Table 1.

Characteristics of the Included Studies.

Studies	Participants	Psychiatric Condition	Participatory Design Research (PDR) Method & Method of Analysis	Rationale for inclusion of Participatory Design Research Methods	Main Findings/Results	Key Limitations (Specific for Methods)
Gordon, M, et al. (2016) [15]	Core group of participants (n = 17), which is made up of: -Patients with history of depression in pregnancy (n = 4) -Prenatal providers (n = 2) -Social workers/care managers (n = 2) -Mental health specialists (n = 2) -Clinic administrator (n = 1) -Support staff (n = 3) -Research staff (n = 2) -Programmer (n = 1)	Perinatal Depression	Iterative participatory design strategy: -Meeting occurred monthly in a waiting area of the prenatal centre immediately following the regular workday and lasted 2 h. -Meetings were focused on generating ideas and providing feedback on brief pilot studies. Meetings facilitated by the research team and involved brainstorming, problem-solving, role-playing, and feedback on content. Method of Analysis: -Rapid cycle iterative approach. -At each of the meetings, progress was reviewed, feedback was provided, the pilot software was tested, and it helped to guide the specific recommendations for the next steps. -Live-action videography was used. -Animated guides were produced by means of a commercial software.	Aim to develop e-health tools geared to the particular support needs of low-income, ethnic/racial minority women at risk of perinatal mental disorders (PMD).	3 Applications were developed, the MyGamePlan suicide prevention mobile app for iPhone, a tablet-based screening tool for PMD and a patient decision aid (PtDA) for supporting treatment decisions for depression in pregnancy by women and their clinicians.	Multistakeholder participatory design groups take time to establish.
O’Connor S et al. (2016) [10]	Total number of participants (n = 16); in-depth focus group (n = 10) and interviews (n = 6).   Participants included that of dementia patient-carer dyads, an occupational therapist, a project manager and a software engineer.	Dementia	Qualitative exploratory case study design: -In-depth focus (n = 10) and interview (n = 6) with people involved in the co-design was conducted. Method of analysis: -Data was analyzed thematically using the framework approach.	To explore the barriers experienced by all participants during the co-design of the My House of Memories application, to ensure that the future production of mobile technology is more effective.	The study highlighted the lack of digital literacy knowledge and skills among people with dementia and their carers. Inaccurate perceptions of how people with dementia or carers would use mobile technology. Individuals in the later stages of dementia struggled to take part in the workshops and compromises also had to be made to the design and functionality of the mobile app.	Not mentioned
Ospina-Pinillos, L, et al. (2018) [11]	18 young participants & 10 youth health professionals participated in stage 1. The group included 4 psychologists, 2 occupational therapists, 1 medical student, 1 general practitioner, 1 social worker and 1 Aboriginal youth worker. 9 young people and youth health professionals in Stage 2. The young health professionals included 3 psychologists and 1 occupational therapist. 6 people participated in Stage 3. This also included 1 clinical psychologist, 1 psychology student and 4 young people.	Not specified For the creation of a web-based mental health clinic	Four Participatory Design Workshops heldEach workshop was followed by a knowledge translation session. At the end of the cycle, the alpha prototype was built with one round of one-on-one end user consultation sessions conducted. PD Workshop (Phase 1): Transition of knowledge and idea generated during workshops to produce mock-ups of webpages Phase 2: Rapid prototyping with one-on-one consultations with end users Phase 2: Rapid prototyping and user acceptance testing Methods of Analysis: Not specified	To help develop a Mental Health eClinic to improve timely access to, and better quality, mental health care for young people	Helped in revealing the importance of five key components for the Mental Health eClinic: a welcoming home page with a visible triage system; a comprehensive physical and mental health assessment; a detailed dashboard of results; a booking and a video visit system; and the generation of a personalized well-being plan that includes links to evidence-based, and health professional-recommended, apps and etools.	Nothing specific to PDR
Owens, C. et al. (2010) [16]	Eight mental health service users and one carer. Three liaison psychiatry team members.	Self-Harm	6 participatory workshops First workshop: Full day, designed to introduce people to the project, enable the various stakeholders to understand and feel comfortable with one another. Time was spend exploring the meaning and functions of self-harm and attitudes towards prevention. Acceptability and merits of text messaging were discussed. Methods of Analysis: -Principal task in Workshop 1: Generate a catalogue of potential messages that could be market tested. -Workshop 2: Focus group, with additional participants with histories of self-harm. Purpose: validating and rating the messages generated in Workshop 1 -Workshop 3: Retest of a selection of messages, followed by a free-ranging discussion -Workshop 4,5,6 involved stimulating, evaluating and refining the intervention.	Involving potential recipients at the design stage may be particularly important when the intervention is intended to bring about behavioural, as opposed to biochemical, change. This study reports on the challenge of working with a group of people with relevant lived experience to develop a text-messaging intervention to reduce repetition of self-harm.	Service users rejected both the idea of a generic, one-size fits all approach and that of audience segmentation.   Text messages could be safe and effective only if individualized.	Workshop participants were not involved in every aspect of decision making. Difficulties in keeping the same group of participants due to their fluctuations in the mental state. Researchers need to keep restating the aims of the project and re-establishing consensus at each workshop. The iterative nature of the participatory process meant that plans had to be revised in response to the findings from each session.
Peters, D. et al. (2018) [17]	Male workers, invited to participate via email announcements in 2 male-dominated organizations in Australia.   Total of 60 workers, Mean age 47 years old, 97% of the participants reported the use of a mobile phone	Not specified General Mental Health Well-being of Males in the Workplace	Participatory Design Workshop Activity-based workshop, 2.5 h each, were carried out with groups of participants (minimum of 5 and maximum of 17 participants in each group). Activities included individual reflection, collaborative ideation, and paper prototyping. Data collated included participant-generated artefacts from each of the activities, collection of feature ideas on sticky notes, field notes and audio recording of each workshop. Methods of Analysis: Theoretical thematic analysis	To address the difficulties in engaging men with mental health support by presenting qualitative results of their perceptions, preferences and ideas related to mental health technologies and providing an example of how a research-based app for mental health could be designed.	Workers do have a set of features, languages and style preferences that they feel would be essential in any future mental health app. Perceived stigma against the term “mental health” with terms like “mental fitness” being preferred. Range of specific features including mood tracking, self-assessment and “mood boost” tools were highly valued in addition to characteristics such as brevity, minimal on-screen text and a solutions-orientated approach.	Self-selection bias – those who volunteered for the study are likely to represent those who were more willing to discuss mental health issues.
Whitehouse, S.R. et al. (2013) [18]	A design student from Emily Carr University of Art and Design (ECUAD) undertook the initial co-creative research and subsequent preliminary development of TickiT with youth from the Youth Advisory Committee (12–20 years old, n = 8) Subsequent co-creation sessions were held with adolescents in a high school (n = 16) and a 1st year design class at ECUAD (n = 24).	Not specified Mental health issues in Youth	Total of three 2-h co-creation sessions First group co-creation session – youths brainstormed about the concept of psychosocial screening, to determine strategies that could be followed to align their ideas with those of health professionals. Focus groups were set up to discuss youth perceptions of content and language from the questionnaire. Subsequent sessions youths were provided with paper PDF copies of version of questions reflecting revisions suggested from their previous feedback sessions. These were presented on colour templates with icons for responses. Youths were asked to interact with the interface, provide comments on the copies and discuss their feelings about the User interface. Methods of Analysis: - Not specified	To improve the uptake of psychosocial screening among youths	This study described the early developments of the TickiT eHealth platform that was initially designed to engage the patient, enhance the relationship between patient and provider and improve efficiency. Youths gave an overall positive response regarding the concept of the tool. Some were concerned about privacy. Suggestions regarding specific design constructs. Identified problems with the text, simplified questions. Concerns raised with technical issues.	Lack of support for long-term research collaborations between industry and academic institutions. Industry timelines are inconsistent with academic timelines.
Wiljer, D. et al. (2017) [19]	65 post-secondary students	Not specified. Creation of a mental health platform	Co-creation involved student development teams, hosting a hackathon, conducting focus group and evidence-based workshops and student advisory groups. Key components of the co-design workshop: Student driven development teams; Crowd-sourcing/data workshops; Hackathon; Knowledge transition and engagement strategies. Methods of Analysis: - Not specified	Co-design could strengthen youth buy-in, increased the efficacy, usability and sustainability of the intervention, generate innovative and creative design concepts and foster youth empowerment, skill and capacity building.	This project has demonstrated the benefits and challenges of co-creation in the development of a crowd-sourcing platform for students seeking support for their mental health.	Some challenges in maintaining individual engagement.