Table 2 Reconstructed design rationales
Adolescent user need | Adolescent user-derived requirement | Design solution | Alternative solutions and reasons for rejection | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Technical system | Organizational system | |||
The experience should be educational | The intervention must be able to facilitate self-directed learning | Online discussion forum where the system aids in keeping track of new posts in areas of interest, requiring a user registration and user management system | – | Text/video chat, wiki, podcast/vodcasts, and blogs all violated a combination of other needs such as professional and serious, concise presentation and civil discourse |
Personal advice from health professionals | Participation by health professionals who can be accessed | An online system for presenting experts and the ability to ask and get answers from experts | An expert panel representing the key public health areas available for regular questioning | |
Discussions in which experts participate | Active participation by experts in a forum | An online discussion forum. Distinguishable user groups with different levels of authority | An expert panel that is willing to publicly engage in online discussions | A chat setup would satisfy this requirement, however there is less opportunity to satisfy the need of civil discourse and the need to exchange tips and experiences would be severely hampered |
Information about our interests | User driven content | Reasonably accessible and permanent record of online discussions | Editorial content based on online discussion surveillance | |
Easy accessible content | Simple categorical organization and presentation of content | Organization and presentation of content into a minimal set of categories. Content management system for categorization and presentation | - | |
Dismantling of myths and misconceptions | Provide commentary on prevalent myths and misconceptions | Provision of intuitive methods for production of editorial material | Provision of editorial content by health care professionals based on current events and health-related media reports | |
Be able to share tips and experiences | Provide means for users to post content | An online forum with registered user id with suitable categories. A user registration and management system | – | User blogs. The interest in blogging was assessed to be low, and problems of regulating what was off-topic made this undesirable |
Professional and serious | A clean and minimalistic layout free from commercial interests | A content management system without ads. Design of an appropriate layout | Maintenance of layout integrity and content management | Maintenance of active communities without a content management system is prone to errors and mistakes in updates and layouts. A free and simple content management system with extensive community support dramatically reduces the load of maintenance |
Concise presentation | Conform content to blogesque (short and sweet) format | A system to post videos and organize short articles | Utilize blogesque newsfeed and short video interviews | Editorial work on content; however, the work load involved was deemed to be high |
Maintain a civil discourse | Vigilant moderation | Provide means for moderation of discussions | Enough moderators to keep up with online activity | Use of strict rules of conduct to educate users was discussed, but there will always be abuse online |