Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To promote the development of professional orthodontic apps and to grow app engagement, many contributing factors should first be scrutinized. The main purpose of this research was to assess whether gap analysis facilitates strategic app design. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Gap analysis was first conducted to reveal users' preferences. Then, the OrthoAnalysis app was developed on an Android operating system using Java programming language. Finally, a self-administered survey was issued to 128 orthodontic specialists to assess their satisfaction toward usage of the app. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The content validity of the questionnaire was ascertained using an index of Item-Objective Congruence of more than 0.5. The reliability of the questionnaire was also analyzed with Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient (ɑ = 0.87). RESULTS: Besides the most important factor, "content," many issues were listed, and all were required to engage users. A strong and engaging app should show accurate, trustworthy, and practical clinical analysis that operates smoothly and fast with ease, along with a user-friendly, appealing, and trustworthy interface. In short, because of the preliminary gap analysis that was done to evaluate the potential app engagement power prior to app design, the result of the satisfaction assessment showed that nine traits including overall satisfaction were of high levels. CONCLUSIONS: Orthodontic specialists' preferences were assessed using gap analysis and an orthodontic app was designed and appraised. This article presents the orthodontic specialists' preferences and summarizes the process of achieving app satisfaction. Therefore, to create a clinical app with strong engagement power, a strategic initial plan using gap analysis can be recommended.