Involving End Users in Co-Designing Mobile Health Interventions for Hypertension Self-Management: Formative Study

Background: Mobile health (mHealth) interventions are prevalent, yet people from marginalized communities are less likely to use digital health technologies to support self-management behaviors. Community engagement can inform health care design to enhance a hypertension self-management mHealth intervention.

Objective: We applied 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 app. We used validated theories and frameworks as well as an HCD methodology organized into three fundamental design skills: (1) methods to directly observe user experiences, (2) methods to analyze barriers to ideal intervention use, and (3) 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 an mHealth intervention for hypertension. Participants tested app prototypes with blood pressure 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 work-arounds 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.