The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the healthcare industry, especially public health resources and resource allocation. With the change in people’s lifestyles and increased demand for medical and health care in the post-pandemic era, the Internet and home healthcare have rapidly developed. As an essential part of Internet healthcare, mobile health (mHealth) applications help to fundamentally address the lack of medical resources and meet people’s healthcare needs. In this mixed-method study, we conducted in-depth interviews with 20 users in China (mean age = 26.13, SD = 2.80, all born in China) during the pandemic, based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT-2) mode, and identified four dimensions of user needs in mHealth scenarios: convenience, control, trust, and emotionality. Based on the interview results, we adjusted the independent variables, deleted the hedonic motivation and the habit, and added the perceived trust and perceived risk as the variables. Using a structural equation model (SEM), we designed the questionnaire according to the qualitative results and collected data from 371 participants (above 18 years old, 43.9% male) online to examine the interrelationships these variables. The results show that performance expectancy (β = 0.40, p < 0.001), effort expectancy (β = 0.40, p < 0.001), social influence (β = 0.14, p < 0.05), facilitating condition (β = 0.15, p < 0.001), and perceived trust (β = 0.31, p < 0.001) had positive effects on use intention. Perceived risk (β = −0.31, p < 0.001) harmed use intention, and price value (β = 0.10, p > 0.5) had no significant effects on use intention. Finally, we discussed design and development guidelines that can enhance user experience of mHealth applications. This research combines the actual needs and the main factors affecting the use intention of users, solves the problems of low satisfaction of user experience, and provides better strategic suggestions for developing mHealth applications in the future.

Objective: Social connections and participation are essential for individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to prevent the progression of cognitive decline and enhance their overall well-being. However, existing research has primarily focused on environmental barriers, overlooking personal factors and the interconnected nature of these barriers. Moreover, there is a lack of understanding regarding social connections and participation challenges specific to people with MCI in low- and middle-income countries. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the barriers that hinder social connections and participation among people with MCI in China and investigate opportunities to design appropriate supportive interventions.Methods: Thirty-one people with MCI (13 males and 18 females; mean age = 82.74 years, SD = 7.69; mean MoCA score = 21.26, SD = 2.44) and 13 caregivers were recruited to attend focus groups. In addition, 10 therapists were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Focus groups and interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a framework analysis approach.Results: We found that the ability to build social connections among people with MCI is affected by mobility challenges, intensive grandparenting responsibilities, availability of suitable activities, and feelings of exclusion in a closed-minded community environment. Personal reasons, such as lower social efficacy, inability to find suitable social activities, and intensive family responsibilities, discourage people with MCI from social participation. The digital literacy of people with MCI depends on their motivation to learn and use digital tools; people with MCI who live in a community have a higher digital literacy than those living in care centers. The motivation to achieve digital literacy is affected by perceived benefits, costs of technology use, and social influence.Conclusion: Multidimensional initiatives are needed to address barriers to social connections, participation, and technology adoption among individuals with MCI. This includes organizing and engaging in social activities, promoting awareness and education on the importance of social participation, and exploring technology-based interventions to improve memory and storytelling abilities. These efforts can create a supportive environment and empower individuals with MCI to participate actively in social interactions, enhancing their overall well-being.

Background: Community-based social participation has shown promise in delaying cognitive decline in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who are at risk of developing dementia. Although group storytelling interventions have proven effective, the need for a skilled workforce to support people with MCI can limit broader community implementation. Technology-based interventions may offer a solution to this limitation by replicating the abilities of therapists. Objective: This study aims to co-design a digital storytelling intervention and evaluate its usability. Methods: This co-design process involved 3 stages, engaging people with MCI (n=12), their caregivers (n=4), and therapists (n=5) in Beijing, China. In the first stage, we used card sorting and voting methods to identify potential incentives for social participation and target the specific abilities that people with MCI wanted to enhance. In the second stage, we conducted brainstorming sessions with people with MCI and their caregivers to identify the potential features of a digital storytelling application named Huiyou (“meeting new friends” in Chinese). Finally, we assessed Huiyou’s usability with people with MCI and therapists, leading to iterative improvements based on the usability findings. Results: We uncovered a crucial link between boosting the self-confidence of people with MCI and their ability to address social participation challenges. Notably, we identified memory improvement and enhanced language expression as key factors for effective communication with grandchildren. Subsequently, participants suggested features and interfaces to address these challenges, leading to the development of Huiyou, a group-based digital storytelling application featuring functions such as generating story materials, conducting memory retrieval activities, and sharing stories. It received an “excellent” rating in the User Experience Questionnaire benchmark, displaying high levels of attractiveness, dependability, stimulation, and novelty. People with MCI achieved an average task completion rate of 87% (n=19; SD 0.13) of the 22 tasks. However, feedback from people with MCI and therapists highlighted usability issues in navigation, activity management, user interface, and feature optimization, indicating a need for improved accessibility and efficiency. Conclusions: The co-design approach contributed to developing the Huiyou prototype, supporting community-based social participation. User feedback highlighted the potential of Huiyou to enhance well-being and facilitate meaningful social interactions while maintaining crucial existing relationships.

Today’s user experience (UX) educators and designers can no longer just focus on creating more usable systems, but must also rise to the level of strategists, using design thinking and human–computer interaction (HCI) solutions to improve academic and business outcomes. Both psychological, designer, and engineering approaches are adopted in this study. An invited program review committee met to review progress of the UX program at the Beijing Normal University (BNUX). They considered issues and challenges facing the program today, and the steps that it could make to develop further. During a recent augmented reality (AR) project on designing future life experience on smart home and wearables, several experiential concepts and prototypes were generated to demonstrate HCI and UX research directions. The committee was impressed by BNUX with its energy, enthusiasm, and a sense of purpose on practicing transdisciplinary teaching and learning activities. Recommendations on the current organization of education, the relation between project-based learning and research, and opportunities for exposure and visibility are provided.

Because of the spread of smartphones, older adults enjoy the assistance of smartphones. However, fewer mobile applications are designed for older adults. Smartphone user interface (UI) serves as an external brain to capture information, and older adults may have memory complaints that affect self-confidence and lead to memory decline. Non-declarative memory requires more effort. Therefore, this study aims to design and evaluate a to-do list application to help older adults encode, store, and retrieve non-declarative memory, such as tasks they plan to do. We recruited 15 participants (5 men and 10 women) aged 60 to 75 years old (SD = 5.32). They were asked to complete nine usability tasks, and to answer a user experience questionnaire (UEQ) and a few interview questions. Sixty percent of users completed with only one or two attempts (median = 2.80, SD = 1.63). We found three usability issues and proposed an iteration plan. The application has attractiveness, efficiency, dependability, stimulation, novelty, and good perspicuity for older adults. The product was rated excellent except for perspicuity, which met the users’ expectations. This indicates that the user is satisfied with the application prototype. The results of this measurement can be utilized as a benchmark for the next model for developing mobile to-do list applications on user experience.