Designing for user experience : analysing app store reviews for app feature identification

Abstract: South Africa's blood stock level is often categorised as alarmingly low, leaving blood donation organisations in constant need of voluntary, unpaid blood donations to ensure their ability to supply hospitals with safe blood. Globally, there are successful mobile blood donation apps facilitating blood donation by providing useful services to blood donors, however similar apps available in South Africa are new, and not popular when compared to global standards. An estimated 5.9 million South Africans download and use mobile applications (apps), and this paper explores the process and results from the first phase of a study, which employed a sequential mixed method research design, to identify userpreferred features for a mobile blood donation app. The findings of the study should serve as a roadmap to blood donation organisations in South Africa, regarding what users expect from a blood donation app, and which features may possibly stimulate a constant or increased frequency of blood donation instances. The two largest app stores, Google Play and Apple iOS, served as the sources of the eventual sample of blood donation apps, of which the user reviews were analysed. Commenting from a design science paradigm, this paper reports on the selection process that had been followed to sample the relevant apps, and further discusses the user insights gained from the analysis of these apps' reviews. The paper further reports on how the app review analysis findings informed the creation of an interview schedule, that was used to gain in-depth understanding of perceptions held by users of the blood donation apps, specifically regarding the users' preferred features in these types of apps

E-counselling at the University of Johannesburg : a pilot programme case study

With the advent of the Internet and related Web resources and the integration thereof into our everyday life has made it impossible for social work practitioners to ignore the possibilities and challenges that would develop within practice conditions. Practitioners more and more realise that changes due to technological advancement will continue to have a substantial impact on the human services, since information is the key resource used in service delivery. This article reports on some of the results of a PhD study which aimed to design, develop and test an online counselling programme within a naturalised setting via Psychological Services and Career Development (PsyCaD) at the University of Johannesburg. A developmental case study research design, including both exploratory and applied dimensions, was employed and the pilot intervention that ensued was coined the LATS WELL-BeING counselling programme. It encompassed a four session asynchronous e-mail based service and information regarding the experiences of both clients and practitioners were recorded via direct questionnaires and online surveys. The study enabled the researcher to gather information about the application of the online counselling programme and the interaction between the e-counsellors and actual clients within a naturalised setting