Mobile Apps for Foot Measurement in Pedorthic Practice : Scoping Review
investigators collaboratively . All investigators involved in this operation contributed equally by maintaining a separate list of apps they found within the app stores using the inclusion and exclusion criteria that were finalized for this procedure ( see Measures Used in Apps Selection section below ). The investigators acted independently on their own smartphone ( s ) to determine apps fit for selection . During the merging of the app lists , there were conflicts regarding some apps . One such case was an app encountered by one investigator who rejected it from their list , but the same app was included by another investigator . Such cases of discordance were resolved by mutual discussion among the investigators until consensus was reached . The resulting lists of apps were merged , producing the final list of included apps for analysis .
Raters
Three expert raters were selected in line with the proven approach described by Stoyanov et al [ 13 ] , including ( 1 ) a software developer with a Master ’ s degree in software engineering and more than 10 years of mobile app development experience in a renowned company , along with extensive experience using various camera / depth sensors in mobile apps ; ( 2 ) a computer science graduate with 2 years of mobile app ( in particular iOS apps ) development experience ; and ( 3 ) a finalyear Bachelor of Computer Science student with 2 years of mobile app development experience . In addition , domain experts ( two pedorthists ) in the research team trained and educated the raters about the foot measurement processes and the footwear industry .
The raters independently rated all of the apps from the final list of apps compiled by the investigators . Their responses were recorded in a standardized response form ( Google Forms ) and respective rater response data were extracted from the spreadsheet attached to the form .
Measures Used in Apps Selection
The criteria for the selection of foot measurement apps were based on whether the app serves a purpose that involves measurement of the user ’ s foot . An app was selected for inclusion if it met the following criterion : the app was deemed to be a foot measurement app after screening by title , store description , and store rating relevance . An app was excluded from the study if it met one of the following exclusion criteria : ( 1 ) it has neither a star rating nor a user comment on the app store listing page ; ( 2 ) an identical app from the same developer or publisher is available in both app stores ( a duplicated app ), and therefore it was excluded from one platform ; ( 3 ) it is inaccessible / unusable due to region restrictions ; and ( 4 ) it has been reskinned with a new user interface over an existing app , and hence it is deemed to be the same app in terms of functionality .
Modification of Existing Health App Rating Tools
Selection of Domains and Rating Tool Development
We hypothesized that to properly rate an app with respect to its appropriateness and usability , the app should include multiple features to enable scientifically evaluating its value as a commercially viable foot measurement product . A standardized rating tool would be helpful in this case , especially when there are numerous relevant apps in the app stores . Consequently , an extensive review of prior guidance documents and tools for rating mobile apps was performed
16 Pedorthic Footcare Association | www . pedorthics . org