Digital Health Co-Design
Interview
Interview
An interview is a user research method that involves structured or semistructured conversations with participants to explore their experiences, perceptions, and needs.
Application Example (Discover Phase)
In a study developing a mobile clinical decision support system (CDSS) for health care providers to manage chronic kidney disease in patients with diabetes, researchers conducted an exploratory qualitative study with diabetes specialist nurses. Using semistructured interviews, they explored nurses’ prior experience with mobile apps, perceptions of app use in clinical practice, challenges in diabetes management, and willingness to adopt new technologies.
The interviews revealed critical insights into user needs: nurses consistently emphasised that apps should be simple, short, visual, interactive, and not require constant internet connection or excessive data entry. A key emergent theme, “one app does not fit all,” highlighted the diversity of skills, motivations, and preferences among providers, pointing to the need for flexibility and local customisation in design.
This case illustrates how interviews in the Discover phase go beyond surface-level opinions to provide a nuanced understanding of user needs that directly informs the problem framing and guides subsequent design decisions. (Alhodaib et al., 2020)
Example (Deliver Phase)
In a study evaluating a prototype mHealth asthma app for children and their caregivers, researchers conducted semi-structured interviews after participants had tried the app. The interviews explored perceived benefits, design preferences, and suggestions for improvement, highlighting themes such as asthma knowledge, child–caregiver interaction, engaging design (e.g., manga), and the need for monitoring and notification functions. This case illustrates how interviews in the Deliver phase can be used to evaluate prototypes, assess acceptability, and generate actionable insights for refinement before wider implementation. (Iio et al., 2020)