Accessible and usable mobile apps for mental health in higher education

Abstract

This thesis looks into the accessibility and usability of mobile applications meant to support mental health among students in higher education. This is an important topic because mental health problems are becoming more common among this group. There is a diversity of students in higher education, and students may have different impairments. As part of a mixed-methods approach, this thesis uses qualitative feedback from user testing with quantitative evaluations using the System Usability Scale (SUS), automated mobile testing, and heuristic evaluation based on Jakob Nielsen’s usability principles. The main part of the study was a detailed evaluation of five mental health mobile applications to identify accessibility and usability issues. These issues are things like ease of navigation, intuitive design, and how good the overall experience is. The results reveal that there are some differences between the apps that were evaluated when it comes to accessibility and usability. This shows that the users face challenges when interacting with these apps. Moreover, the thesis gives specific suggestions for improving the design and functionality of mental health apps. Overall, this research provides useful insights about the accessibility and usability issues of mental health apps and outlines recommendations for advancing more effective and inclusive app solutions tailored to the needs of students in higher education.