Short answer

When designing digital health tools, prioritize understanding and directly addressing the practical and psychological barriers users face in their daily self-care routines.

Field: User-Centred Design
Source: Programme Grants for Applied Research (2025)
Method: Mixed-methods research, including qualitative studies, systematic reviews, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with nested process and economic evaluations.
Sample: Participants included children and young people aged 13-25 with eczema, and parents/carers of children aged 0-12 with eczema. Specific numbers for the RCTs are not detailed in the abstract but would be available in the full paper.
Evidence: Strong effect

Tailoring digital support to directly address user-reported challenges in treatment application, advice consistency, and safety concerns leads to better self-care outcomes. This user-centred design research insight is drawn from a 2025 study published in Programme Grants for Applied Research. Using Mixed-methods research, including qualitative studies, systematic reviews, and randomized controlled trials (rcts) with nested process and economic evaluations. with Participants included children and young people aged 13-25 with eczema, and parents/carers of children aged 0-12 with eczema. Specific numbers for the RCTs are not detailed in the abstract but would be available in the full paper., researchers explored how this design variable affects real-world outcomes. The key design takeaway: When designing digital health tools, prioritize understanding and directly addressing the practical and psychological barriers users face in their daily self-care routines.

Study

User-Centred DesignNew This WeekStrong effect

Online interventions significantly improve eczema self-management by addressing user-identified barriers.

Tailoring digital support to directly address user-reported challenges in treatment application, advice consistency, and safety concerns leads to better self-care outcomes.

Programme Grants for Applied Research · 2025

Key Findings

01Eczema treatment failure is often linked to practical barriers such as time-consuming application, stinging sensation, safety concerns, and conflicting advice.
02Online behavioral interventions, tailored to user needs, can effectively support eczema self-management.
03The interventions were evaluated for clinical and cost-effectiveness, suggesting a positive impact on eczema severity and quality of life.

Application

Design takeaway

When designing digital health tools, prioritize understanding and directly addressing the practical and psychological barriers users face in their daily self-care routines.

How to apply

Before developing any digital health intervention, conduct thorough qualitative research (e.g., interviews, focus groups) with the target audience to identify their primary challenges and co-design solutions that directly address these issues.

Project actions

01When researching a health condition, focus on the user's daily struggles and how they try to manage it.
02Use qualitative methods like interviews to gather rich insights into user needs before designing a solution.

Method & Evidence

AimTo develop and evaluate online interventions that effectively support self-care for eczema by addressing identified user needs and barriers to treatment adherence.

MethodMixed-methods research, including qualitative studies, systematic reviews, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with nested process and economic evaluations.

ProcedureThe research involved qualitative exploration of self-care needs, systematic reviews of evidence on topical corticosteroid use, development of theory- and evidence-based online interventions, and evaluation of these interventions through two RCTs. A process evaluation was also conducted to understand how the interventions were implemented and received.

SampleParticipants included children and young people aged 13-25 with eczema, and parents/carers of children aged 0-12 with eczema. Specific numbers for the RCTs are not detailed in the abstract but would be available in the full paper.

ContextPrimary care setting, focusing on self-management of eczema.

Variables

IVOnline behavioral interventions (presence/type of intervention).

DVEczema severity (patient-reported), quality of life, patient enablement.

CVParticipant age group (young people vs. parents/carers of children), severity of eczema (excluding very mild/inactive).

Strengths & Limitations

Strengths

+Combines multiple research methodologies for a comprehensive understanding.
+Focuses on user-identified needs and practical barriers.

Limitations

The effectiveness of online interventions may vary based on digital literacy and access to technology within the target population.

Reliability & validity

The use of RCTs enhances the internal validity of the findings regarding intervention effectiveness. Qualitative components contribute to the external validity by grounding the intervention in real-world user needs. Reliability would depend on the standardization of the online interventions and outcome measures.

Think critically

To what extent can online interventions fully replace the nuanced support and personalized advice that healthcare professionals provide, especially for complex or severe conditions?

Design Principles

"User-centered digital health design requires deep empathy and iterative development informed by direct user feedback to overcome adherence challenges."

This research highlights the critical need to move beyond generic health advice and develop digital tools that are deeply informed by the lived experiences and specific pain points of users. By understanding and responding to these barriers, designers can create more effective and engaging interventions that promote adherence and improve health outcomes.

What This Means for Your Design

Making health apps that actually help people manage conditions like eczema means asking them what's hard about it and then building the app to fix those specific problems.

How to use in your project

1.Use the findings to justify the need for user-centered design in your project, explaining how understanding user barriers leads to better solutions.

Add to My Project

Quick Cite

Paragraph starter

This research underscores the importance of a user-centered approach in designing effective health interventions. By identifying and directly addressing the practical barriers users face in self-care, such as the time-consuming nature of treatment application and conflicting advice, online behavioral interventions can significantly improve adherence and health outcomes, as demonstrated by the positive results of the Eczema Care Online programme.

Source

Programme Grants for Applied Research

Supporting self-care for eczema in the community: the Eczema Care Online research programme including two RCTs

journal · 2025

View source

Questions About This Research

What does the research say about online interventions significantly improve eczema self-management by addressing user-identified barriers?: When designing digital health tools, prioritize understanding and directly addressing the practical and psychological barriers users face in their daily self-care routines. Evidence: Programme Grants for Applied Research (2025).
Why does "Online interventions significantly improve eczema self-management by addressing user-identified barriers." matter for design?: This research highlights the critical need to move beyond generic health advice and develop digital tools that are deeply informed by the lived experiences and specific pain points of users. By understanding and responding to these barriers, designers can create more effective and engaging interventions that promote adherence and improve health outcomes.
How can designers apply this research?: When designing digital health tools, prioritize understanding and directly addressing the practical and psychological barriers users face in their daily self-care routines.
What were the main findings?: Eczema treatment failure is often linked to practical barriers such as time-consuming application, stinging sensation, safety concerns, and conflicting advice.. Online behavioral interventions, tailored to user needs, can effectively support eczema self-management.. The interventions were evaluated for clinical and cost-effectiveness, suggesting a positive impact on eczema severity and quality of life.
What research method was used?: Mixed-methods research, including qualitative studies, systematic reviews, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with nested process and economic evaluations. with Participants included children and young people aged 13-25 with eczema, and parents/carers of children aged 0-12 with eczema. Specific numbers for the RCTs are not detailed in the abstract but would be available in the full paper..
How strong is the evidence?: Evidence strength is rated Strong effect, based on a 2025 journal from Programme Grants for Applied Research.
What should I do differently in my next project?: Before developing any digital health intervention, conduct thorough qualitative research (e.g., interviews, focus groups) with the target audience to identify their primary challenges and co-design solutions that directly address these issues.
What are the limitations?: The abstract does not detail specific limitations of the RCTs, such as potential for participant bias due to lack of blinding or generalizability of findings beyond the specific demographics studied.