The development and implementation of a mobile application in human services

Abstract

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) in human services are on the rise and raise concerns about their place and impact on the daily activities of professionals and clients. This article describes a study in which a social mobile application was developed for job coaches and employees and implemented in a pilot phase. The aim of the mobile application was to provide a better communication between employees and their job coaches and to provide more up-to-date information about the organization. The application consisted of a personal web environment and app with vacancies, personal news, events, tips, and promotions. A qualitative methodology was used in the form of focus groups and in-depth interviews. The results of this study show that the participants are partly positive about the social mobile application. It can be concluded that the use of mobile technologies can be beneficial in a range of human services practice settings for both professionals and clients and, therefore, requires more attention from the academic field to focus on this relatively new but promising theme.

Keywords:

• Mobile technology
• esocial work
• mobile human services
• digital human services
• information and communication technology
• mobile computing
• technology training

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Somaya Ben Allouch

Somaya Ben Allouch is an associate professor and her main research interests involve acceptance, (long term) use, implementation, and evaluation of innovative technologies, specifically social robotics, (mobile) ubiquitous technologies, assistive technologies and wearables in the health and wellbeing domain.

Judith Boonstra

Judith Boonstra is a researcher interested in social work and the influence of technology in this field.