Mobile Apps for Foot Measurement in Pedorthic Practice : Scoping Review
criteria , and half of the apps ( 50 %, 13 / 26 ) only measured one dimension . There were 3 ( 12 %) apps that measured five dimensions , 3 ( 12 %) apps that measured four dimensions , 1 ( 4 %) app that measured three dimensions , 3 ( 12 %) apps that measured two dimensions , and 3 ( 12 %) apps that measured no dimensions at all . In general , most of the reviewed apps were not suitable for foot measurement in clinical practice for custom-made shoes and insoles / orthoses or for general use by the public .
User Reviews from App Store
User reviews provide a rich source of information about the performance and future viability of apps . Hence , to drive the commercial success of apps ( in any category ), developers and publishers aim to receive good and positive reviews as these are a crowdsourced quality indicator of apps [ 39 ].
The analysis of user comments regarding the foot measurement apps from both stores showed that most of the apps lack good feedback or positive reviews from app users , since the number of downloads of the related apps was generally low and an estimated 31 % ( 8 / 26 ) of the apps had only 100 to 1000 users . The number of downloads of iOS apps could not be viewed and there were too few reviews with information from users for proper assessment of these apps . These findings are similar to those of Vasa et al [ 39 ], who indicated that users tend to write little to nil when reviewing an app that performs better in its category . We found that 42 % ( 11 / 26 ) of the apps had very short or no informative reviews to support their ratings .
However , 54 % ( 14 / 26 ) of the apps had some informative reviews in the app stores , which were contrasted with their ratings / scores . One of the most positive sets of user responses was found for the app
ShapeCrunch . This app is a foot scanner that uses machine learning – generated 3D printed insoles to reduce the discomfort of foot pain . Based on the reviews of several users , this app is rated excellent on the grounds that it can provide properly fitted insoles for users with a wide variety of foot problems . The app Swift Orthotics also received a good review , which was consistent with the overall ratings both in the app store and in the modified evaluation scale . This app uses augmented reality technology to measure foot dimensions , and was the only other app that could measure heel width along with Fischer Scan-Fit among the reviewed apps . Strong positive feedback with no mention of drawbacks was received for the apps ECLO and 3DSizeMe , which were positively correlated with the ratings of the independent raters , although ECLO is a shoe recommendation app that can order shoes based on user scans from the ECLO online store . The app 3DSizeME has great support for Structure Sensor , an advanced 3D scanner , and there are many companies that can directly support 3DSizeMe file formats to order custom shoes and insoles . By contrast , apps such as Aqualeg , Ortholutions , and AARA Orthotics , which use external scanning mechanisms , did not receive much public exposure although they scored high ratings according to the devised rating scale , and all of these apps had features for visualizing and either uploading foot scans to company servers or exporting the model data to order shoes , insoles , and even medical casts for different body parts . Similar results were found for the 2D scanning app INESCOP YourFeet , which did not have good store descriptions , but the store ratings were consistent with our measured ratings . However , this app lacked good functionality in terms of providing detailed
30 Pedorthic Footcare Association | www . pedorthics . org