Design Principles in the Development of Digital Health Applications

Abstract

The roles of patients and healthcare professionals have evolved with the digital age. The convergence of digital technologies with health and healthcare services has led to the birth of disciplines such as digital health and pharmaco-cybernetics. Development of digital health innovations and mHealth applications need to be useful and user-friendly. For example, ease-of-use associated with mobile app interfaces can be more important to patients than the number and type of functionalities. Therefore, the application of health behavior theories and patient-centered approaches is needed to develop clinically relevant digital health systems and mHealth apps. This chapter introduces the pharmaco-cybernetic frameworks that are relevant for designing digital health innovations and an Intervention Mapping (IM) framework that can help inform behavioral change techniques. Concepts such as the Pharmaco-cybernetic Maxims, user-centered (UCD), experience-centered (ECD) and activity-centered designs (ACD), and the Ecological Systems Theory applied to technological and mHealth systems will be described. In addition, the consideration factors for technological product design based on UCD, ECD and ACD, as well as for iOS and Android platforms will be discussed.