Designing for psychological wellbeing Development of a research-based toolkit for wellbeing supportive technology design.

Abstract

Growing concern over the impact of digital technologies on psychological wellbeing has prompted technology companies to develop initiatives on ‘digital wellbeing’. However, these initiatives tend to focus on helping users change their behaviour rather than on changing technology itself. Yet, it is unclear why users should bear the burden of adjusting to, or self-regulating against, designs that aren’t aligned with their psychological needs.

Many designers are motivated to improve the psychological impact of technologies but there is little rigorous guidance on how to do so in practice. Using the Self-determination theory (SDT), this research leverages a sound theoretical model to help designers improve the psychological impact of technologies based on rigorous guidance on how to do so in practice: 1. How can wellbeing psychology be rigorously and systematically applied to the technology design process to improve the extent to which technologies support wellbeing? 2. How could this knowledge be effectively transferred to practitioners to help them support psychological wellbeing through design, keeping in mind the need for both rigor and practicality? 3. What evidence-based design guidelines can be derived from existing literature to help designers create more ‘wellbeing supportive’ technologies? 4. Can an entirely online collaborative and self-facilitated version of a design workshop be developed that is as effective as the analogue and in-person original at helping designers create more wellbeing supportive technologies?

To answer these, I conducted a staged process of mixed-methods research with 155 participants through interviews and iterative development of a toolkit of methods and resources. Studies show the toolkit was effective in translating wellbeing psychology into actionable guidance for designers based on measures of satisfaction and learning outcomes. The work draws on self-determination theory – an evidence-based psychological theory of wellbeing – and leverages the METUX model which applies this theory to HCI.

Key contributions of this research include insights from three empirical research studies, a set of evidence-based guidelines for wellbeing supportive design, and a toolkit which translates new research knowledge into a format relevant to design practice.