Designing an mHealth prototype for people with disabilities: insights from co-design and heuristic evaluation

The transition from inpatient rehabilitation to community living poses significant challenges for individuals with newly acquired disabilities. Peer navigators, individuals with lived experience, are trained to support this transition; however, accessing in-person services can be difficult. To facilitate remote peer support and ensure accessibility, we co-designed a mobile health (mHealth) app with four peer navigators with disabilities. Over the course of three co-design sessions, we developed personas and iteratively refined low- and high-fidelity prototypes. We then conducted a heuristic evaluation with 22 human-computer interaction students to identify usability flaws. Based on this evaluation and feedback from a follow-up focus group with three students, we implemented iterative improvements to enhance usability and interactivity. This paper discusses the design implications and lessons learned for designing mHealth tools in collaboration with people with disabilities.