding of blockchain. A systematic literature review approach was adopted in this paper in order to attain the objective. A total of 51 articles were selected and reviewed. As outcomes, this research provides a summary of the state-of-the-art research studies conducted in the area of blockchain. Furthermore, we develop a set of concept maps aiming to provide in-depth knowledge on blockchain technology for its efficient and effective usage in the development of future technological solutions

The contributing factors of continuance usage of social media: An empirical analysis

The problem of leveraging social media for establishing and sustaining consistent policies, procedures and methods of online communication can be challenging for busy professionals. To address this issue and to contribute to the literature we develop our research model to gain a deeper upstanding of the factors that influence social media continuance usage. The theoretical background for our research model are technology acceptance model and diffusion of innovation. We collected our data from college students that are enrolled in a large public university located in North America. We analyze our data using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results of our data analysis show that ease of use, usefulness, and satisfaction of social media have a positive and significant influence on social media continuance usage. Also, our results show that relative advantage, compatibility, information quality, and risk of social media have a positive influence on the usefulness of social media. We discussed the results implications for theory development and practice