Design of Digital Services for Health Behaviour Change

The digital era needs digital solutions. Digital solutions can prevent and manage healthcare issues faster and more effectively both at the personal and societal levels. E-health innovations are proven to promote health and behavior change in various health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, etc. However, developing effective technological solutions for behavior change requires an interdisciplinary approach. While the competence of designing and selecting effective technologies is essential, that is still incomplete without an understanding of evidence-based behavioral change theories and techniques.

The course consists of a series of short theory lessons that provide the required background on knowledge of behavior change and the specific methods that can be applied by means of technological solutions.

Course Aims:

• To provide students with methodological knowledge of combining intervention design and interaction design methods for designing Digital Behaviour Change Interventions (DBCIs)
• To equip students with a critical understanding of theories, models, and frameworks of behaviour change 
• To enable students to apply interaction design methods and tools contextualised for behaviour change

Brief description of the course

The course combines theoretical lectures with practical design workshops to provide students with both conceptual knowledge and applied skills. Students will learn about:

• Key behaviour change theories and frameworks (e.g., COM-B, Behaviour Change Wheel)
• Designing Personas for designing DBCIs
• Selection of Behaviour Change Techniques (BCTs)
• Designing Scenarios for designing DBCIs
• Design patterns for operationalising BCTs in DBCIs
• Low-fidelity prototyping for early-stage design development
• Evaluation of low-fidelity prototypes 

Course Outcomes

• Upon completing the course, the student:
• Understands key theories, models, and frameworks of behaviour change and their importance for designing DBCIs 
• Demonstrates knowledge of methodological approaches for designing Digital Behaviour Change Interventions (DBCIs), including intervention design and interaction design methods
• Can use various interaction design methods and tools contextualised for behaviour change
• Demonstrates skills in developing and evaluating low-fidelity prototypes for behaviour change interventions

In accompaniment to these lessons, several interaction design workshops will be conducted where the students will apply the new knowledge to the health problem domain. In the workshops, students will work in groups by using various interaction design methods, tools, and a user-centered design approach.

The course will be finished with a session where all design teams will show the prototypes of their digital services.