Abstract
BackgroundPeer support services have the potential to support children who survive cancer by handling the physical, mental, and social challenges associated with survival and return to everyday life. Involving the children themselves in the design process allows for adapting services to authentic user behaviors and goals. As there are several challenges that put critical requirements on a user-centered design process, we developed a design method based on personas adapted to the particular needs of children that promotes health and handles a sensitive design context.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of using child personas in the development of a digital peer support service for childhood cancer survivors.MethodsThe user group’s needs and behaviors were characterized based on cohort data and literature, focus group interviews with childhood cancer survivors (n=15, 8-12 years), stakeholder interviews with health care professionals and parents (n=13), user interviews, and observations. Data were interpreted and explained together with childhood cancer survivors (n=5) in three explorative design workshops and a validation workshop with children (n=7).ResultsWe present findings and insights on how to codesign child personas in the context of developing digital peer support services with childhood cancer survivors. The work resulted in three primary personas that model the behaviors, attitudes, and goals of three user archetypes tailored for developing health-promoting services in this particular use context. Additionally, we also report on the effects of using these personas in the design of a digital peer support service called Give Me a Break.ConclusionsBy applying our progressive steps of data collection and analysis, we arrive at authentic child-personas that were successfully used to design and develop health-promoting services for children in vulnerable life stages. The child-personas serve as effective collaboration and communication aids for both internal and external purposes.
Highlights
Peer Support for Childhood Cancer Survivors Advances in diagnosis, risk stratification, and treatment protocols have resulted in that most children who are diagnosed with cancer survive the disease and have the potential to live a long life with a quality of life comparable with their peers.the transition from a period of intensive treatment to everyday life is often associated with physical and psychological problems for which they need professional support [1,2,3]
We present findings and insights on how to codesign child personas in the context of developing digital peer support services with childhood cancer survivors
We report on the effects of using these personas in the design of a digital peer support service called Give Me a Break
Summary
The transition from a period of intensive treatment to everyday life is often associated with physical and psychological problems for which they need professional support [1,2,3]. Managing these physical and psychological problems as well as the social challenges that are associated with the experiences and consequences of the disease can be facilitated by social support mediated by peers on whom the child can rely and who http://www.jmir.org/2017/5/e161/ XSLFO RenderX. 5 | e161 | p.1 (page number not for citation purposes) share a similar background [4] The availability of such peer support is limited and resources are often offered sporadically and by the initiative of patient organizations or health care services [5]. As there are several challenges that put critical requirements on a user-centered design process, we developed a design method based on personas adapted to the particular needs of children that promotes health and handles a sensitive design context
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