Human-Centered Design Methods and Frameworks for Mental Health
Applying human-centered design to improve the reach and impact of evidence-based care.
Evidence-based psychosocial interventions are developed to perform well in controlled research settings — but the design processes and evaluation criteria used in those settings often produce interventions that are difficult to deliver, adapt, or sustain in the community settings where most people seek mental health care. HCI and implementation science have historically operated in separate silos with different vocabularies, goals, and success criteria, limiting how effectively designers, clinicians, and implementation scientists can collaborate. This body of work develops and validates methods and frameworks that bridge these communities, applicable across digital and non-digital interventions and across a wide range of mental health conditions, populations, and delivery contexts.
I have conducted much of this research through the UW ALACRITY Center with funding from the US National Institute of Mental Health. This resaerch has also informed much of my work on digital mental health.
We synthesize much of this work in a 2025 annnual review article:
Human-Centered Design to Enhance Implementation and Impact in Health AR Lyon, T Aung, KE Bruzios, SA Munson Annual Review of Public Health · Publisher · BibTeX
and I shared my work on frameworks in a 2023 talk at Northwestern's Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies:
Contributions
Bridging HCI and Implementation Science
A prerequisite for effective interdisciplinary collaboration is a shared vocabulary. We developed a glossary of user-centered design strategies translated for an implementation science audience, and a concept mapping study identifying where HCD strategies map onto implementation science frameworks.
A glossary of user-centered design strategies for implementation experts A Dopp, KE Parisi, SA Munson, AR Lyon Translational Behavioral Medicine · Publisher · BibTeX
Aligning implementation and user-centered design strategies to enhance the impact of health services: results from a concept mapping study AR Dopp, KE Parisi, SA Munson, AR Lyon Implementation Science Communications · Publisher · PubMed · BibTeX
Building on this foundation, the UW ALACRITY Center developed the Discover-Design/Build-Test framework for integrating human-centered design and implementaton science.
Use of Human-Centered Design to Improve Implementation of Evidence-Based Psychotherapies in Low-Resource Communities: Protocol for Studies Applying a Framework to Assess Usability AR Lyon, SA Munson, BN Renn, DC Atkins, MD Pullmann, E Friedman, PA Areán JMIR Research Protocols · Publisher · BibTeX
Harnessing Human-Centered Design for Evidence-Based Psychosocial Interventions and Implementation Strategies in Community Settings: Protocol for Redesign to Improve Usability, Engagement, and Appropriateness AR Lyon, SA Munson, MD Pullmann, B Mosser, T Aung, J Fortney, A Dopp, KP Osterhage, HG Haile, KE Bruzios, BB Blanchard, R Allred, MR Fuller, PJ Raue, I Bennett, J Locke, K Bearss, D Walker, E Connors, E Bruns, JV Draanen, D Darnell, PA Areán JMIR Research Protocols · Publisher · BibTeX
To faciliate collaboration between mental health and computing fields, Petr Slovak and I proposed a modular framework organizing HCI contributions across four stages of complex intervention development: understanding the problem space, designing the intervention, evaluating it, and supporting implementation.
HCI Contributions in Mental Health: A Modular Framework to Guide Psychosocial Intervention Design P Slovak, SA Munson CHI 2024 · Best Paper Honorable Mention · PDF · Publisher · PubMed · Video (14:42) · BibTeX
Together, these resources give interdisciplinary teams a common language and a clearer picture of where and how HCI methods can contribute at each stage of the intervention development pipeline.
Structured Methods for Evaluating Intervention Usability
Identifying usability problems in evidence-based interventions requires methods that implementation scientists and designers can use together, without requiring deep expertise in either field. The Cognitive Walkthrough for Implementation Strategies (CWIS) adapts a structured usability inspection method from HCI for evaluating implementation strategies — the "how" of getting interventions into practice. The Intervention Usability Scale is an adaptation of the System Usability Scale to assess intervention usability.
The Cognitive Walkthrough for Implementation Strategies (CWIS): a pragmatic method for assessing implementation strategy usability AR Lyon, J Coifman, H Cook, E McRee, FF Liu, K Ludwig, S Dorsey, K Koerner, SA Munson, E McCauley Implementation Science Communications · Publisher · BibTeX
Assessing the usability of complex psychosocial interventions: The Intervention Usability Scale AR Lyon, MD Pullmann, J Jacobson, K Osterhage, MA Achkar, BN Renn, SA Munson, PA Areán Implementation Research and Practice · Publisher · BibTeX
A cross-project analysis synthesized usability findings across multiple ALACRITY Center projects, identifying recurring patterns — including problems with workflow fit, language and literacy demands, and flexibility for adaptation — that cut across intervention types and populations and can inform design priorities going forward.
Usability Issues in Evidence-Based Psychosocial Interventions and Implementation Strategies: Cross-project Analysis SA Munson, EC Friedman, K Osterhage, R Allred, MD Pullmann, PA Areán, AR Lyon Journal of Medical Internet Research · Publisher · PubMed · BibTeX
Applications
Designing Asynchronous Remote Support for Behavioral Activation in Teenagers
We applied the DDBT framework to adapt behavioral activation — an evidence-based intervention for depression — for delivery through an asynchronous remote community (ARC) platform aimed at teenagers. Working iteratively with teens experiencing depression and mental health clinicians through the Discover, Design/Build, and Test phases, we developed ActivaTeen, a Slack-based app combining mood-activity logging and visualization, interactive chatbot modules for goal-setting and barrier identification, and scaffolded peer and clinician support. The work demonstrated that the ARC format was feasible and acceptable to both teens and clinicians, and surfaced important design lessons — including the need to preserve human connection with clinicians rather than replacing it, the value of peer community for reducing stigma and sustaining engagement, and the importance of flexible logging that accommodates teens' varied routines and preferences.
Lessons learned from designing an asynchronous remote community approach for behavioral activation intervention for teens JL Jenness, Arpita, JA Kientz, SA Munson, R Nagar Behaviour Research and Therapy · Publisher · BibTeX
Designing Asynchronous Remote Support for Behavioral Activation in Teenagers With Depression: Formative Study Arpita, R Nagar, J Jenness, SA Munson, JA Kientz JMIR Formative Research · Publisher · BibTeX
Adapting Mental Health Supervision Tools with Community Health Workers in Kenya
In one example, led by Noah Triplett, we applied human-centered design principles to adapt implementation guidelines for mobile phone supervision with community health workers in Kenya. Introducing and co-developed implementation guidelines improved the acceptability and usability of mobile phone supervision.
Applying Human-centered Design to Maximize Acceptability, Feasibility, and Usability of Mobile Technology Supervision in Kenya: A Mixed Methods Pilot Study Protocol NS Triplett, SA Munson, A Mbwayo, T Mutavi, BJ Weiner, P Collins, C Amanya, S Dorsey Implementation Science Communications · Publisher · BibTeX
Understanding Lay Counselor Perspectives on Mobile Phone Supervision in Kenya: Qualitative Study NS Triplett, C Johnson, S Kiche, K Dastrup, J Nguyen, A Daniels, A Mbwayo, C Amanya, SA Munson, PY Collins, BJ Weiner, S Dorsey JMIR Formative Research · Publisher · BibTeX
Co-developed implementation guidelines to maximize acceptability, feasibility, and usability of mobile phone supervision in Kenya NS Triplett, A Mbwayo, S Kiche, L Liu, J Silva, R AlRasheed, C Johnson, C Amanya, SA Munson, BJ Weiner, PY Collins, S Dorsey Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health · Publisher · BibTeX