JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Mobile health (mHealth) interventions are common, but people from marginalized communities are less likely to use digital health technology to support self-management behaviors. Community engagement can inform healthcare design and implementation to enhance a hypertension self-management mHealth intervention.

Objective:

To use human centered design (HCD) to determine appropriate iterations of an existing hypertension intervention.

Methods:

Through an equity-focused, community-centered approach, we strove to optimize an mHealth application. We used validated theories and frameworks as well as and HCM methodology organized into three fundamental design skills: 1) Looking methods to directly observe user experiences; 2) Understanding methods to analyze barriers to ideal intervention use; and 3) Making methods to design future iterations.

Results:

In October 2023, we conducted a series of HCD activities with a Community Advisory Board (N=8) to refine a mHealth intervention for hypertension. Participants tested app prototypes with BP monitors and suggested content modifications to enhance intervention fidelity. Among 6 participants, usability testing scored 67.5 (benchmark 68 = “Above Average”), with all users finding the tool easy to use. Feedback identified critical needs, barriers, and workarounds for future mHealth iterations.

Conclusions:

This study was a novel use-case example of HCD as a patient-centered methodology to improve a hypertension management tool. Clinical Trial: n/a