Doctoral dissertation provides designers with practical tools to create effective digital health solutions
Designing digital health interventions that help people adopt healthier habits requires more than just creating an app or interface. Farhat-ul-Ain developed a method that guides designers in systematically integrating insights from behavioural science into their design process.
Interaction designers often have limited knowledge of behavioural change theories and practices, which can make it challenging to apply psychological insights when designing digital health interventions.
Therefore, developing a structured method to guide designers in integrating behavioural change theories can be a valuable resource, believes Farhat-ul-Ain, doctoral researcher at the Institute of Digital Technologies, Tallinn University.
Designing digital health interventions that help people adopt healthier habits requires more than just creating an app or interface. Designers need to understand how people think, feel, and behave, and how their environment influences their choices. However, many designers do not have the tools or structured approaches to gather this knowledge or apply it in practice, including guidance on implementing behaviour change techniques in digital behaviour change interventions.
To tackle this challenge, Farhat-ul-Ain’s doctoral research at Tallinn University developed a method that guides designers in systematically integrating insights from behavioural science into their design process and provides practical support for implementing effective behavioural change techniques.
A structured approach for designers
The research identified that popular interaction design methods, such as interviews, focus groups, and user personas, fall short in uncovering behaviour-related needs, barriers, and motivations. Based on this, the doctoral thesis proposed Digital Behaviour Change Interventions (DHBC), an integrated toolset consisting of practical tools: theory-enriched user research guides, behaviour-focused persona templates, and a collection of design patterns for operationalising behaviour change techniques.
From theory to practice
Using case studies and expert evaluations, the DHBC toolset was assessed for its ability to help designers understand users’ behavioural needs and apply these insights throughout the design process. The results showed that structured guidance can support designers, including those without direct access to behavioural experts, in incorporating evidence-based behavioural knowledge as they iteratively develop digital health interventions for behaviour change.
Towards more effective digital health interventions
Farhat-ul-Ain’s work provides practical support for designers, strengthens the collaboration between behavioural science and design, and contributes to designing digital health technologies that are evidence-informed, user-centred, and better suited to supporting behaviour change.
The thesis defence
Farhat-ul-Ain is a doctoral student at the School of Digital Technologies will defend the doctoral thesis "Bringing together Intervention and Interaction design with the Digital Health Behaviour Change Toolkit".
The public defence of the thesis will take place on 4 February 2026 at 12:00 in Tallinn University, hall M648.
The public can also follow the defence and ask the degree candidate questions through Zoom.
The thesis supervisor is Vladimir Tomberg, Associate Professor at Tallinn University.
Opponents are Kenn Konstabel, Associate Professor at the University of Tartu and Marta Kristín Lárusdóttir, Professor at Reykjavik University.
The dissertation is available in the ETERA digital environment of Tallinn University Academic Library.
