Designing digital patient experiences: The digital health design framework

Tingting Wang; Haiou Zhu; Shuxian Qian; Guido Giunti; Richard Goossens; Marijke Melles

doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2024.104289

Designing digital patient experiences: The digital health design framework

Appl Ergon. 2024 Apr 29:119:104289. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2024.104289. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Tingting Wang¹, Haiou Zhu², Shuxian Qian³, Guido Giunti⁴, Richard Goossens³, Marijke Melles³

Affiliations

¹ Human-Centered Design Department, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands. Electronic address: t.wang-8@tudelft.nl.
² Neuroscience, Ethics & Society, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; School of Design and Creative Arts, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK.
³ Human-Centered Design Department, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands.
⁴ Research Unit of Health Sciences and Technology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland; Clinical Medicine Neurology, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.

PMID: 38688183
DOI: 10.1016/j.apergo.2024.104289

Abstract

Background: Digital health (DH) brings considerable benefits, but it comes with potential risks. Human Factors (HF) play a critical role in providing high-quality and acceptable DH solutions. Consultation with designers is crucial for reflecting on and improving current DH design practices.

Objectives: We investigated the general DH design processes, challenges, and corresponding strategies that can improve the digital patient experience (PEx).

Methods: A semi-structured interview study with 24 design professionals. All audio recordings were transcribed, deidentified, grammatically corrected, and imported into ATLAS.ti for data analysis. Three coders participated in data coding following the thematic analysis approach.

Results: We identified eight DH design stages and grouped them into four phases: preparation, problem-thinking, problem-solving, and implementation. The analysis presented twelve design challenges associated with contextual, practical, managerial, and commercial aspects that can hinder the design process. We identified eight common strategies used by respondents to tackle these challenges.

Conclusions: We propose a Digital Health Design (DHD) framework to improve the digital PEx. It provides an overview of design deliverables, activities, stakeholders, challenges, and corresponding strategies for each design stage.

Keywords: Digital health interventions; Human-centered design; Patient experience.