Designing sustainable online support: Examining the effects of design change in 49 online health support communities

Introne, Joshua; Erickson, Ingrid; Semaan, Bryan; Goggins, Sean P.

doi:10.1002/asi.24250

Cited by 16 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…The development and growth of an OHC platform is contingent on users' engagement (Gopalsamy et al, 2017). However, technology itself is not enough to engage users effectively, even a design change can lead to users' inactive engagement (Introne et al, 2020). Therefore, it is important to examine user engagement in the OHC.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The impact of gamification on the patient's engagement in the online health community

Ouyang

Wang

Ali

2022

AJIM

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PurposeGamification has been widely implemented to improve user engagement in the online health community (OHC). While its effect on the physicians' engagement has recently been documented, whether and how gamification influences the patients' engagement in the OHC remains an untapped research area. The purpose of this study is to fill this dearth by encompassing the gamification strategy of Haodf.com, which awards the “Annual Physician” badges to the physicians, to analyze how this gamification approach motivates patients’ engagement in the OHC.Design/methodology/approachReal-world data are leveraged from the OHC. The Tobit model is employed for modeling the gamification-patient's engagement nexus in an OHC. Robust findings are obtained by incorporating different measures of a dependent variable, a set of control variables about the physician's characteristics and hospital's features, and alternative estimation techniques.FindingsThe results reveal that a patient's engagement in the OHC in the form of appointments and review-posting behavior is enhanced by the gamification strategy. Besides, the positive influence of gamification on the patient's engagement is further strengthened by the physician's professional capital. It is basically obtained that the gamification is an efficacious tool to accelerate not only the physicians' engagement but also of the patients in the OHC platform.Originality/valueThe study provides both theoretical and empirical discussion to enrich the understanding on how OHCs enhance patients' engagement by developing gamification techniques. The findings guide the practitioners of OHC to better understand the implications of their gamification design to optimize user engagement.

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Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, 2017). However, technology itself is not enough to engage users effectively, even a design change can lead to users’ inactive engagement (Introne et al. , 2020).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of gamification on the patient's engagement in the online health community

Ouyang

Wang

Ali

2022

AJIM

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“…It often includes two factors: informational support and emotional support. Social support has been found to be a significant determinant of OHC user behavior (Introne et al, 2020; Liu et al, 2020b). This research will examine its effect on users’ sharing intention through social influence factors.…”

Section: Research Model and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining online health community users’ sharing behaviour: A social influence perspective

Zhou

2021

Information Development

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Online health communities (OHC) provide a platform for users to exchange health-related information and seek emotional support. However, users often lack the intention to share their knowledge, which may lead to the failure of OHC. Drawing on the social influence theory, this research examined OHC users’ sharing behaviour. The results indicated that users’ sharing intention is influenced by three social influence factors, which include subjective norm, social identity and group norm. In addition, social support and privacy concern have effects on these three social influence factors. The results imply that OHC need to leverage social influence in order to facilitate users’ sharing behaviour.

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“…Changes to the design of online information resources can have unintended consequences. For example, changes made to WebMD forums negatively impacted their popularity (Introne et al , 2019). Design guidelines can be advantageous during web design projects.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying design guidelines for online information resources: a study of expectant and new mothers

Mahony

Heavin

Sammon

2021

ITP

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PurposeThe purpose of this article is to identify design guidelines for online resources based on the subjective assessment criteria used by individuals to assess and process information resources. This method of creating design guidelines targeted at precise user groups has the potential to aid designers and developers to create more user-centred information resources.Design/methodology/approachThe authors gathered data using a prospective longitudinal study investigating the information behaviour of expectant and new mothers. Women were asked to report on their information-seeking activities in a series of semi-structured interviews covering pregnancy and early motherhood.FindingsThis research identified 15 assessment criteria that were utilised by women to assess and process information resources. The most popular resource criteria amongst participants were credibility and convenience, while completeness and relevance were the most popular information content criteria. The authors found that assessment criteria were not considered in isolation, with criteria such as formatting and search engine ranking impacting on participants' perception of other criteria.Practical implicationsThis research demonstrates the potential of linking a user groups subjective assessment criterion to design guidelines. The authors propose that these guidelines could be used to help design an online information resource. They could also be used to assess if an existing online resource met the needs of a user group. The methodology used in this study could be leveraged to create design guidelines for user groups.Originality/valueThis research uses subjective assessment criteria as a means of understanding how expectant new mothers process information resources. People use subjective judgements when processing information resources, and this should be incorporated into the design of information resources. Analysing longitudinal data allowed the authors to build a rich picture of how participants evaluated and compared different information resources.

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Designing sustainable online support: Examining the effects of design change in 49 online health support communities

Cited by 16 publications

References 60 publications

The impact of gamification on the patient's engagement in the online health community

The impact of gamification on the patient's engagement in the online health community

Examining online health community users’ sharing behaviour: A social influence perspective

Identifying design guidelines for online information resources: a study of expectant and new mothers

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