Avazum app usability testing.
Hionara Nascimento Barboza, Marcillyo Carneiro de Lima, Rubens Jonatha Dos Santos Ferreira and 3 others
PMID 37820196WHAT IT FOUND
Patients found the Avazum tinnitus app easy to use and would recommend it.
However, they reported the referral function was unclear and the professional list incomplete. This means the app works well for self-assessment but needs fixing before it can reliably direct patients to care.
Key findings
01The app achieved a System Usability Score of 78.28, which is considered good and indicates no severe usability problems.
02Users reported the referral function was flawed, citing a lack of clarity and an incomplete list of professionals.
03The study was limited to Android users because the application is not yet available on the iOS system.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study did not test the application on iOS devices, so its usability is unknown for iPhone users. This was a usability test only; it did not measure whether the app improves tinnitus symptoms or clinical outcomes. The referral function was identified as flawed by users, meaning the app cannot currently be trusted to accurately direct patients to care. The study included only patients from a specific university outreach project, so results may not apply to the general tinnitus population.
Declared interests
The application was developed by an interdisciplinary team involving speech-language-hearing therapists, programmers, and designers from the Federal University of Paraiba. No specific external funding or commercial conflicts of interest are declared in the text provided.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the high usability scores as evidence that the application is clinically effective for treating tinnitus. This study only tested whether people could use the interface; it did not measure whether the app reduced tinnitus severity or improved patient outcomes.