Success by design: A holistic analysis of design principles for depression apps
Objective Depression is a major challenge for many people and societies, also accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Around 300 million people worldwide are affected by a depressive disorder. Health insurances encourage patients to use applications (“apps”) to tackle, for example, mild and moderate d...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2025-05-01
|
| Series: | Digital Health |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076251336276 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849313762072330240 |
|---|---|
| author | Oliver Werth Irene Jankowski Nina S Müller Fenja Schulte Paula Warnemünde-Jagau Michael H Breitner Annika Herr Kai G Kahl |
| author_facet | Oliver Werth Irene Jankowski Nina S Müller Fenja Schulte Paula Warnemünde-Jagau Michael H Breitner Annika Herr Kai G Kahl |
| author_sort | Oliver Werth |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective Depression is a major challenge for many people and societies, also accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Around 300 million people worldwide are affected by a depressive disorder. Health insurances encourage patients to use applications (“apps”) to tackle, for example, mild and moderate depression. The advantages of these depression apps are well understood, but their dissemination and adoption rates among intended users leave room for improvement. To enhance their uptake, we provide a holistic view regarding critical design aspects of depression apps and develop design principles (DPs) for depression apps. Methods We use a qualitative approach with 58 semistructured interviews between March 2021 and August 2022 with different stakeholders (healthcare providers, patients with mild and moderate depression, app developers and operators, and health insurance companies) to derive our DPs to provide a holistic view of the crucial design factors of depression apps. We then evaluated our DPs derived from four individuals from the health sector in terms of appropriateness and completeness. Results Following this approach, we examine seven meta-requirements (MRs) like “quality” and “simplicity” to deduce 16 corresponding DPs for depression apps. Our prescriptive design knowledge enables us to carve out interrelations and contributes to the literature on depression app design knowledge. Generally, our MRs and DPs derived were evaluated positively. Conclusions Our research ignites a structured discussion among stakeholders in the healthcare sector, for example, scientists and practitioners, about the importance of specific design aspects of depression apps and the overall development process from planning to dissemination. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c7b944a3090b483c85b1b09fdb094a98 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2055-2076 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Digital Health |
| spelling | doaj-art-c7b944a3090b483c85b1b09fdb094a982025-08-20T03:52:41ZengSAGE PublishingDigital Health2055-20762025-05-011110.1177/20552076251336276Success by design: A holistic analysis of design principles for depression appsOliver Werth0Irene Jankowski1Nina S Müller2Fenja Schulte3Paula Warnemünde-Jagau4Michael H Breitner5Annika Herr6Kai G Kahl7 – Institute for Information Technology, Oldenburg, Germany Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, , Hanover, Germany Information Systems Institute, , Hanover, Germany Information Systems Institute, , Hanover, Germany Institute for Health Economics, , Hanover, Germany Information Systems Institute, , Hanover, Germany Institute for Health Economics, , Hanover, Germany Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, , Hanover, GermanyObjective Depression is a major challenge for many people and societies, also accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Around 300 million people worldwide are affected by a depressive disorder. Health insurances encourage patients to use applications (“apps”) to tackle, for example, mild and moderate depression. The advantages of these depression apps are well understood, but their dissemination and adoption rates among intended users leave room for improvement. To enhance their uptake, we provide a holistic view regarding critical design aspects of depression apps and develop design principles (DPs) for depression apps. Methods We use a qualitative approach with 58 semistructured interviews between March 2021 and August 2022 with different stakeholders (healthcare providers, patients with mild and moderate depression, app developers and operators, and health insurance companies) to derive our DPs to provide a holistic view of the crucial design factors of depression apps. We then evaluated our DPs derived from four individuals from the health sector in terms of appropriateness and completeness. Results Following this approach, we examine seven meta-requirements (MRs) like “quality” and “simplicity” to deduce 16 corresponding DPs for depression apps. Our prescriptive design knowledge enables us to carve out interrelations and contributes to the literature on depression app design knowledge. Generally, our MRs and DPs derived were evaluated positively. Conclusions Our research ignites a structured discussion among stakeholders in the healthcare sector, for example, scientists and practitioners, about the importance of specific design aspects of depression apps and the overall development process from planning to dissemination.https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076251336276 |
| spellingShingle | Oliver Werth Irene Jankowski Nina S Müller Fenja Schulte Paula Warnemünde-Jagau Michael H Breitner Annika Herr Kai G Kahl Success by design: A holistic analysis of design principles for depression apps Digital Health |
| title | Success by design: A holistic analysis of design principles for depression apps |
| title_full | Success by design: A holistic analysis of design principles for depression apps |
| title_fullStr | Success by design: A holistic analysis of design principles for depression apps |
| title_full_unstemmed | Success by design: A holistic analysis of design principles for depression apps |
| title_short | Success by design: A holistic analysis of design principles for depression apps |
| title_sort | success by design a holistic analysis of design principles for depression apps |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076251336276 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT oliverwerth successbydesignaholisticanalysisofdesignprinciplesfordepressionapps AT irenejankowski successbydesignaholisticanalysisofdesignprinciplesfordepressionapps AT ninasmuller successbydesignaholisticanalysisofdesignprinciplesfordepressionapps AT fenjaschulte successbydesignaholisticanalysisofdesignprinciplesfordepressionapps AT paulawarnemundejagau successbydesignaholisticanalysisofdesignprinciplesfordepressionapps AT michaelhbreitner successbydesignaholisticanalysisofdesignprinciplesfordepressionapps AT annikaherr successbydesignaholisticanalysisofdesignprinciplesfordepressionapps AT kaigkahl successbydesignaholisticanalysisofdesignprinciplesfordepressionapps |