mHealth applications with exercise and food tracking functions are becoming increasingly popular. With rapidly increasing user requirements, design elements are not to be forgotten. This study explores female users’ design preferences in such applications. A higher user satisfaction may lead to an increase in use and therefore also a boost in physical health.

This study has focused on design aspects such as color, layout, typography and media to find out their significance for the result. This was examined through both quantitative and qualitative studies, including a websurvey followed by a semi-structured photo-elicitation interview. By analyzing the results of this study, the knowledge of user preferences have been presented, however not being generalizable.

The results and analysis from the study show that the majority of our sample population prefer what has been seen in previous studies in our literature review being that women are attracted to brighter colors and informal typography in comparison to darker colors and formal typography. Furthermore, results from the studies show that icons are preferred over realistic media. We have also during our interviews seen that gamification has a positive impact on users. Furthermore, a connection between women with a higher exercise frequency, compared to those with a lower frequency, tend to overlook the visual design if the functionality of the application is satisfactory. In summary, the majority of our results have corresponded with what has been established in previous studies with a possible deviation based on training frequency.