Designing Efficacious Mobile Technologies for Anxiety Self-Regulation

Abstract

This paper presents a step-by-step process that was developed primarily to extract design pre-requisites for personalized mobile technologies assisting anxiety self-regulation. This process, which is recognized as a preliminary framework, was developed, refined, and tested based on a multidisciplinary literature review and an exploratory study conducted with mental health professionals who treat anxiety disorders. The step-by-step nature of this framework draws from multiple disciplinary and stakeholder perspectives, integrates knowledge about efficacious psychological interventions, considers individual differences and specific challenges faced by patients, and realizes contextual needs. It also includes incremental and iterative refinements based on multidisciplinary sources to foster more evidence-based interface designs. Once reached its maturity, this framework can potentially be applied for designing efficacious technologies for a range of mental health conditions. The expected future contributions and limitations of the framework are also discussed.