Chapter 5 174 Both user groups repeatedly stressed the need for an e-coaching application that is discreet. The patients’ strong need for discreetness might stem from experiencing stigmatization [65]. Both suggested the use of ‘vibration’ to notify users, since to their beliefs it adequately handled these needs. A clear, but non-stigmatizing visual depiction accompanying this vibrating signal was also mentioned by both groups. As for the user specific requirements a specific need expressed by the therapist group was that the use of e-coaching should be phased out over time to prevent dependency. Further, although they shared the need for increased control and autonomy by the patients, the therapists at the same time expressed a need for them to hold control over the e-coaching application. Therapists in this study did want patients to gain control over their emotions, but– unlike patients - are reluctant to hand over control to an automated system to do so. The use of mental mapping as a subsequent step in the Structure plane of our model further exemplified how both groups fundamentally differed from each other. Whereas the therapists envisioned a relative deep structure to organize the flow of events, the patients’ mental model had a broad structure. Possibly these differences in mental maps can be understood by the fact that the visual complexity of a graphical user interface is found to positively correlated with the level of arousal of its users [99]. Since people with BPD often struggle with heightened levels of emotional arousal and have problems regulating their emotional arousal [28], they might prefer a broad information structure because it reduces complexity: what they seek is directly in sight. When seeking your car keys, while being highly stressed, one is often inclined to turn over all drawers on the table simply to have all attributes in direct sight – creating a ‘broad’ structure. Deeper structures have the merit they result in a tidier look, which it what many people prefer when not being stressed (‘having everything in its right place’). The fundamental differences in the mental maps of both user groups resulted in the decision that if further development is to result in one single, usable and userfriendly e-coach, it will need to have two separate user environments. Within these two ‘functional’ user environments, it is important that the ‘look and feel’ is highly customizable per user. Next, since therapist and patient will use the e-coach ‘in tandem’ the systems will have to allow for some settings to be set per therapistpatient couple. One is the requirement to be able to share acquired data. Because therapists fulfill an essential role in patients’ main user goal to learn to recognize and regulate their emotional arousal, the application has to include a function that enables the patient to share their recorded data with that therapist. However, as both expressed a need to retain ultimate control over the use of the app this could lead to a deadlock. Following needs of the patient group, the sharing of personal
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