Participatory design and evaluation of digital coaching for improving health—the star multicomponent lifestyle intervention
IntroductionThere are particular challenges when designing and developing a digital coaching application aimed at providing person-tailored support for lifestyle changes in multiple domains to promote health. This study explored how a participatory design process addresses challenges that materialis...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-06-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Digital Health |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2025.1600535/full |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849696754689114112 |
|---|---|
| author | Helena Lindgren Kaan Kilic |
| author_facet | Helena Lindgren Kaan Kilic |
| author_sort | Helena Lindgren |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | IntroductionThere are particular challenges when designing and developing a digital coaching application aimed at providing person-tailored support for lifestyle changes in multiple domains to promote health. This study explored how a participatory design process addresses challenges that materialised in a multicomponent lifestyle intervention, providing an understanding of the onboarding experience and early user engagement.MethodA participatory design methodology was applied involving a multidisciplinary team of 12 domain experts and different groups of end users in design cycles, model construction, prototyping, and evaluation. The process followed a design methodology for argument-based health information systems and a framework for layered interactive adaptive systems to engage domain experts in the development of aspects relating to the interactivity of the system. A qualitative user study was conducted with eight participants, five regular users and three nurses, focussing on the onboarding phase.ResultsContributions of this article are (i) the StarCoach, the person-tailored health-promotion intervention for multiple health behaviours supporting short and long-term goals; (ii) a framework for studying multicomponent lifestyle interventions with multiple behaviour change techniques (BCTs); and (iii) qualitative results regarding usage, adherence to, and perceived effects of the intervention with a focus on the initial phase of using the application. The five regular participants reported increased health-promoting activities during the onboarding phase and were using already habituated activities to establish a routine to use the intervention.ConclusionThe participatory design led to StarCoach embedding clusters of BCTs, which build a framework for research on multicomponent lifestyle interventions. Whether using already habituated activities to establish a routine to use the intervention could be a strategy to increase adherence and engagement in the onboarding phase and beyond will be a focus in future studies. The participants also showed increased engagement in their chosen lifestyle-change activities during the study period. The findings will be followed up in future studies to evaluate the effects on behaviour over a longer period of time. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c1e7d5fb1f0d403ab255b51781d2dd64 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2673-253X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Digital Health |
| spelling | doaj-art-c1e7d5fb1f0d403ab255b51781d2dd642025-08-20T03:19:21ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Digital Health2673-253X2025-06-01710.3389/fdgth.2025.16005351600535Participatory design and evaluation of digital coaching for improving health—the star multicomponent lifestyle interventionHelena LindgrenKaan KilicIntroductionThere are particular challenges when designing and developing a digital coaching application aimed at providing person-tailored support for lifestyle changes in multiple domains to promote health. This study explored how a participatory design process addresses challenges that materialised in a multicomponent lifestyle intervention, providing an understanding of the onboarding experience and early user engagement.MethodA participatory design methodology was applied involving a multidisciplinary team of 12 domain experts and different groups of end users in design cycles, model construction, prototyping, and evaluation. The process followed a design methodology for argument-based health information systems and a framework for layered interactive adaptive systems to engage domain experts in the development of aspects relating to the interactivity of the system. A qualitative user study was conducted with eight participants, five regular users and three nurses, focussing on the onboarding phase.ResultsContributions of this article are (i) the StarCoach, the person-tailored health-promotion intervention for multiple health behaviours supporting short and long-term goals; (ii) a framework for studying multicomponent lifestyle interventions with multiple behaviour change techniques (BCTs); and (iii) qualitative results regarding usage, adherence to, and perceived effects of the intervention with a focus on the initial phase of using the application. The five regular participants reported increased health-promoting activities during the onboarding phase and were using already habituated activities to establish a routine to use the intervention.ConclusionThe participatory design led to StarCoach embedding clusters of BCTs, which build a framework for research on multicomponent lifestyle interventions. Whether using already habituated activities to establish a routine to use the intervention could be a strategy to increase adherence and engagement in the onboarding phase and beyond will be a focus in future studies. The participants also showed increased engagement in their chosen lifestyle-change activities during the study period. The findings will be followed up in future studies to evaluate the effects on behaviour over a longer period of time.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2025.1600535/fullbehaviour changehuman–AI interactionparticipatory designcomputational argumentationcardiovascular diseasebehaviour change techniques |
| spellingShingle | Helena Lindgren Kaan Kilic Participatory design and evaluation of digital coaching for improving health—the star multicomponent lifestyle intervention Frontiers in Digital Health behaviour change human–AI interaction participatory design computational argumentation cardiovascular disease behaviour change techniques |
| title | Participatory design and evaluation of digital coaching for improving health—the star multicomponent lifestyle intervention |
| title_full | Participatory design and evaluation of digital coaching for improving health—the star multicomponent lifestyle intervention |
| title_fullStr | Participatory design and evaluation of digital coaching for improving health—the star multicomponent lifestyle intervention |
| title_full_unstemmed | Participatory design and evaluation of digital coaching for improving health—the star multicomponent lifestyle intervention |
| title_short | Participatory design and evaluation of digital coaching for improving health—the star multicomponent lifestyle intervention |
| title_sort | participatory design and evaluation of digital coaching for improving health the star multicomponent lifestyle intervention |
| topic | behaviour change human–AI interaction participatory design computational argumentation cardiovascular disease behaviour change techniques |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2025.1600535/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT helenalindgren participatorydesignandevaluationofdigitalcoachingforimprovinghealththestarmulticomponentlifestyleintervention AT kaankilic participatorydesignandevaluationofdigitalcoachingforimprovinghealththestarmulticomponentlifestyleintervention |