Digital intervention effectiveness depends on how the users—both patients and mental health professionals—perceive and interact with them. User-centered design takes a human-centered stance to design interventions, which are meaningful, engaging, and beneficial in use. However, the actual user-centered design practices yet remain obscure.
The novel dissertation from Aalto University advances the user-centered design of digital interventions that leverage video games as a highly engaging but unconventional medium. The study makes substantial contributions to four topics:
- Design process. The dissertation introduces a new TEME framework to catalyze the transdisciplinary design process of game-based digital interventions.
- Measuring engagement. The dissertationdevised novel methods for evaluating intervention user experience and use.
- Understanding users. The dissertation described the qualities of patients interested in using a novel game-based digital intervention for major depressive disorder.
- Implementation. The dissertation generated insights on the clinical environment for digital intervention implementation describing how clinicians use digital tools in their practice and how they view gaming.
Collectively, the dissertation provides digital intervention researchers, developers, and designers with valuable frameworks, methods, and insights, that facilitate the creation of engaging and effective interventions to alleviate the global burden of mental disorders.
Read more here: https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-64-2063-9
Reference
Lukka, L. (2024). User-Centered Design of Game-Based Digital Mental Health Interventions. Aalto University Doctoral Theses, 212/2024. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-64-2063-9