Designing an mHealth Intervention

This chapter provides an overview of processes that form part of the development of digital health interventions. Rather than focusing on the technical aspects of app development, this chapter is concerned with the development of the intervention itself, i.e. it explores mechanisms of behaviour change and how psychological theories as well as user and stakeholder engagement can be used to develop effective and acceptable intervention strategies. The chapter begins with suggestions for the development of initial ideas, the specification of clear aims, and the identification of the target user group. It then provides a brief introduction into different methodologies that can be used to review existing evidence and intervention approaches, including initial scoping reviews, systematic reviews, and rapid reviews. Subsequently, the chapter introduces different frameworks and approaches that have proven useful in the development of complex interventions. The chapter briefly outlines different behaviour change theories. It then provides practical advice on selecting a relevant theory and translating the theory into practice using Behaviour Change Techniques. The chapter concludes with an exploration of user and stakeholder engagement, including strategies that can be used to identify and engage users, methods to explore their views (e.g. interviews, focus groups and Think Aloud) and methods to incorporate these views (e.g. paper prototyping and storyboarding).