Evaluation of the usability and usefulness of the vocal'iz mobile application in a population of teachers

Background: although mobile health (mhealth) tools for vocal health are increasingly used, their scientific evaluation remains limited. Objectives: to assess the perceived usability and usefulness of the Vocal'iz mobile application among teachers. to examine the relationships between these outcomes and individual factors such as age, Voice handicap index (Vhi-30), health literacy, and digital literacy. Method: thirty teachers participated in the three phases of our study: (1) completion of a personal data questionnaire, the Vhi-30, the health literacy scale, and the Digital literacy scale; (2) 10 days of independent use of the application; and (3) completion of the system Usability scale (sUs) and section F of the Mobile app Rating scale (MaRs) to assess the app's usability and perceived usefulness. a one-sample t-test compared the participants' sUs score to the reference value of 70. a Wilcoxon signed-rank test compared the MaRs section F score to the reference value of 3. correlation tests were conducted between the sUs and MaRs scores and the individual factors. Results: the mean sUs score (76.67, sD = 11.55) and the mean score for MaRs section F (4.03, sD = 0.74) were both significantly higher than the reference values, with medium to large effect sizes. there were no significant correlations between usability or usefulness and the individual factors. Conclusions: the findings suggest that teachers rated the Vocal'iz app highly, demonstrating its good usability and positive perceived usefulness. the app's potential as a preventive tool warrants further evaluation in more diverse and larger populations, as well as an assessment of its effectiveness.