Abstract
Digital psychological interventions are promoted as scalable, low-cost, and accessible means of supporting mental health and wellbeing. Delivered online, they can reach individuals with limited access to traditional services. Young unemployed adults represent a particularly relevant at-risk group: unemployment during emerging adulthood is associated with heightened psychological vulnerability, yet interventions have traditionally prioritised re-employment over wellbeing and motivational processes.
Self-guided digital interventions designed to influence beliefs, motivation, and performance by promoting a growth mindset (beliefs that your abilities can develop), offer a promising way to address this gap. They are also brief, which make them suitable for delivery via digital and self-guided formats. However, many digital interventions within health struggle with limited user engagement and adherence. In fully self-guided formats, the interface becomes the primary carrier of the intervention, placing substantial demands on design quality and underscoring the importance of integrating design expertise.
Human-centred design seeks to ground solutions in people’s lived realities and refine them through continuous feedback. It is increasingly applied in health contexts, either through direct use of design methods or via frameworks that incorporate similar principles. Nevertheless, there remains limited practice-based knowledge about how design processes unfold in intervention projects or how professional designers can be effectively integrated into psychological intervention research. This thesis therefore examines how human-centred design can support the development of self-guided digital psychological interventions for unemployed young adults, focusing on intervention development as a process. Three research questions guide the study:
RQ1. How can human-centred design be used to support the development of self-guided digital psychological interventions?
RQ2. How do unemployed young adults experience self-guided digital psychological interventions?
RQ3. What considerations arise when integrating human-centred design with psychological intervention research practices?
This thesis employs a qualitative and exploratory research approach at the intersection of psychology, human-centred design, and digital health. Grounded in action research and Research through Design, knowledge was generated through iterative cycles of planning, prototyping, testing, and reflection, where design artefacts functioned both as outcomes and as tools for inquiry. The aim was to understand how interventions emerge and evolve in practice.
Empirically, the research was conducted within an interdisciplinary
project CL-App: A Career Learning App for Young People Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET). CL-App investigates if it is possible to help unemployed youths with an interactive app to strengthen beliefs in their own capacity to learn, and thereby their motivation. The desired outcome is that young people exposed to the intervention, become more motivated to enter into the labour market or formal education. Two intervention design processes served as cases:
Intervention 1 (“VitaNova”) explored a gaming-based intervention and investigated how users experienced its structure, tone, and motivational strategies. Findings from this process led to a refocusing of the efforts into the design of Intervention 2.
Intervention 2 (eventually named “Røst”) involved the design process of a mobile web-app intervention that integrated persuasive features and content adapted from earlier evidence-based psychological interventions.
Both were developed as self-guided digital psychological interventions and structured through different approaches to human-centred design. Methods included workshops, sketching, prototypes, and repeated validation and evaluation with end users (18 and 13 participants, respectively). The emphasis throughout the research was on documenting user feedback and development processes. Data comprised recordings, field notes, design artefacts, and researcher memos. Reflexive Thematic Analysis, supported by visual mapping and retrospective cross-case synthesis, guided interpretation. The thesis consolidates the findings into three overarching contributions: how design methods can support the creation and adaptation of digital interventions; how they help capture and interpret users’ experiences; and, how they illuminate tensions between intervention fidelity and engaging design.
First, human-centred design structured design and development through iterative prototyping and formative testing. Direct interaction with prototypes surfaced usability issues, misunderstandings, mismatches between intended content and user interpretation, and unmet needs that were not apparent in planning. Design artefacts supported communication and coordination across psychology, design, and technology. Psychological concepts were operationalised into concrete features such as brief exercises, reminders, progress feedback, and other interaction elements.
Second, usability testing clarified how unemployed young adults experienced self-guided digital interventions. Participants preferred clear purpose, empathic tone, and formats compatible with everyday mobile use, including short, low-effort interactions. The game-based prototype generated initial interest but obscured the intervention message. The web-app was experienced as clearer and easier to use. Reminders and small rewards were generally accepted and supported continued use.
Third, integrating human-centred design with psychological intervention research exposed practical constraints during development. Experimental trial-related requirements restricted communication, and lengthy onboarding procedures added barriers to user engagement. Interdisciplinary collaboration was on the other hand facilitated through shared artefacts and regular coordination to align perspectives and decisions.
The work resulted in two main intervention concepts and a set of practice-informed design principles emphasising clarity, contextual fit, iterative testing, and alignment between format and intervention intent. This contributes process-level knowledge on how digital psychological interventions develop through design practice. The findings show that design decisions fundamentally shape how interventions are understood, experienced, and used. In self-guided formats, content and delivery are inseparable: the user experience becomes the intervention. User interface and experience are therefore prerequisites for engagement, not superficial additions. Designing for motivation, through reminders, rewards, and micro-interactions, emerges as a legitimate component of preventive support. The work highlights a persistent tension between iterative design and traditional evaluation, as controlled procedures may undermine engagement and ecological validity.
The research clarifies the complementary value of human-centred design alongside established digital health frameworks. While frameworks offer structure and theoretical grounding, design practice contributes contextual insight, exploration of alternatives, and iterative refinement through prototyping. By integrating human-centred design, evidence from wise intervention research, and context-specific insights, a modular web-app was iteratively designed, tested with users, and developed into a self-guided psychological intervention, integrating multiple psychological “wise intervention” strategies. This concrete outcome illustrates how design-led processes can translate and integrate psychological theory into interactive, digital formats.
Overall, the thesis advances a practice-oriented perspective by framing intervention design as a specialised expertise developed through interdisciplinary collaboration and hands-on experience, where theory, technology, and user experience intersect. Human-centred design is positioned as a constitutive element of digital psychological intervention development. By documenting real-world design processes and user experiences, the thesis offers actionable Insights for creating self-guided interventions that are theoretically sound, usable, and meaningful. It argues for a holistic, iterative approach integrating psychological theory with design expertise, and highlights the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration supported by design artefacts as boundary objects.