Designing Effective Digital Storytelling Interventions for Health Promotion: A Digital Story Quality Framework (STORY-Q) and the StoryHelper Platform

Digital storytelling is increasingly used in health communication and promotion contexts (Brooks et al., 2022; Lohr et al., 2022). However, structured guidance for designing digital stories as theory-informed behavior change interventions remains limited. We propose a systematic quality framework for developing digital storytelling interventions for health promotion (STORY-Q). The framework integrates behavior change theory, narrative theory, participatory design principles, and ethical standards into four interrelated domains: (1) tailoring to target populations, (2) theory-based content development, (3) engagement-centered design, and (4) ethical integrity. We further introduce the StoryHelper platform, a structured operational tool that translates these quality domains into a practical intervention development workflow. This framework positions digital storytelling not merely as a creative communication method, but as a structured knowledge transfer intervention for facilitating health behavior change.