Design for Engagement of Online Positive Psychology Interventions

Abstract

Online Positive Psychology Interventions (oPPIs) can provide a low-cost way to improve wellbeing in the general population. However, for these interventions to be effective, participants need to use them for a longer period of time and need to practice the content in their daily lives. This means that participants need to feel engaged with the intervention in a certain way. The first part of this chapter introduces this need for engagement with online interventions and provides insight in what engagement might actually be in this context. The next part of the chapter will focus on ways technology can be designed to positively influence engagement. This will be illustrated by means of two cases of oPPIs. Next, the chapter will discuss the way engagement might be used to personalize interventions and thereby increase the individual effectiveness. The chapter concludes with a summary of the main learning points.

The Concept and Components of Engagement in Different Domains Applied to eHealth: A Systematic Scoping Review

“…However, not all eHealth interventions show this relationship, and it has been argued that this has to do with the way adherence is conceptualized. The assumption that increased frequency of use equates to "better results" does not necessarily ring true (Sieverink et al, 2017;Kelders, 2019). Also, it seems that the reasons why people choose to use an intervention might be more important than the frequency or duration of its use.…”

“…When controlling for intervention content, providing users with a highly immersive, personalized intervention experience seems to be more effective in enhancing outcomes than providing them with static, linear, and unengaging content (Couper et al, 2010;Kelders et al, 2018). In other words, the design of a technologically driven intervention strongly influences how it is perceived, how it is employed, and how effective it will eventually be (Ludden et al, 2015;Kelders, 2019). Given the importance that the design of a technological solution poses for both engagement and adherence, it is not surprising that it has become a centrally debated topic within the domains of Interaction Design and Human Computer Interaction in recent years (Doherty and Doherty, 2018).…”

Psychometric Evaluation of the TWente Engagement with Ehealth Technologies Scale (TWEETS): Evaluation Study

“…For example, in health care, patient engagement has been shown to be related to better health outcomes [ 11 ], and in organizations, work engagement is related to better performance [ 12 ]. In relation to DHIs, engagement has also been posited as related to better outcomes in terms of more effective interventions [ 9 , 13 , 14 ].…”

“…In order to gain insight into the content of these components, we interviewed self-proclaimed engaged users of health apps to study what they view as being engaged [ 13 , 15 ]. Behavioral engagement seemed to focus more on having a routine in using the technology and making it a part of daily life than about the frequency of using it.…”

“…The first scale, the eHealth engagement scale, showed adequate internal reliability and predictive validity on, amongst other things, retention of information and intentions to change [ 18 ]. However, conceptually, this scale seems to be more focused on engagement with health-related information than acting on that information, and thus on behavior change, as is our focus [ 9 , 13 , 14 ]. Moreover, this scale is an example of a scale that includes attributes that might predict engagement but are not part of the engagement itself.…”