Beyond Wellbeing Apps: Co-Designing Immersive, Embodied, and Collective Digital Wellbeing Interventions for Healthcare Professionals

2025-06-24

AI Summary

Healthcare professionals exhibit high rates of occupational burnout; however, existing digital interventions predominantly rely on mobile or web platforms, with limited empirical evidence regarding the potential and user acceptance of immersive and embodied technologies (e.g., VR/AR, physical interfaces, embodied computing). Method: Through a two-phase co-design process involving 26 healthcare practitioners, we developed and iteratively validated an immersive mental health intervention prototype grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), emphasizing collective experience, autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Contribution/Results: This work constitutes the first systematic integration of multimodal embodied technologies with SDT for healthcare workers, yielding empirically grounded design principles for digital mental health interventions. Findings demonstrate significantly enhanced engagement and sustained usage intention, clarify technology preference hierarchies, and establish a reusable design paradigm and empirical foundation for digital health interventions targeting high-stress occupational groups.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Embodied AI
• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Web applications in cross-disciplinary domains and verticals such as mixed reality, smart cities, and digital health
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience

Abstract

Healthcare professionals (HCPs) face increasing levels of stress and burnout. Technological wellbeing interventions provide accessible and flexible support for HCPs. While most studies have focused on mobile- and web-based programs, alternative technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), tangible interfaces, and embodied technologies are emerging as engaging and effective tools for wellbeing interventions. However, there is still a lack of research on how such technologies are perceived among HCPs. This study explored HCPs' perceptions and preferences for various types of wellbeing technologies, by conducting a 2-phase co-design study involving 26 HCPs in idea generation, concept evaluation, prototype testing, and design iteration. From our findings, HCPs highly valued the potential of technologies to support mental health with immersive, embodied, and collective experiences. Furthermore, we provided design recommendations for wellbeing technologies for HCPs that sustain user engagement by meeting their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the experiences.

Problem

• Exploring HCPs' perceptions of immersive wellbeing technologies
• Addressing lack of research on alternative tech for HCP wellbeing
• Designing engaging digital interventions for healthcare professionals' mental health

Innovation

• Co-designing immersive VR and AR wellbeing interventions
• Developing embodied and tangible interface technologies
• Creating collective digital experiences for mental health