A mobile application to reduce death anxiety during the covid-19 pandemic: design of a high-fidelity prototype

Abstract

Background Individuals, organizations and society were all affected during the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased the level of death anxiety among people and patients. In cases of anxiety disorders such as death anxiety, exposure therapy is an effective and basic treatment method for which developing mobile-based applications and contents would help medical practitioners significantly. The current research aimed at reducing the burden of COVID-19 death anxiety by developing a prototype for a proposed mobile application. Methods The current article presents findings from an early project stage namely Exposure Therapy in Iran in which multiple interviews were conducted with psychologists for identifying criteria for content production. Afterward, two online workshops were held to develop a prototype for the user interface of the proposed application. Result Based on the interviews, contents on subjects like near-death experiences, habit control, death imagery, self-confidence, and anxiety management are the most essential criteria to be included in the mobile application. The online workshops emphasized the ease of use and usefulness of the mobile application. Finally, a prototype was designed as an initial version with the Figma software through high-fidelity technique. Conclusions For designing and developing suitable applications to relieve the anxiety caused by COVID-19 death, the identified criteria for content production and the proposed prototype would help software designers to develop related applications in the current challenging time.

Before the end a concept for a private diary app designed to help alleviate the death anxiety of China's Generation Z

“…The prototyping design followed the six design criteria in the article "Mobile Apps to reduce death anxiety during the COVID-19 Pandemic" (Shakeri et al, 2022). This research followed these six recommendations to standardize prototypes designed with Figma.…”

“…In addition, providing users with simple and advanced searches and always having an activity bar to suggest relevant content are all elements that need to be included in a user interface (Shakeri et al, 2022).…”