Beyond Wellbeing Apps: Co-Designing Immersive, Embodied, and Collective Digital Wellbeing Interventions for Healthcare Professionals

TL;DR

This study explores healthcare professionals' perceptions of immersive and embodied digital wellbeing technologies, emphasizing co-design to develop engaging interventions that support mental health and meet users' psychological needs.

Contribution

It introduces a co-design methodology for creating immersive wellbeing interventions tailored for healthcare professionals, incorporating their preferences and perceptions.

Findings

HCPs value immersive and embodied technologies for mental health support.

Design recommendations emphasize autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

Co-design process effectively captures user needs and preferences.

Abstract

Healthcare professionals (HCPs) face increasing levels of stress and burnout. Technological wellbeing interventions provide accessible and flexible support for HCPs. While most studies have focused on mobile- and web-based programs, alternative technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), tangible interfaces, and embodied technologies are emerging as engaging and effective tools for wellbeing interventions. However, there is still a lack of research on how such technologies are perceived among HCPs. This study explored HCPs' perceptions and preferences for various types of wellbeing technologies, by conducting a 2-phase co-design study involving 26 HCPs in idea generation, concept evaluation, prototype testing, and design iteration. From our findings, HCPs highly valued the potential of technologies to support mental health with immersive, embodied, and collective experiences. Furthermore, we provided design recommendations for wellbeing technologies for HCPs that sustain user engagement by meeting their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the experiences.