JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

One-sixth of the worldwide obesity and overweight sufferers are adolescents, and more than a quarter of the children and teens population have weight problems. Health interventions digitally delivered by mobile phone applications (mHealth applications) represent a unique opportunity for the adolescent population, for whom mobile phones are an indispensable part of their everyday living. Besides the potential of mHealth applications, user adherence with these health interventions in a long term is low.

Objective:

The aim of this research is to propose guidelines for the user interface design patterns that maximize the impact and retention of behaviour change techniques. The inclusion of user interface design patterns in the development of mHealth applications for obese youth can increase the adoption and continuation of use of these applications.

Methods:

For the purpose of the study, the designs of 17 mobile health applications were analysed for the inclusion of behaviour change techniques supported by various user interface design patterns.

Results:

Analyses showed that only half of the behaviour change techniques (BCT) are implemented in the reviewed applications, with a subset of those BCT being supported by user interface design patterns. Based on the findings of the analyses, we propose guidelines that associate the Behaviour Change Techniques with User Interface Design Patterns. The paper presents five use cases that showcase the application of our design guidelines.

Conclusions:

The purpose of the guidelines is to aid developers in designing mHealth applications for youth that are easy to use and beneficial for user’s behaviour change. Future steps involve the development and deployment of the mHealth application presented in the use cases and validation of its usability and effectiveness.