ActEarly: a bi-national evaluation study of a mobile application for tracking developmental milestones

Abstract

Actively tracking young children's developmental milestones can help detect developmental delays. However, this is not an easy task, as there are few resources that provide reliable and comprehensive references for tracking and logging developmental progress. To help address this need, we have conducted a bi-national study where we tested, evaluated, and redesigned an interactive mobile application called ActEarly for tracking developmental milestones. We conducted three studies, using cognitive walkthroughs and questionnaires, in two different but cross-bordered countries to compare and understand how everyday smart phone application users interact with ActEarly's interface to perform essential milestones tracking goals. Results indicated that even in a sample of frequent app users who felt the application was fairly easy to use, 55% of participants did not successfully performed a task. Based on findings, we identify pain points in the application's interface and provide insights to guide the next stages of development, prior to deployment of ActEarly as a public tool.