Developing an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data-based mobile phone app to provide adolescents with sexual reproductive health information: A human-centered design approach

Background: Adolescent pregnancies and sexually-transmitted infections continue to impact 15–19-year-olds across the globe. The lack of sexual reproductive health information in resource-limited settings can often be due to cultural and societal attitudes to adolescent sexual reproductive health. Innovative approaches, including mobile phone technologies, are needed to address the need for adolescent reproductive health information. Methods A human-centered design methodology was applied. This practice framework allowed the perspectives and feedback of adolescent users to be included in the iterative design process. Field usability testing enabled the adolescents to provide feedback on the functionality, usability, and usefulness of the app. Results During the usability test, 62 (54.9%) of the adolescents that were followed-up had used the app at least once, 30 (48.4%) of these were male participants and 32 (51.6%) female. The app was described as ‘very interesting’ to use by 44 (70.9%) of the participants, 20 males and 24 females. The content was deemed to be either ‘perfectly’ or ‘well targeted’ on sexual reproductive health by 60 (96.7%) adolescents, and the app was rated ‘best app’ by 45 (72.6%) adolescents, 27 females and 18 males, with a p-value = 0.011. Conclusions A mobile phone app is a feasible and acceptable way to deliver adolescent sexual reproductive health information in resource-limited settings. The Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) mobile phone technology could deliver confidential information on demand.