Exploring the factors influencing the design of health and fitness applications with an emphasis on the needs of sports users

1. Introduction:

The role of technology in sports has changed drastically since the beginning of the last century due to technological advances and digitization of industries. Due to the emergence of the Internet and mobile phone capabilities, technology has become an inevitable necessity in many sports (Ratten, 2019). Computers, mobile phones and their applications are important features of the modern era and have dominated all aspects of human activities (Rashad, Abdjavad and Mabrouk, 2021). Our daily life relies heavily on smart phones (Zhang and Zhou, 2020). Personal health and fitness management is not excluded from this trend (Choi, Yelton and Aznia, 2020). In order to have a progressive and successful society in various political, social, economic, cultural and sports fields, we need healthy and efficient human resources in physical and mental aspects. The virtual and intelligent world should pay enough attention to the role and impact of the issues raised in the national macro-goals.

2. Purpose:

The use of mobile phone technology and applications related to health can help educational, production and sports service organizations in providing better services and more profitability. Also, policy makers and managers in the field of sports, considering the importance of technology in the new world order, should The rapid growth of smartphones and other technologies has also brought rapid and continuous changes in the goals and communication channels that consumers choose to receive sports services. These changes have created a research gap, which is necessary to carry out continuous and more research to solve it. On the other hand, culture, politics, economy, religion, etc. are the factors that affect consumer's desire, goals and behavior. Therefore, it may not be possible to correctly generalize the results of research conducted in societies with different cultures to the country, and also because of the novelty of the research subject and the direct impact this subject has on its target society, and on the one hand, it can cause a change of eyes. to be caught in the sports industry and on the other hand, to guide the audience towards a health-oriented and developed path. To achieve this valuable goal, we need to examine the details and basic issues related to new technologies, including health-related applications, so that we can create an effective framework. To reach a standard quality level that overlaps with the needs of our society today. Based on this, the research seeks to answer the question, what are the factors influencing the design of health and fitness applications with an emphasis on the needs of sports users?

3. Method:

The current qualitative research was conducted with thematic analysis method and the statistical population of this research was all the professors of physical education and sports sciences of the country's universities (specifically sports management and media), sports bloggers, and experts in the field of sports technology. In-depth and semi-structured interviews were used. The sampling method was purposeful and the sampling continued until theoretical saturation was reached. The interviews with 21 people reached the theoretical saturation point. Based on thematic analysis, the data were coded and were analyzed.

4. Results:

Based on the findings related to the environmental conditions (facilitating and limiting) affecting the in-app features of health and fitness apps, 59 concepts, 8 sub-themes and 3 main themes (strengths, confounding factors and user-oriented elements) were identified. 45 concepts, 6 sub-themes and 3 main themes (fundamental themes, functional themes and developmental themes) were identified for the internal conditions affecting the in-app features of health and fitness apps.

5. Conclusions:

In relation the factors influencing the design of health and fitness applications with an emphasis on the needs of sports users in our country, no research has been done yet, and due to the increasing growth of the use of health and fitness apps and the importance and necessity of their in-app features, it is more necessary to carefully examine this. We are the subject and on the other hand, in today's changing world where we are involved with different challenges and crises every day, which has made it difficult for us to predict and plan, we need to keep up with new technologies. Also in the environment today, the country's sports, where we are witnessing many problems and issues in all 4 dimensions of educational, public, heroic and professional sports, the use of new applications and technologies can get us out of this situation and side by side with developed countries. Move towards maximum effectiveness. It is important to mention that the position of Iran in the new world order will be determined by various factors, one of these influential factors is sports, which has changed in this new environment with the unveiling of new technologies, and our dear country must align with these changes. And combine different levels with technology.