The Journal of mHealth Vol 3 Issue 1 (Feb/Mar 2016) | Page 23

mHealth UX Development: How to Be Smart About Smartphones

mHealth UX Development: How to
Be Smart About Smartphones
By Jas Singh, CTO, Medelinked
A good mobile user experience (UX) is what will separate successful mHealth apps from the rest. But as the mobile channel
matures and technologies develop, so too does the UX both in
terms of what is possible to produce, what will be expected of it
by the user and what they will judge to be a satisfying experience.
Start with a clean slate
Ultimately, the difference between the mHealth experience and
that of more traditional digital health is that the small, relatively
slow hardware and unique characteristics of the mobile user
mean that the bloated layouts and endless features common in
some parts of the desktop world can’t be replicated.
That means simply shrinking a desktop experience is not going
to get you very far in creating a great mHealth UX. Instead,
start from first principles with the ideal customer experience you
envisage and remember the best mHealth ideas respond to, and
take advantage of, particular mobile conditions and use cases.
KISS
In mobile UX, the golden rule is the simpler and the more familiar the app, the better it will be. Not just in terms of an intuitive
user experience but it will be easier and cheaper to supp