Development of a mHealth therapeutic music app: Findings from usability testing

Research Objective: To examine user feedback from usability testing of SingFit –a mHealth therapeutic music app for individuals with cognitive decline.

Design: Usability testing

Setting: General community (home) and private rehabilitation practice.

Participants: A convenience sample of 32 individuals who identified as a caregiver or rehab therapist of an older adult with cognitive decline were recruited via social media and an online caregiver support platform (13 lost to follow up). The mean age of participants was 36.41, with 50% identifying as Black or African American and 40% identifying as female.

Intervention: SingFit is a subscription mobile application designed to improve neuropsychiatric symptoms and is based on cognitive neuroscience and music intervention research. Facilitators (i.e., users) create profiles for their participants to create individualized therapeutic music sessions. Session playlists are generated based on a participant’s cognitive severity, mood, and musical preference. Similar to a traditional music therapy session, both the user and participant actively participates in music through singing and guided conversations.

Main Outcome Measures: Researcher-developed surveys were used to evaluate ease of use, implementation, app-perceptions, quality of sound and experience, accessibility, and enjoyment for the participant and end-user. Qualitative interviews were conducted in order to explore themes outside of the surveys.

Results: Sixty-one percent of user testers ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the app was easy to use with 91% reporting the instructions were clear and easy to understand. Moreover, 87% of participants reported an overall satisfaction with the app with 100% of participants indicating the platform was helpful to some degree. Areas of improvement included difficulty understanding certain aspects of the app (e.g. progress reports) and song selection flexibility to account for additional music preferences.

Conclusions: Participants found the app “innovative,” “helpful,” and “accessible” with the need for better clarity regarding certain app elements and flexibility in song selection. Implementation of feedback is underway in addition to a clinical validation study.

Author(s) Disclosures: Jennifer Rae Myers and Chelsea S. Brown are full-time employees of Musical Health Technologies, the founder of SingFit.