Personas-Driven Design for Mental Health Therapeutic Applications

Abstract

Digital applications for mental therapy can support the rehabilitation treatments and help patients to motivate themselves, understand and persist in therapeutic practices. Although the importance and use of these software systems continue to increase, the literature does not specify a consolidated methodology to design such applications. This paper describes a participatory process to enrich Personas, aiming to characterize the intended audience of therapeutic applications in the context of mental health. Moreover, the paper presents how the information obtained in the process can aid on therapeutic games design aiming to support the rehabilitation of chemical dependent and depressive patients.