myHIN Blog

October 15, 2012

Engendering Behavioral Change through Design: Putting it in Context

“Nothing exists in isolation. Design divorced from the context in which the product is used is of little value to its audience. Cognitively, this makes sense—most designers agree that they have to consider the environment, culture, and situation as part of the process of developing a new product (or redesigning an old one). But practically, context and culture get little play in design meetings.” Olga Werby [1]

As a human-computer interaction (HCI) design researcher exploring means by which interactive technologies can be used to help people make better decisions about their health and wellness, especially their sexual health and wellness [2], I continually grapple with the context question. Discerning and then actioning the many questions is not easy and why I would offer context is often underappreciated in design.

With MyHealthImpactNetwork (myHIN), as a platform for discovery, I feel that we have a unique opportunity to begin understand what those relevant contextual considerations are. Not only uncovering what those specific considerations with respect to deployments such myHIN, but investigating the mechanisms, inclusive of design tools and techniques, that could 1. Tease out these considerations and 2. Support in the translation of those insights into design.

I had the opportunity to spend time with Sean Howell in San Francisco a couple weeks ago. Sean is the founder of Hornet [3]. Hornet is a gay mobile social networking and dating application. One of the unique features of Hornet is the integration of the “Know Your Status” (KYS) campaign that encourages users to disclose their HIV status and keep it current. As Sean is employing this more novel means to encourage behavioral change – regular HIV testing – through a social media platform, I wanted to get his reaction on our efforts at myHIN.

One of the comments that Sean made was: Could myHIN be even be more impactful by putting sexual health decisioning within a greater context and tell a more compelling story around the intended behavioral change? So, what are the implications of these findings to the design of behavioral interventions such as myHIN? Should we abandon targeted behavioral approaches and solely focus on encouraging our constituency, Black female college students, to complete their degree programs? I don’t think so. As the authors detail, there remains and a need for targeted behavioral based approaches; however, more “contextually” grounded behavioral approaches.

I am excited about our work here at myHIN. We not only are creating a platform that 1. Demonstrates how interactive technologies can be more responsively designed in helping individuals make better decisions about their health and wellness and 2. Offers a research test bed for affording explorations in understanding and discerning that elusive yet vital consideration in design, context. We are truly embarking on an exciting journey. I welcome your comments and/or feedback.

Yours in the cause,

Woodrow

References:
[1] http://www.interfaces.com/blog/2011/09/the-cultural-context-for-product-design/
[2] Winchester, W.W., Able, T., & Bauermeister, J. (2012). The use of partner-seeking computer-mediated communication applications by young men that have sex with men (YMSM): uncovering human-computer interaction (HCI) design opportunities in HIV prevention. Health Systems. doi: 10.1057/hs.2012.3.
[3] http://www.gethornet.com/
[4] Shen, S-T, Woolley, M., & Prior, S. (2006). Towards culture-centred design. Interacting with Computers, 18(4), 820-852.
[5] http://people.cs.vt.edu/~mccricks/papers/wmd10-chi+wi.pdf