Integrating Behavioral Science and Design Thinking to Develop Mobile Health Interventions: Systematic Scoping Review

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Behavioral Science
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Mobile health (mHealth) interventions increasingly aim to facilitate health behavior change.
• Integrating behavioral design (BD) and design thinking (DT) can enhance mHealth intervention effectiveness.
• Limited research exists on integrating BD and DT in the mHealth design process.

Purpose of the Study:

• To map evidence on integrating BD and DT insights into mHealth intervention design.
• To characterize studies integrating BD and DT in mHealth design.
• To identify theories, methods, challenges, and future directions for integrated BD and DT in mHealth.

Main Methods:

• Scoping review following Joanna Briggs Institute and PRISMA-ScR guidelines.
• Searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase, CINAHL, and JMIR for mHealth, BD, and DT related terms.
• Included studies describing mHealth design processes incorporating behavior change theories/techniques; descriptive analysis conducted.

Main Results:

• 75 papers (2012-2021) integrated BD and DT, termed 'Behavioral Design Thinking'.
• Behavioral Design Thinking follows five steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
• Key challenges include engaging partners, translating techniques into features, and clinical system integration.

Conclusions:

• Integrating BD and DT best practices ensures purposeful mHealth design for user engagement.
• This review clarifies integration methods but highlights the need for future research on optimal design approaches.