Chapter 1 24 Chapter 5 focuses on the first two processes mentioned above. It describes a User Experience Design (UXD) study aimed at the development of a scientifically informed design-framework and the identification of the main requirements of an app meant to support patients with BPP in becoming more aware of their level of emotional arousal. The study included several inpatients with high levels of both borderline personality pathology and alexithymia in the process of designing an e-coaching app from the earliest stages of development - as well as several mental health care professionals who are professionally involved in these patients’ treatment. The study aims to deliver a UXD framework that can help guide future projects on mHealth development. It also adds to current literature some much welcomed information on the intricacies as well as the added value on including BPP patient user groups. Chapter 6 describes the next stage of development in a subsequent UCD/UXD study which involved both patients, mental healthcare professionals and UCD/UXD experts. The study expands on the previous study described in chapter 5. Continuing the iterative approach on designing, it describes the process of further adjusting and expanding the conceptual design framework, supplementing the inventory on user and design requirements, and the ultimate delivery of a working prototype of the wearable application to aid in treatment of alexithymia in patients with high levels of BPP. The presented study thereby is one of few to combine research with the actual development of an employable app. As mentioned above, at one end of the spectrum most mHealth apps lack (published) empirical research, yet at the other end many scholarly publications describe concepts of portable mHealth interventions, but do not foresee in actual development and completion of a working app. This chapter describes in detail how a newly developed, tailored participatory design approach can deliver an app that is employable in the daily practice of mental healthcare. Chapter 7 provides a summary and discusses the overall findings in the light of the double aim of this thesis.
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