Users' needs for a digital smoking cessation application and how to address them: A mixed-methods study.

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Behavioral Science
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• eHealth applications for behavior change face challenges with user adherence and dropout.
• Virtual coach technology offers potential but requires better understanding of user needs.
• A comprehensive approach is needed to integrate user experiences and envisioned scenarios.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate user needs for eHealth applications supporting behavior change.
• To identify factors influencing adherence and engagement with virtual coaches.
• To provide evidence-based recommendations for designing more effective health behavior change applications.

Main Methods:

• A longitudinal study involving 671 smokers interacting with a virtual coach over five sessions.
• Mixed-methods approach triangulating qualitative feedback, quantitative data, and literature review.
• Acquisition of user needs through both actual experiences and reflections on envisioned scenarios.

Main Results:

• Identified 14 themes related to behaviors, users, involved parties, and environment.
• Perceived usefulness (informative, helpful, motivating) was the most prevalent theme.
• Key factors included perceived importance, motivation, autonomy, companionableness, accountability, and environmental support (time, prompts, social support).

Conclusions:

• An integrated approach to needs acquisition provides a comprehensive, grounded classification of user needs.
• Recommendations focus on enhancing perceived usefulness, considering user characteristics, leveraging social and virtual coach support, and optimizing the environment.
• Published dataset aims to facilitate future research in designing user-centered eHealth interventions.