Avaliando aplicativos de saúde mental: uma análise empírica com a comunidade universitária

Abstract

Mental health apps have gained popularity as complementary tools in the treatment of disorders such as anxiety and depression. However, many of these apps lack good usability, which can compromise their effectiveness and user acceptance. This study aims to analyze the usability of mental health apps focused on managing anxiety and depression available on the market— Rootd, Lojong, and Self Therapy — with a focus on the experience of 13 university students and 2 psychology specialists. The research sought to identify barriers that may hinder the use of these apps by this target audience and to examine whether the problems identified by users are the same as those observed by psychology professionals, contributing to the development of more accessible and effective solutions. To this end, the study employed an eye-tracking system to identify usability issues based on visual attention patterns, and applied the System Usability Scale (SUS) and Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) questionnaires to assess perceived usability and app quality. The quantitative results indicated that, although the apps Rootd and Lojong showed high success rates in routine tasks, they critically failed in emergency features, with success rates of only 7.69% and 30.77%, respectively. The Self Therapy app, in turn, demonstrated consistency in its functionalities but received an average SUS score of 49.03, revealing significant usability issues. The study confirmed the existence of serious usability problems and highlighted that the lack of clarity and visibility in emergency tools can undermine mental health support in critical moments.