Data-Driven Personas and User Stories Guiding User-Centred Design of an mHealth Application: A Case Study in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease

Abstract

User-Centred Design (UCD) is a useful approach in the development of effective mobile health (mHealth) applications. However, explicit collection of user needs often presents challenges such as logistical and ethical complexities. To reduce this problem, we propose an approach that utilises previously elaborated data-driven personas. In this paper, we illustrate how we applied the data-driven personas together with scenarios and user stories at the start of the UCD process for an mHealth application supporting physical activity in the context of secondary prevention in cardiac patients. Being grounded in real patient data, the data-driven personas increased trust in personas as artefacts guiding the design and evaluation process, while adding efficiency to the user needs collection.