Design for mobile mental health: Exploring the informed participation approach

Area of Science:

• Digital mental health
• Human-computer interaction
• Application design

Background:

• Mobile applications (apps) show promise for enhancing mental health services.
• Existing mental health apps often lack evidence of efficacy and fail to meet user needs.
• Current design methods overlook the complex context of app usage, treating apps as isolated products.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the efficacy of an informed participation approach in designing mental health apps.
• To elicit design requirements by involving young mobile users and mental health practitioners.
• To compare user-generated design ideas with existing mental health applications.

Main Methods:

• Employed auto-ethnography to understand user experiences.
• Conducted design workshops with young mobile users and mental health practitioners.
• Focused on identifying and prioritizing user-centered design requirements.

Main Results:

• User requirements gathered through informed participation were largely absent in current mental health apps.
• The informed participation approach identified potential advantages for app design and implementation.
• Challenges in participant engagement during the design process were observed.

Conclusions:

• An informed participation approach holds significant potential for improving the design and user responsiveness of mental health apps.
• Addressing engagement challenges is crucial for the successful implementation of participatory design methods.
• Future development should prioritize user-centered requirements identified through collaborative design processes.