Priorities and design principles for a mobile health (mHealth) application to support self-management of post-stroke aphasia: experience gathering and prioritisation within an experience-based co-design approach

PURPOSE: (1) To map experiences of accessing and adhering to community-based aphasia therapy and establish priorities for improvement, based on lived experience. (2) To identify design principles for the experience-based co-design (EBCD) of a mobile health self-management application. MATERIALS AND METHODS: = 10) in interviews and focus groups. Experiences were analysed thematically to identify unmet needs and touchpoints. Priorities were established using the nominal group technique and mapped to technology design principles. RESULTS: Five touchpoints were identified: (1) The great divide; (2) Too many roadblocks; (3) Getting enough therapy that's right for me; (4) A need to see progress; (5) Finding new ways to bridge the therapy gap. Priorities were synthesised into seven themes and mapped to five design principles: (1) connects the person with aphasia with their speech pathologist, significant others, and community; (2) links goals-therapy-outcomes; (3) shows progress visually; (4) supports information finding and sharing; and (5) is customisable and accessible. CONCLUSION: A customisable mHealth solution that facilitates connections and information finding, links goals, therapy, and outcomes, and tracks progress over time, may support aphasia self-management.