The Importance of User Segmentation for Designing Digital Therapy for Adolescent Mental Health: Findings From Scoping Processes

BACKGROUND: New Zealand youth, especially those of Māori and Pacific descent, have high rates of depression, anxiety, and self-harm, but have low rates of help-seeking from mental health professionals. Apps, computerized therapy, and other digital tools can be effective, highly scalable treatments for anxiety and depression. Co-design processes are often used to foster engagement with end users, but this does not always lead to high levels of engagement. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to carry out preliminary scoping to understand adolescents’ current internet use and diversity of preferences to inform a planned co-design process for creating digital mental health tools for teenagers. METHODS: Interactive workshops and focus groups were held with young people. Data were analyzed using a general inductive approach. RESULTS: Participants (N=58) engaged in 2 whānau (extended family) focus groups (n=4 and n=5), 2 school- or community-based focus groups (n=9 each), and 2 workshops (n=11 and n=20). The authors identified 3 overarching themes: (1) Digital mental health tools are unlikely to be successful if they rely solely on youth help-seeking. (2) A single approach is unlikely to appeal to all. Participants had diverse, noncompatible preferences in terms of look or feel of an app or digital tool. The authors identified 4 user groups players or gamers, engagers, sceptics, and straight-talkers. These groups differed by age and degree of current mental health need and preferred gamified or fun approaches, were open to a range of approaches, were generally disinterested, or preferred direct-to-the-point, serious approaches, respectively. (3) Digital mental health tools should provide an immediate response to a range of different issues and challenges that a young person may face. CONCLUSIONS: Defining the preferences of different groups of users may be important for increasing engagement with digital therapies even within specific population and mental health–need groups. This study demonstrates the importance of scoping possible user needs to inform design processes.