Exploring the Role of Culture-Centric Design Guidelines in the Design of mHealth Application for Senior Informal Caregivers: Lessons Learned in a Field Study

Mobile health (mHealth) applications help reduce the burden of informal caregivers. However, limited mHealth applications are fully adopted by informal caregivers. Research has suggested that cultural tendency may affect the motivations and willingness of informal caregivers to adopt technological tools. Our study aims to explore how we can incorporate Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions and Aaron Marcus’s matrix of culture-centric interface design guidelines into mHealth application design for senior informal caregivers in Taiwan. Through participatory design sessions, we examined senior informal caregivers’ perceptions of our mHealth app user interface (UI) design. Our findings include lessons learned from participatory process with senior informal caregivers, translating Aaron Marcus’s guidelines to mHealth app UI elements and design considerations of mHealth app. We conclude by offering suggestions for future research aiming to incorporate culture-centric design guidelines into mHealth app design for senior informal caregivers from specific cultural background.