Ruben Nicolas-Sans

Mobile applications for weight loss have arisen the interest of private companies and developers, who have put great efforts on the development of this kind of apps. This topic has attracted the interest of the scientific community, both in terms of usability and design. Two main issues have, however, arisen: firstly, research focus has been on the apps themselves, but little attention has been paid to how they are presented in the application stores, and secondly, current literature focuses solely on applications in English. The study objective is to observe how the most popular weight loss applications for the Spanish market are presented in the stores. Using thematic analysis, this study is aimed at discovering the themes featured in the store descriptions and to observe what functionalities are highlighted in these descriptions. The initial sample was based on 247 weight loss applications, which after revision was reduced to 7 applications. Our results show that they focused on efficacy, speed, and, to a much lesser degree, safety in weight loss. Among the main results, we found that app descriptors analyzed did not employ a scientific language and demonstrate technical expertise, or user testimonials. On the other hand, the claims made by the apps about weight loss were mainly based on effectiveness. This sometimes included the concept of quick results and, to a lesser extent, health and safety. Lastly, we observed that there is room for improvement in the linguistic and cultural adaptation of the texts of these application descriptions. Regarding the study limitations, the reduced number of the sample is because our study focuses on applications with features that follow international weight loss guidelines, which most of them did not follow.

The environment that surrounds a consumer when they are at a point of sale can influence them both psychologically and communicatively. In this sense, the study arises from the need to discover the capacity of influence that colors of the components of the commercial establishment (wall, floor, ceiling, and furniture) have. The aim is to determine whether these factors influence the psychological level (feeling of pleasantness, calmness, etc.) and the communicative experience received in stores. The quasi‐experimental methodology made it possible to study the impact of the independent variables (colors of the different components) on the dependent variables (psychological and communicative). For this purpose, two methods of measurement were constructed: a tool for the analysis of commercial establishments which allowed to establish patterns and a reception protocol capable of measuring both levels of influence of components and colors, by means of a reception test comprising of Level I (psychological) and Level II (communicative). This survey was applied to a total sample of 315 subjects. Overall, the study makes it possible to define which architectural components and colors stores should have in order to exert a certain perceptual influence on the subject. In general terms, this study reflects how the color of the different components of the space can influence the subject's primary perception of the establishment, with respect to the feeling of pleasantness, comfort, stimulation, calmness, security, spaciousness, formality, and warmth, as well as the perception of the quantity and quality of the information received and overall satisfaction and confidence.