DIGITAL HEALTH INTERVENTIONS FOR PROMOTING SLEEP WELLBEING: A DESIGN APPROACH USING SELF-DETERMINATION THEORY

Abstract

The “Sleep-Well” project explored the problem and solution spaces relevant to design of sleep-wellbeing products, services and systems. It was set as an 8-week concept design project within the scope of a 15-week graduate course. In the first half the course, students were given formal input on design for health and wellbeing and in the second half of the course the project ran in collaboration with an industrial partner specialized in the healthcare domain. Students worked in pairs to generate final concept design proposals, ranging from innovative solutions to problems/opportunities that they identified; new approaches to existing products/systems; or unforeseen problems to solve. The ‘Sleep-Well’ project also had the pedagogical goals of successfully directing students: i) to learn how digital technologies can be best integrated to track and respond to people’s health data and environmental conditions; and ii) to intrinsically motivate users by relating three principal factors from self-determination theory (i.e., autonomy, competence, relatedness) to their design proposals. Student learning was demonstrated through the diversity in outcomes and successful integration of the abovementioned goals, as well as formal student feedback received at the end of the course.