Knee injuries are common and particularly seen in contact and impact sports. Unfortunately, many of the athletes experience a second knee injury or do not reach their pre-injury performance level. Evidence-based rehabilitation programs, as well as knee injury prevention programs, exist – however, there is often a lack of adherence, which is crucial to determine the success or failure of rehabilitation.
The MatchletiX trainings program should support athletes after a knee injury to pursue their rehabilitation in the late stage by providing an interactive setting. With the objective to reduce the re-injury rate and help them find a safe way back to sport.
This research project investigates whether an interactive environment can increase adherence in a health app that offers a rehabilitation program after a knee injury. Therefore, in the first step a screen prototype was developed. This was evaluated by experts for its usability and recommendations for improvement were then considered in the creation of a functional prototype.
Since a good user experience is an essential aspect of retaining a user and increasing the athlete’s participation in the rehabilitation program, the functional prototype was tested for its user experience in a second step in a user test. To investigate the effects of an interactive environment on the user experience, the participants were divided into two groups. One group received the interactive MatchletiX setting, the other group received only a normal training environment without interactive elements.
Expert interviews and user test showed that the developed prototype for the MatchletiX training program is overall user-friendly and provides a good user experience. Participants in the group that received an interactive environment even showed a much more positive attitude towards the application compared to the group with a normal setting.
To answer the question of whether it also increases adherence, a larger group of subjects would need to be studied over a longer training period. However, the evaluation of the prototype has shown that an interactive environment in a health app that offers a rehabilitation program improves the user experience of athletes with knee injuries.
A project at the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences
Master Program Digital Healthcare
Project Coach: FH-Prof. Romana Bichler, PT MAS
