The use and significance of user-centered design in the development of digital applications – the example of the COMTRAC-HIV app

Digital interactive systems are increasingly being developed in the healthcare sector to enhance patient care. However, many of these applications do not meet user needs and requirements, which is crucial to reaching high user acceptance and usability rates. Therefore, there should be a user-centered design (UCD) approach at the core of this process in order to increase long term sustainability of digital tools. The project „Communication and Tracing App for HIV-Infected Individuals“ aims to establish telemedical monitoring for HIV patients in Germany and thereby overcome weaknesses in care and communication. Monitoring is to be carried out via a secure app with a symptom diary and communication options between patients and practitioners. First, a usage context analysis was conducted via guided interviews with eight HIV specialists. Based on this, detailed group-specific user group profiles, task models, and mockups were created, which were evaluated by seven HIV patients in online focus groups in terms of design, content, and functions. The evaluation revealed major differences concerning needs and prioritized tasks both between and within the potential user groups of the app. It became apparent that some useful requirements, such as multilingualism of the app, could not be implemented in the project. Our modifications of the UCD process, such as expert instead of user interviews at the beginning, may also be of interest for the development of digital applications for the elderly. Overall, involving potential users iteratively offers numerous advantages, but can be time and resource intensive. Adjustments of the UCD process in course of the project and prioritizing of the results might be necessary.