TeenPower: development of an adolescent obesity prevention platform from a user-centered design approach. (Preprint)
Authors: Reis Catarina I. , Carvalho Marta , Gaspar Pedro , Sousa Pedro , Martinho Ricardo , Frontini Roberta , Alves Rodrigo , Pernencar Claudia 
Published: February 2019

BACKGROUND

Obesity is a chronic condition of the modern ages both by the influence on the quality of the life of those directly impacted by it, as well as the economic burden it implies for the world population. Multidisciplinary prevention programs are crucial, particularly when addressed for youngsters growing both physically and emotionally, which can introduce healthy behaviors into their daily habits more easily. Mobile Health (mHealth) interventions appear as one of the approaches that can provide an adequate support to these programs. They should be engaging and gamification has been one technique to promote higher retention rates.

OBJECTIVE

TeenPower is an innovative and interdisciplinary mHealth intervention program to empower adolescents, promoting healthy behaviors while preventing obesity. It uses interactive and collaborative technologies and includes a web-based application directed to teachers and health professionals, and a mobile application (Android) directed to adolescents. The user-centered design approach that we consider accountable for the initial high engagement rate of the users with the platform is described, and we propose a model for the approach conducted, to assist as an orientation for future developments in this context.

METHODS

An agile software development process was used, with an iterative and incremental approach for planning and implementing software features. We specifically identified a user-centered design approach model with three distinct phases: (1) Design Study; (2) Pre-Production Usability Tests; and (3) Post-Production Usability Data. Each phase of the model was a milestone to conduct a global assessment of the platform and to include specific validation and improvement methods.

RESULTS

The methods used in Phase 1 (Design Study) allowed us to obtain the high-fidelity version of the graphical interfaces. The methods used in Phase 2 (Pre-Production Usability Tests) showed a task completion success rate of 100%, after executing the first four tasks. Users described the system as easy to use and one that fulfills the requirements. Phase 3 (Post-Production Usability Data) was mainly derived from statistical analysis that reflects the actual usage of the system by real end-users: we achieved an average retention rate of 35% for the first couple of weeks.

CONCLUSIONS

Each technique and method used has provided significant input to use as feedback for the continuous design and development of the platform. The usage of this user-centered design approach model with three distinct phases allowed us to develop a platform tailored for the users while engaging them from the beginning of the development lifecycle, and thus delivering a software product with an initial high engagement rate. Nevertheless, the retention rate decreases significantly over a short period of time, revealing the need of further work in the development of a truly gamification experience that retains the users.

CLINICALTRIAL

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03516097 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03516097).