Background When considering the policing environment of 2022, many roles previously in the domain of warranted officers (police officer) are now performed by nonwarranted police staff equivalents. These police staff roles have expanded rapidly into other areas such as investigations, custody, and contact management, which were traditionally seen as police officer functions and put staff under some of the same stresses as police officers. A UK police force requested help in investigating technologies that could be used to improve health and well-being for both officers and staff. Objective The aim of this study was to create a health and well-being app for police officers and staff, which considered the unique requirements of the users throughout the designing, building, prototyping, and testing stages. Methods This study involved quantitative approaches (demographic web-based survey questions and the System Usability Scale) and qualitative approaches (open web-based survey questions and semistructured interviews). Unsupervised usability testing of a prototype app was undertaken by members (N=48) of the commissioning client using their smartphones. After completing a preregistration application for screening purposes, participants downloaded a trial version of the app. Then, they completed a web-based questionnaire after testing the app for 10 days. A subsample of participants (9/48, 19%) was interviewed. Deductive thematic analysis was undertaken to identify key themes and subthemes. Results Data collected during usability testing concerned the 6 domains of the app—food and diet, activity, fluid intake, sleep, good mental health, and financial well-being—and informed the creation of improved design during prototyping. Some usability and design issues and suggestions for improvements were also addressed and implemented—including shift management and catch-up cards—during this cycle of development. Conclusions This study highlights the importance of coparticipation with officers and staff across the entire development cycle, to coproduce a human-centered design methodology to enable the development of a considered and user-centered solution. It demonstrates the need for producing a multifunctional tool rather than focusing purely on an individual element for this user group. It also highlights how linking and being able to track optional, personalized elements of health data against one another, cross-referenced to individual shift patterns, might help to inform and provide users with a chance for reflection and therefore influence behavior change.

BACKGROUND When considering the policing environment of 2022, many roles previously in the domain of warranted officers (Police Officer) are now carried out by non-warranted police staff equivalents. These police staff roles have expanded rapidly into other areas such as investigations, custody, and contact management which were traditionally seen as police officer functions and put staff under some of the same stresses as police officers. A UK police force requested help investigating technologies that could be used to improve health and wellbeing for both officers and staff. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to create a health and wellbeing application for police officers and staff, which considered the unique requirements of the users throughout the design, build, prototyping, and testing stages. METHODS This study involved quantitative approaches (demographic online survey questions and the System Usability Scale) and qualitative approaches (open online survey questions and semi-structured interviews). Unsupervised usability testing was undertaken by (n=48) members of the commissioning client of a prototype application using their smartphones. After completing a pre-registration application for screening purposes, participants downloaded a trial version of the application. They then completed an online questionnaire. A subsample of participants was interviewed (n=9). Prior to testing, telephone interviews were audio recorded with verbal consent obtained (and recorded). A deductive thematic analysis was undertaken to identify key themes and sub-themes. RESULTS Data collected during usability testing concerned the six areas of the application - Food and Diet, Activity, Fluid Intake, Sleep, Good Mental Health, and Financial Wellbeing – and informed the creation of improved design during prototyping. Some usability and design issues and suggestions for improvements were also addressed and implemented – including shift management and catch-up cards - during this cycle of development. CONCLUSIONS This work highlights the importance of co-participation with officers and staff across the entire development cycle, to co-produce a human-centred design methodology to enable the development of a considered and user-centred solution. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT RR2-10.2196/28075