Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: May 1, 2019
Open Peer Review Period: May 6, 2019 - Jun 24, 2019
Date Accepted: Jan 27, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Apr 28, 2020
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Blended Face-to-face and Web-based Smoking Cessation Treatment: a description of patients’ user experience
ABSTRACT
Background:
Blended treatment – a combination of Web-based and face-to-face (F2F) therapy – is a promising eHealth service, because it is expected that in blended treatment the strengths of one mode of delivery will compensate for the weaknesses of the other.
Objective:
The aim of this study is to examine the key elements of the patients’ user experience (UX) in a blended smoking cessation treatment (BSCT) in routine care.
Methods:
Patients’ UX was collected by in-depth interviews (n=10) at an outpatient smoking cessation clinic in the Netherlands. Content analysis of semantic domains was used to analyze the patients’ UX. For the description of the UX, Hassenzahl’s UX model from a user perspective was applied examining the key elements of UX: (1) standards and expectations, (2) apparent character (pragmatic and hedonic attributes), (3) usage situation, and (4) consequences (appeal, emotions, behavior).
Results:
In general, the UX of BSCT was good. Patients had a positive-pragmatic standard and neutral-open expectation towards BSCT, and the pragmatic attributes (usability, utility) of both the Web-sessions and the F2F-sessions were mostly positive. However, for the hedonic attributes (stimulation, identification, evocation), Web-sessions differed from F2F-sessions: patients reported lower stimulation for the Web-sessions (“online won’t get through to me”), lower identification (“online is not my style”), and negative evocations (comparing the Web-sessions to e.g. “bookkeeping”). Ultimately, we found three types of combinations of appeal, emotions (e.g. satisfaction) and behavior (adherence; quitting): “positive”, “negative”, and “mixed”.
Conclusions:
This study aimed to provide insight in the user experience (UX) of a blended treatment. In the light of this study, the expectation that blended treatment combines “the best of both worlds” because the strength of one mode of delivery can compensate for the weaknesses of the other, can be supported. However, this was mainly found in only one way: F2F-sessions compensated for the weaknesses of Web-sessions. Further work needs to be done to investigate how the integration of F2F- and Web-treatment can be carried out to ultimately increase the effectiveness and efficiency of a blended treatment. This study provides a hint to explore this question by emphasizing the relevance of aspects of hedonism such as e.g. fun, joy or happiness which may be addressed to further improve UX and ultimately treatment effectiveness. Clinical Trial: trialregister.nl NTR5113
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