Optimizing Participant Engagement in Cyberhealth Co-Design: Course-of-Action Framework Analysis

Co-design is recognized for its potential to enhance the usability of products through active user participation. However, participation alone does not guarantee the effectiveness of the resulting product. Understanding participants' engagement during co-design activities can provide valuable i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:JMIR human factors Vol. 12; p. e70772
Main Authors: Tremblay, Melanie, Hamel, Christine, Viau-Guay, Anabelle, Giroux, Dominique
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Canada JMIR Publications 27.08.2025
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Caregivers - psychology
Co-design
Co-Design & Participatory Design
Collaboration
Communication
Engagement with and Adherence to Digital Health Interventions, Law of Attrition
Female
Humans
Interviews
Literature reviews
Male
Middle Aged
Original Paper
Participation
Participatory Design and Participatory Research
Participatory Medicine & E-Patients
Patient Participation
Pragmatism
Qualitative Research
Reflective practice
Telemedicine
Theories, Models, and Frameworks in Human Factors
Tools and Questionnaires in Human Factors Evaluation
Usability
Usability and Technology Use Studies with Elder Subjects
caregivers
affordances
engagement
co-design
activity analysis
course-of-action framework
ISSN:2292-9495, 2292-9495
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Co-design is recognized for its potential to enhance the usability of products through active user participation. However, participation alone does not guarantee the effectiveness of the resulting product. Understanding participants' engagement during co-design activities can provide valuable insights into their motivations, concerns, and contributions, which are critical to achieving successful outcomes. This study aims to analyze participant engagement in a digital health co-design parent project focusing on developing a tool to facilitate support-seeking for elderly caregivers. The parent project included 74 participants from 3 categories: caregivers, health care and social service professionals, and community workers. Testimonies for this study were collected from 20 participants using the self-confrontation interview methodology. Engagement was analyzed qualitatively using the course-of-action framework. The engagements were organized into emergent themes. The analysis focused on variations in engagement patterns across participant categories and sessions. A total of 3 themes of engagement were identified: tool design, participant needs, and contextual situations. Engagement was distributed similarly across themes, except for community workers, who were more focused on needs (52/94, 42%) than tool design (25/62, 20%). There was significant variation in engagement over sessions, with tool design being more prominent during specific sessions (co-design sessions CoD5, CoD7, and CoD8) and less important during others (CoD4, AC2 [advisory committee session], CoD6, and AC3). Activities directly tied to design tasks significantly enhanced engagement with tool design. These results underscore the influence of activity types in shaping participants' focus and involvement. This study highlights the role of affordances in co-design activities to balance engagement across design, collaboration, and participation dimensions. By strategically leveraging affordances, future co-design projects can optimize engagement and ensure more effective outcomes.
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ISSN:2292-9495
2292-9495
DOI:10.2196/70772