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Article History

Received: 13 August 2024

Accepted: 23 June 2025

First Online: 16 July 2025

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: This study does not require formal ethical approval, as it does not involve human participants who would need to be reviewed in accordance with institutional or national ethical regulations. According to Article 15, Paragraph 2 of the Korean Bioethics and Safety Act and Article 13 of its implementing regulations, research that does not involve vulnerable populations, invasive procedures, physical interventions, or the collection of personally identifiable or sensitive information is exempt from Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. Specifically, the law stipulates that research utilizing survey responses or behavioral observations is exempt from formal IRB review as long as participants cannot be individually identified and no sensitive data is collected. In accordance with the aforementioned legal provisions, this study focuses on participants' feedback regarding their usage behavior of the QQ Music App interface and their cognitive understanding of individual behavior. The methods employed include observation, interviews, and questionnaires to collect both subjective and objective information from participants, without collecting personal identity information or implementing interventions that may pose risks to participants. The study does not involve vulnerable populations, and all responses are collected anonymously. Given the nature of the study, no formal review or exemption was sought from the Institutional Review Board. This study adheres to the ethical guidelines of the National Research Foundation of Korea and the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, ensuring compliance with ethical research standards.

: Prior to conducting this study, we provided each participant with a written informed consent form. All participants were fully informed of the purpose and objectives of this study, which involved conducting a heuristic evaluation of the QQ Music App. Participants were informed of the study’s purpose, the voluntary nature of their participation, and their right to withdraw at any time without any consequences. The study emphasized confidentiality and data protection, ensuring that all data was anonymized and securely stored. We took measures to ensure that no personally identifiable information was collected and that data was encrypted during transmission and storage to protect participants' privacy. After confirming the anonymity of their participation and that the collected data would be used solely for academic research, they voluntarily signed the informed consent form. The informed consent forms were obtained between February and March 2024.