Digital Health Co-Design
Stakeholder Design Session
Stakeholder Design Session
Stakeholder design sessions are structured group meetings where end users and other key stakeholders collaboratively review and provide feedback on early prototypes, often low- or mid-fidelity during the Develop Phase of co-design. The goal is to refine and improve the prototype’s content, layout, and functionality based on real-world perspectives before moving into the Deliver phase for usability testing. These sessions allow participants to “play” with the prototypes, discuss what works or needs improvement, and help shape design decisions through guided discussions, brainstorming, and prioritisation activities
Application Example
In as study developing the “Take On Transplant” (TOT) web-based education tool for people with cystic fibrosis (CF) considering lung transplantation, researchers ran a series of stakeholder design sessions to iteratively refine their prototypes before moving into formal usability testing. After an initial needs assessment with 55 people with CF and 105 physicians, the team created wireframe prototypes based on fictional user personas (“Jack,” who was not yet considering transplant, and “Jill,” who was approaching transplant). They then conducted two parallel tracks of three 2-hour design group sessions (July–September 2020), each involving 4–7 participants per session.
During these sessions, participants were invited to interact with pre-designed wireframes, discuss design features, and give structured feedback on layout, content, and functionality. Group discussions were moderated via Zoom and supported by note-taking and qualitative memoing for later synthesis.
Through these stakeholder sessions, the team identified key design requirements—including a Resource Library, CF Stories, FAQ, and My CF Stage self-assessment—and used this input to iterate and improve the prototype’s design and content. This collaborative process helped ensure the prototype was user-centred and ready to progress into the Deliver phase for usability testing and field evaluation. (Hartzler et al., 2023)