Table 1.

Phase I: Listen—User preferences for features and content in a smoking cessation smartphone app.

Theme and subtheme		Representative quote
Encouragement
	Supportive messaging	“So have positive feedback and stuff like that. Just positive feedback, not negative.”
	Receiving awards	“...if you’re like a week without smoking or something, it comes up and tells you [that] you’ve done a week without smoking, good job...”
Personalization
	Comprehensive profile setup	“Yes, I like that it has all the questions...It knows how old you are, it know how much you smoke, it knows what you want to keep track of, what you don’t, it knows how much money you’re spending on cigarettes on a daily basis. I like that.”
	Adding a personal touch	“Like [upload] a photo of your kid if you’re trying to quit for your kid.”
Social support
	Social networking	“I like that idea...I’m not one to have everything on Facebook, but if it was something that I was proud of myself for, which would be quitting smoking, yeah, I’d like everyone to...acknowledge that.”
	Networking with other app users	“...maybe within the app have a network of everyone who is using the app and then that way anyone that you’re reaching out to is going to know exactly what you’re going through...”
	Quit buddy	“I think that’s good to have someone there that knows what’s going on.”
Quit support
	Craving distractions	“I’d say, let’s say you get a craving right? You go into your phone and you whip out the app and you push a button and it gives you like a quick tip...like have a mint, have a sip of water something like that.”
	Immediate, live support	“I think that quick support thing is a good idea because if you’re talking with someone about your craving you’re probably not going to be having a cigarette while doing it.”
	Flexible quit approach	“The more options you can give the person who’s trying to quit, the better, whether they want to quit by themselves or quit today or quit 2 weeks from now or even a year from now. They should have that choice.”
Tracking the behavior
	Identifying triggers	“I would use it to track...my cigarettes when I’m wanting to quit. Because I was looking for an efficient way to do that and I was actually carrying around a little pocket book for a while just so I could see. Because that’s where you have to start. That’s where I had to start anyway. So I definitely would use it in the planning stages to say like okay, I’m smoking now with who, what time and why.”
	Smoking frequency	“I don’t keep track of how many I smoke. I just assume, so if I was to keep track I’d probably be shocked. Yeah, this would be really helpful.”
Tracking quit benefits
	Money saved	“Just because [money is] the most pressing on a day-to-day [basis]...You can see [money] coming out of your bank account on a daily basis...so it’s very easy to keep track of how much you would be saving...it’s an immediate thing.”
	Health benefit	“Yeah, the whole after 10 minutes of not smoking, you’re back to whatever [health], after 10 days of not smoking, back to this. Have a little timeline of what you’re doing so you can actually see the benefits of not smoking.”