Background There is an urgent and unmet need for accessible and credible health information within the transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) community. Currently, TGD individuals often seek and must find relevant resources by vetting social media posts. A resource that provides accessible and credible health-related resources and content via a mobile phone app may have a positive impact on and support the TGD population. Objective COVID-19 stay-at-home orders forced a shift in the methods used in participatory design. In this paper, we aimed to describe the web-based participatory methods used to develop the Transgender Health Information Resource. We also described and characterized the web-based engagement that occurred during a single session of the overall design process. Methods We planned and conducted web-based design sessions to replace the proposed in-person sessions. We used web-based collaborative tools, including Zoom (Zoom Video Communications), Mural (Mural), REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture; Vanderbilt University), and Justinmind (Justinmind), to engage the participants in the design process. Zoom was used as an integrated platform for design activities. Mural was used to perform exercises, such as free listing, brainstorming, and grouping. REDCap allowed us to collect survey responses. Justinmind was used to create prototypes that were shared and discussed via Zoom. Recruitment was led by one of our community partners, One Colorado, who used private Facebook groups in which web-based flyers were dispersed. The design process took place in several workshops over a period of 10 months. We described and characterized engagement during a single design session by tracking the number of influential interactions among participants. We defined an influential interaction as communication, either verbal or web-based content manipulation, that advanced the design process. Results We presented data from a single design session that lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes and included 4 participants. During the session, there were 301 influential interactions, consisting of 79 verbal comments and 222 web-based content manipulations. Conclusions Web-based participatory design can elicit input and decisions from participants to develop a health information resource, such as a mobile app user interface. Overall, participants were highly engaged. This approach maintained the benefits and fidelity of traditional in-person design sessions, mitigated deficits, and exploited the previously unconsidered benefits of web-based methods, such as enhancing the ability to participate for those who live far from academic institutions. The web-based approach to participatory design was an efficient and feasible methodological design approach.
Background Access to credible and relevant health care information is an unmet need for the transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) community. This paper describes the community engagement methods and resulting community priorities as part of a codesign process for the development of a Transgender Health Information Resource (TGHIR) application. Methods A lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer advocacy organization and an academic health sciences team partnered to establish a community advisory board (CAB) of TGD individuals, parents of TGD individuals, and clinicians with expertise in transgender health to inform the project. The analytic-deliberative model and group facilitation strategies based on Liberating Structures guided procedures. Affinity grouping was used to synthesize insights from CAB meeting notes regarding roles and perspectives on the design of the TGHIR application. We used the Patient Engagement in Research Scale (PEIRS) to evaluate CAB members' experience with the project. Results The CAB emphasized the importance of designing the application with and for the TGD community, including prioritizing intersectionality and diversity. CAB engagement processes benefited from setting clear expectations, staying focused on goals, synchronous and asynchronous work, and appreciating CAB member expertise. TGHIR application scope and priorities included a single source to access relevant, credible health information, the ability to use the app discreetly, and preserving privacy (i.e., safe use). An out-of-scope CAB need was the ability to identify both culturally and clinically competent TGD health care providers. PEIRS results showed CAB members experienced moderate to high levels of meaningful engagement (M[standard deviation] = 84.7[12] out of 100). Conclusion A CAB model was useful for informing TGHIR application priority features. In-person and virtual methods were useful for engagement. The CAB continues to be engaged in application development, dissemination, and evaluation. The TGHIR application may complement, but will not replace, the need for both culturally and clinically competent health care for TGD people.
Background Despite the abundance of health information on the internet for people who identify as transgender and gender diverse (TGD), much of the content used is found on social media channels, requiring individuals to vet the information for relevance and quality. Objective We developed a prototype transgender health information resource (TGHIR) delivered via a mobile app to provide credible health and wellness information for people who are TGD. Methods We partnered with the TGD community and used a participatory design approach that included focus groups and co-design sessions to identify users’ needs and priorities. We used the Agile software development methodology to build the prototype. A medical librarian and physicians with expertise in transgender health curated a set of 97 information resources that constituted the foundational content of the prototype. To evaluate the prototype TGHIR app, we assessed the app with test users, using a single item from the System Usability Scale to assess feature usability, cognitive walk-throughs, and the user version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale to evaluate the app’s objective and subjective quality. Results A total of 13 people who identified as TGD or TGD allies rated their satisfaction with 9 of 10 (90%) app features as good to excellent, and 1 (10%) of the features—the ability to filter to narrow TGHIR resources—was rated as okay. The overall quality score on the user version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale was 4.25 out of 5 after 4 weeks of use, indicating a good-quality mobile app. The information subscore received the highest rating, at 4.75 out of 5. Conclusions Community partnership and participatory design were effective in the development of the TGHIR app, resulting in an information resource app with satisfactory features and overall high-quality ratings. Test users felt that the TGHIR app would be helpful for people who are TGD and their care partners.
BACKGROUND Using participatory design principles, we created an information resource for the transgender and gender diverse community. The resource was informed by the needs of the transgender and gender diverse community with input from experts in information science and transgender health, and our community advisory board. The resource is delivered through a mobile application; given the current near ubiquitous use of smartphones as a method of accessing the internet among the US population. The resource application provides tailored health and wellness information and was designed to enhance adoption, dissemination, and sustainability. OBJECTIVE Health research - including development of digital health tools - has been forced to adapt to the virtual environment due to COVID-19. The purpose of this paper is to describe virtual participatory design methods used to develop the Transgender Health Information Resource digital health tool. METHODS A three-stage virtual participatory design approach was implemented using online collaborative tools including Zoom, Mural, REDCap and Justinmind. This approach maintained the benefits and integrity of traditional in-person design sessions, mitigated any deficits, and exploited previously unconsidered benefits of virtual methods. RESULTS The first design session, consisting of 4 participant co-designers, resulted in 301 interactions, 79 verbal comments and 222 virtual manipulations which propelled the co-design process and decision making. CONCLUSIONS Virtual participatory design can elicit input and decisions from co-designers to develop a health information resource, including a user interface. Co-designers were routinely highly engaged. The virtual approach to participatory design, which included online collaboration tools, was efficient and a feasible methodological approach
BACKGROUND Despite the abundance of health information for people who identify as transgender and gender diverse (TGD) on the Internet, much of the content is found on social media channels, leaving individuals to vet the information for relevance and quality. OBJECTIVE We developed a prototype transgender health information resource mobile app (TGHIR app) to provide credible health and wellness information for people who are TGD. METHODS We partnered with the TGD community and used a participatory design approach including focus groups and co-design sessions to identify user needs and priorities. We employed Agile software development methodology to build the prototype TGHIR app. A medical librarian and physicians with expertise in transgender health curated a set of 96 information resources that made up the foundational content of the prototype. To evaluate the prototype TGHIR app we assessed the app with test users using a single item from the System Usability Scale (SUS) to assess feature usability, qualitative interviews to explore our lowest rated feature, and using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS) to evaluate overall app quality and the quality along six key domains. RESULTS Thirteen people who identified as TGD rated their satisfaction with 9 of 10 app features as ‘good’ (n= 7) to ‘excellent’ (n= 2), one feature – the ability to filter to narrow TGHIR resources- was rated as ‘okay’. The overall MARS score was 4.20 out of 5 after 2 weeks of use, indicating a good quality mobile application. The information score received the highest rating at 4.75 out of 5. CONCLUSIONS Community partnership and participatory design are effective in the development of the TGHIR app resulting in an app with satisfying features and an overall good quality rating. Test users felt that the TGHIR app would be helpful for people who are TGD and their care partners.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.