Papers of the Week

Six people with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) were interviewed in a natural setting with the purpose of defining requirements for a new IBD mobile application. The first part of the interview had open disease related questions, and the second part involved evaluating three publically available IBD applications. Results suggest that the most important user requirements could be met by implementing the following functionalities; registration of general well-being, bowel movements, and pain. All the study subjects believed in simple graphical solutions to register data and to represent the course of the disease in a satisfactory manner. It should be possible for a user to modify information and enter notes regarding changes of medication, diet, operations. The main features must meet the most general needs, while allowing users to enter unique information. This could serve as a practical guideline for developers.