Table 1.

Smartphone Application Design Features for Middle-aged and Older Adults with Serious Mental Illnesses

Identified Need	Design Feature
In real-world environments older adults commonly present with multimorbidity [29].	Capacity to address multimorbidity
Patients adopt and engage with health technology more if a human is part of an intervention [15].	Access to live and automated self- management support
Age-related memory loss and cognitive deficits results in poor medication adherence [30]. Notifications may help with medication management.	Behavioral tailoring for adherence
As the aging processes impacts recent memory or the formation of new memories [25]. Multimodal delivery of psychoeducation may decrease memory load.	Multimodal capacity
To facilitate adoption, on-demand features can be accessed at any time, in any place.	On-demand features
Adults with serious mental illness commonly experience depressive symptoms or anxiety [31] and difficulty in forming new memories [25] – both of which can inhibit working memory function [32] and motivation [33]. By contrast, game playing motivates engagement, learning, and behavioral change [34].	Gamification techniques (e.g., visually showing their progress)
Adults with serious mental illness commonly have limited health and technology literacy and require specific design features [8].	(1) Simple user interface; (2) functional features that do not divide attention; (3) two-layer branching logic; (4) clear navigation; (5) contrasting screen layout and colors; and (6) 14 point text.