Table 4.
Categories and subcategories that emerged from the poststudy interview.
| Category and subcategory | Description | Example quotes | ||
| App support | Technical and customized support to access the needed information without problems or errors |
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Learnability | Interactive app features, which aid participants with ASDa to learn quickly | ...He was able to understand how to use it after I trained him... [Parent #4] | |
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Efficiency (accessibility) | Accessing the features of the app (easy, medium, or hard) | ...He accepted the application very smoothly and enjoyed using it... [Parent #4] | |
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Technical issues | Bugs or related technical issues | ...He tried to use recording, but it was a little hard for him to use it... [Parent #5] | |
| Feature relevance | Feedback of the participants on the app features |
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Text-to-speech | Feedback on the text-to-speech feature | …it was an amazing experience for him to listen to the text, while this feature is not available in any other platform even WhatsApp... [Parent #1] | |
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Speech-to-text | Feedback on the speech-to-text feature | …Speech to text is a very good feature I would say especially for autistic case… [Parent #6] | |
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Arabic issues | Participants talk about Arabic issues related to the app | …The Arabic language was a little annoying since text-to-speech and speech-to-text transcriptions were robotic and need more advancements… [Parent #2] | |
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TAWASOL symbols | Feedback on TAWASOL symbols | …For him, both TAWASOL symbols and voice messaging are the main features that helped him… [Parent #2] | |
| User interface design | Visual appearance of the app, such as the arrangement of content, color schemes, icons, and font sizes |
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Color | Feedback on the color changing tool of the app | …He didn’t change the application color nor the chat bubble since he doesn’t have any problem with colors, but other autistic individuals can use this feature to help them using the application more by changing the color with what is suitable for them… [Parent #2] | |
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Design consistency | The participant likes texting and using the app like other messaging apps | …He knows [refereeing to the participants with ASD] how to type and use it in other application, then he liked the chatting (Texting) part more… [Parent #1] | |
| Overall feedback | Feedback about the app in general regarding the innovative idea and the need of it |
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Positive feedback | Positive feedback on the app | …Really good application for chatting like I'm very happy about the way it sends messages in different format text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and Tawasol symbols, so I was introducing it to him as a chatting app itself and he liked it [Caregiver #1] | |
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Novelty | Feedback on the novelty of the app compared to existing messaging apps | …I’m just saying because it's a very good with its unique features what I really found very interesting since I can’t find these features in other similar applications such as WhatsApp… [Parent #1] | |
| Recommendations | Suggestions of parents and specialists on how to improve the app |
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Serious games | Suggestions to enhance the app with game elements to teach specific skills and knowledge | …I would like to suggest including games where autistic adults could learn the TAWASOL symbols and be able to easily construct sentences… [Parent #3] | |
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Privacy protection | Discussing the next version based on a friend request feature in order to protect users from strangers | …Caregivers should be able to accept friends, and this is because we need to protect them from unknown people… [Parent #3] | |
aASD: autism spectrum disorder.