Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2023

Document Type

Capstone Project

Degree Name

Au.D.

Program

Audiology

Advisor

Barbara Weinstein

Subject Categories

Speech Pathology and Audiology

Keywords

Audiology, Apps, Smartphone, Consumer Reviews, Hearing Aids, Android

Abstract

With the recent rise of smartphone ownership, more applications have been created that connect user’s hearing aids to their smartphone. One type of application that has become popular is one that allows the user to control hearing aids using a smartphone. While these applications have many benefits for the user, there has been very little research on the experiences of individuals using these applications. In order for audiologists to best help their patients troubleshoot and prepare reasonable expectations for using smartphone-connected hearing aids, they need to understand the patient experience to create effective solutions. One technique that can be used to assess the end-user experience is to examine reviews created by consumers on the Google Play Store. The posted comments can help manufacturers better understand concerns or suggestions to improve the experience. By analyzing user experiences, counseling best-practices for hearing aid applications can be proposed. Web scraping techniques were used to review hearing aid smartphone applications using the Android operating system. The data were then coded based on themes that emerged from the analysis, which was subsequently used to determine the areas in which users were struggling. Results revealed that a majority of users reported connectivity issues, app malfunctions, general positive aspects of the applications, a lack of features, and general negative aspects of the applications. Responses were similar across applications and across the different connectivity methods for Made for Android hearing aids and Made for iPhone hearing aids.

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