Project Background

Generously funded by a 2019 Association of Computing Machinery’s (ACM) Special Interest Group on the Design of Communication (SIGDOC) career advancement research grant, our research project commenced in early 2019.

Our project goals included using existing data to understand an mHealth app and users’ experiences using the app, as well as developing a method that relied on existing technical communication practices to teach content analysis.

To reach the goals of the project, we used a hybrid method of open card sorting and affinity diagramming to analyze the content of about 600 existing PulsePoint Respond iOs user-generated review comments.

Project Team

The project research team included Kristin, Candice A. Welhausen (Auburn University), and 2 undergraduate and 2 graduate student research assistants, Yocelyn, Qahir, Ailey, and Luke.

Project Publications & Presentations

• “Amplified Precarity in Emergency Response mHealth Apps: Rhetorical Agency in Interface Rhetoric” (forthcoming in the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, 2021; paywall/subscription)
• “mHealth Apps and Usability: Using User-Generated Content to Explore Users’ Experiences with a Civilian First Responder App” (Technical Communication, 2021; paywall/subscription)
• “Pivoting Toward Rhetorical Ethics by Sharing and Using Existing Data to Reduce Data Waste: An Ethical Research Practice for the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine” (2020; paywall/subscription)
• “Using Content Analysis to Explore Users’ Perceptions and Experiences Using a Novel Citizen First Responder App” (2019, open access)
• “Using a Hybrid Card Sorting-Affinity Diagramming Method to Teach Content Analysis”(2021, open access)

We reported our preliminary findings during a presentation at the SIGDOC conference in 2019 in the session, “Using Content Analysis to Explore Users’ Perceptions and Experiences Using a Novel Citizen First Responder App.”

We also reported our final findings during a simulive presentation at the STC virtual Summit in 2021 in the session, “mHealth Apps and Usability: Using User-Generated Content to Explore Users’ Experiences.”

Project Future

Based on our ideas that rely on sharing existing data sets, we are working on a multi-institutional team to learn more the ethical, rhetorical, and logistical considerations concerning developing a DAta ReposiTory (DART) for sharing data collected by technical and professional communication scholars.