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"Actually I Can Count My Blessings": User-Centered Design of an Application to Promote Gratitude Among Young Adults

Ananya Bhattacharjee, Zichen Gong, Bingcheng Wang, Timothy James Luckcock, Emma Watson, Elena Allica Abellan, Leslie Gutman, Anne Hsu, Joseph Jay Williams

TL;DR

This study investigates how to design gratitude-promoting tools for young adults using a user-centered design (UCD) approach. It comprises a formative study with 20 participants using existing gratitude apps to elicit desired features, followed by a deployment study with 26 participants testing a custom app that uses structured life-area prompts and mood labeling. Findings show that providing structured reflection, time-tuned prompts, and the option for both active and passive engagement enhances engagement and mood benefits, while mood labeling must be customizable to prevent fatigue. The work contributes practical design recommendations for gratitude interventions in digital mental health, highlighting how such tools can promote wellbeing, resilience, and social connection during key life transitions. The results support expanding UCD-informed gratitude interventions to broader populations and contexts, with attention to personalization, privacy, and real-life applicability.

Abstract

Regular practice of gratitude has the potential to enhance psychological wellbeing and foster stronger social connections among young adults. However, there is a lack of research investigating user needs and expectations regarding gratitude-promoting applications. To address this gap, we employed a user-centered design approach to develop a mobile application that facilitates gratitude practice. Our formative study involved 20 participants who utilized an existing application, providing insights into their preferences for organizing expressions of gratitude and the significance of prompts for reflection and mood labeling after working hours. Building on these findings, we conducted a deployment study with 26 participants using our custom-designed application, which confirmed the positive impact of structured options to guide gratitude practice and highlighted the advantages of passive engagement with the application during busy periods. Our study contributes to the field by identifying key design considerations for promoting gratitude among young adults.

"Actually I Can Count My Blessings": User-Centered Design of an Application to Promote Gratitude Among Young Adults

TL;DR

This study investigates how to design gratitude-promoting tools for young adults using a user-centered design (UCD) approach. It comprises a formative study with 20 participants using existing gratitude apps to elicit desired features, followed by a deployment study with 26 participants testing a custom app that uses structured life-area prompts and mood labeling. Findings show that providing structured reflection, time-tuned prompts, and the option for both active and passive engagement enhances engagement and mood benefits, while mood labeling must be customizable to prevent fatigue. The work contributes practical design recommendations for gratitude interventions in digital mental health, highlighting how such tools can promote wellbeing, resilience, and social connection during key life transitions. The results support expanding UCD-informed gratitude interventions to broader populations and contexts, with attention to personalization, privacy, and real-life applicability.

Abstract

Regular practice of gratitude has the potential to enhance psychological wellbeing and foster stronger social connections among young adults. However, there is a lack of research investigating user needs and expectations regarding gratitude-promoting applications. To address this gap, we employed a user-centered design approach to develop a mobile application that facilitates gratitude practice. Our formative study involved 20 participants who utilized an existing application, providing insights into their preferences for organizing expressions of gratitude and the significance of prompts for reflection and mood labeling after working hours. Building on these findings, we conducted a deployment study with 26 participants using our custom-designed application, which confirmed the positive impact of structured options to guide gratitude practice and highlighted the advantages of passive engagement with the application during busy periods. Our study contributes to the field by identifying key design considerations for promoting gratitude among young adults.
Paper Structure (43 sections, 5 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 43 sections, 5 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Positive Impact of Gratitude on Wellbeing
  4. Interventions to Promote Gratitude
  5. User-Centered Design of Digital Mental Health Interventions
  6. Research Overview
  7. Formative Study
  8. Participants
  9. Procedure
  10. Data Analysis
  11. Ethical Considerations
  12. Formative Study Findings
  13. Desired Structure for Gratitude Practice
  14. Role of Timing and Social Contexts
  15. Benefits of Labeling Mood
  16. ...and 28 more sections

Figures (5)

  • Figure 1: A High Level Overview of Our Work
  • Figure 2: User interfaces of (a) Delightful -- Three Good Things and (b) Gratitude 365
  • Figure 3: The interfaces for gratitude journaling in the (a) experiment and the (b) control condition
  • Figure 4: Screenshots of application interface showing (a) Dashboard page, (b) Profile page, (c) About page, and (d) Settings page. User-specific information has been obfuscated using a white rectangle for privacy.
  • Figure 5: Number of participants who logged entries in the application by study day for the experiment ($n=13$) and control ($n=13$) conditions