The intent behind my interview protocol was to: (a) pilot some potential questions I could ask during individual or focus group interviews, and (b) formulate some directions for further inquiry. My interests with this interview were also twofold. First, I wanted to better understand the digital interface and level of engagement that members of LGBTQ+ communities may encounter when using mood or mental health-based mobile applications for purposes of personal health and wellbeing. Secondly, I want to better understand the relationship between digital engagement and research methodology for LGBTQ+ communities.
To date, much of what I’ve read has reviewed general UX design principles or generalized UX design considerations to behavioral based applications (i.e., Stephen Wendel’s Design for Behavior Change). And although most of these texts describe various helpful research methodologies that could be used, rarely did any of them touch on the cultural considerations of interfacing with technologies. One plausible hypothesis is that culture has little to no influence. After all, many cultural groups utilize mobile based technologies. However, does it mean that they approach or interface with those technologies the same way? Alternatively, there may be some unique features or options in a particular application or design that could benefit a user from a particular cultural group if using a mood or mental health app. Culturally responsive healthcare is a focus in many healthcare fields, and so apps could also benefit from being culturally responsive. To prepare, I drafted several questions and prompts to my interview protocol.
The Interview Protocol
- Describe your experiences with mood/mental health tracking apps or web-based tools?
- Describe how you use your apps in a typical day.
- In what ways could these technologies benefit individuals from the LGBTQ community?
- What types of challenges or barriers have you encountered when using mood/mental health trackers?
- Are there specific features or functionalities you would like to see in a mood/mental health tracking apps tailored to LGBTQ individuals?
- What differences have you noticed in how mood/mental health trackers are marketed or designed for LGBTQ individuals compared to the general population?
- In what ways do you think mood/mental health tracking apps could contribute to the overall well-being of LGBTQ individuals?
- How do you envision the future of mood/mental health tracking technology in relation to supporting the mental health of the LGBTQ community?
I want to shift a bit and talk about user experience research, specific with LGBTQ communities.
- Describe your experience with online/digital research?
- What improvements do you think could enhance participant engagement with digital-based research (e.g., online surveys and experiments, apps, video recording)?
The Interview
I had an opportunity to conduct a 30-minute interview Friday afternoon with a volunteer. My volunteer identified as a biracial, queer, gender nonbinary individual in their 20s. I conducted the interview viz zoom, recorded it on the cloud, and had an opportunity to upload the recorded MP4 file into he transcribe feature in Microsoft. It transcribed the entire interview in a matter of minutes. I also had an opportunity to use Otter.AI to transcribe the first 30 minutes of the interview. Both technologies did equally well when transcribing. Below are some segments of the transcribed interview.
Segment 1 (Beginning of Interview)
Franco: Describe your experiences with using a mood, mental health tracking app, or other web-based tool.
Volunteer: I’ve used two. Currently I use an app called Dalio. That’s my current favorite one, but I did use a prior mood app, though, specifically for people with mood concerns. I just didn’t find it very modern, like it was kind of clunky, didn’t have that many options. So, I just went with a very general new tracker. Yeah.
Franco: What in particular about Dalio have you liked?
Volunteer: So you can make your own moods so you don’t have to just do it based off the set ones that they have. You can also lock it so only someone that knows your password or has like you know you can put your fingerprint on it, can open it. You can also put in notes or tags like if I slept in late, I may want to put a note of that, like how many hours did I sleep? Was it good or bad? Sleep. Do I feel productive? Did I feel like my brain was foggy that day? Those types of notes to keep track of?
Franco: I’m wondering how you discovered these two apps?
Volunteer: My psychiatrist said I should look for mood apps and I just scrolled on the Google Play store to see what they had.
Franco: Gotcha. Gotcha. So, it’s just a general recommendation someone had and then you went ahead and you and you looked for it.
Reflection
Having experimented with two apps, there is a preference for Dalio due to its modern interface and customizable features. Volunteer found solace in the ability to craft their own moods, annotate with detailed notes, and fortify the app’s security with biometric authentication. Notably, the volunteer’s journey into the realm of mood tracking apps began with a recommendation from their psychiatrist, underscoring the importance of professional guidance in navigating digital mental health resources.
Segment 2
Franco: What other types of challenges or barriers have you encountered when using any of these? Types of apps.
Volunteer: I feel like the other one [the other app] it was hard to get in contact with the people that and inform them if you have a suggestion or something. There isn’t really a community, so if you go on like forums or something there isn’t that much like going on because sometimes you may want to be like, hey, “I was thinking about like maybe adding some tags or like some extra stuff to your own.” But there aren’t like that many people you could talk to. Like sometimes I’d be on Reddit and I would see like a really fantastic idea, but it was like a year ago or something and you just don’t really get new ideas on how you can play with these types of apps. Yeah.
Franco: So not having the community is akin to not having ways of exchanging ideas it. Can you talk a little bit more about the intention behind the community and what would be an advantage you think of having a community to connect with?
Volunteer: Finding ways of how you want to track your mood. Like maybe you didn’t consider adding like sleep time. Originally, I didn’t have that, but I saw some people. It’s like inspiration posts had OK, if you have this amount of sleep, this is its own category. If you’ve slept over 9 hours, you should put it as a separate category.
Franco: I think I follow. Community where you could better understand how other people are using the app and see whether or not any their particular strategies or approaches would be beneficial to you in return. OK. I never thought about that before.
Reflection
Volunteer reflects on their experience with a previous app, identifying the lack of avenues for user feedback and community interaction. They express frustration at the absence of a platform for sharing suggestions or discovering new ideas. I go deeper into the significance of community, prompting the volunteer to articulate the value of digital community in refining app functionalities.
Segment 3
Franco: So, in the context of LGBT and the queer community, are there specific features or functionalities you would like to then see in these apps?
Volunteer: Maybe something related to like this meter of safety. Like in certain situations you may feel safer than others, but you may not have noticed it like certain emotions related to certain places. Because I do know, Dalio has started to do where certain emotions are connected to certain things, so they may notice, “hey, you’re more sad during these days than others. Or this month you have an overall rating of whatever.” I think data like that would be very interesting to look at for LGBT people.
Franco: You’ve got this data and then the app summarizes it, provide some trends and it reports that trend back to the user. Is that like a functional piece that you think would be helpful?
Volunteer: Yeah, being able to have usable data for yourself, like figure out things that you may not notice, but those types of things you do wonder how much privacy you have because someone has to look at the data or something has to.
Franco: Yeah, yeah. And obviously if you’re using it, it would make sense that the general reporting would be for you to use. You could either report back to a clinician or for you to modify or change things in the way you respond to your mood, in ways you see fit. If I can maybe step back a little bit, would you be willing to share with me what a typical daily use of the app would be ike for you?
Volunteer: Yeah. Oh, let me bring it up. [pulls up their phone and looks at the app] So let’s say it was like a normal day. It was like a ‘meh’ day for me. I would like put down times like I slept late or I slept this minute amount of hours. So on this one day, I said I slept late, slept less than five hours. I had medium sleep. My dreams were all right. I had a low energy level. I was productive, even though I was sleepy and had brain fog, I didn’t journal for that day. But. That’s what it would look like.
Reflection
The volunteer suggests the incorporation of a safety meter, which would assess feelings of safety in various situations, particularly relevant for LGBTQ individuals navigating diverse environments. They express interest in features akin to those in Dalio, which connect emotions to specific contexts and provide users with insightful trends and summaries of their mood data. However, they also raise concerns about privacy and data handling. I acknowledged the importance of user-controlled data reporting. Transitioning to the volunteer’s daily app usage, they illustrate a typical entry, detailing mood, sleep patterns, energy levels, and productivity, offering a glimpse into the practical application of mood tracking tools for personal insight and management.
Overall Reflection
Albeit short, I found that the protocol was helpful in gathering initial information about mood tracking with LGBTQ individuals. The follow-up prompts were especially helpful since I was able to gather some new insights I had not considered before (e.g., community engagement for means of learning how to use an app in creative or innovative ways).
In considering how apps can be culturally responsive to LGBTQ+ persons, it’s crucial to address the unique mood and mental health needs of sexual and gender minority individuals. This includes acknowledging aspects related to minority stress, which encompasses the heightened stressors and challenges faced by these communities due to societal discrimination and stigma. Incorporating features that assess unique minority stressors (e.g., hypervigilance, internalized stigma, gender dysphoria, etc.) as well as diverse coping mechanisms and adjustment strategies specific to sexual and gender minority individuals within a mood tracking app can be beneficial. Additionally, assessing the safety of the environment is paramount, and can also be a design feature in a mood/mental health tracking app. Lastly, ensuring inclusivity by avoiding the use of ambiguous terms like “other” when prompting users to report their identities can be an important feature. By prioritizing these considerations, apps can better serve the diverse needs of marginalized communities while fostering a supportive and understanding environment.