Table 3.
Participants’ recommended design features and corresponding basic psychological needs.
| Broad design category | Recommended design feature | Supported basic psychological needs |
| User interface and experience | Customizable user interface (language, colors, layout, font size, etc) to accommodate user preferences and needs | Autonomy and competence |
| User interface and experience | Tailored user experience | Relatedness |
| User interface and experience | Meets international accessibility standards (eg, web content accessibility guidelines) | Competence and relatedness |
| User interface and experience | Customizable information input and output (eg, being able to submit free text that more accurately describes you and being able to organize how your data are displayed) for ease of tracking and understanding | Autonomy, competence, and relatedness |
| User interface and experience | Clear layout, icons, and imagery | Competence |
| Content and functionality | Ability to provide user feedback that will be actioned on (eg, feedback or evaluation section) | Autonomy and relatedness |
| Content and functionality | Instructional prompts giving guidance on what to expect and how the technology will help the user and reminder prompts to promote reengagement | Competence |
| Content and functionality | Provision of optional additional information not core to the experience; however, the user can consult to learn more (eg, psychoeducation or a frequently asked questions section) | Autonomy and competence |
| Content and functionality | Gradual onboarding and the provision of information in meaningful chunks to support learning and understanding (eg, showing the most important health domains first on a health dashboard) | Competence |
| Content and functionality | Consider element of fun (eg, gamification) | Relatedness |
| Content and functionality | Promote social connection with peers and communicate to users that they are not alone (eg, through peer support groups and testimonials) | Relatedness |
| Language and tone | Adopt a strengths-based approach and celebrate nonclinical aspects of personhood such as likes, aspirations, strengths, and achievements | Relatedness |
| Language and tone | Cultural competence | Relatedness |
| Language and tone | Clear, casual, unambiguous, and consistent language that avoids clinical jargon and loaded terms | Competence and relatedness |
| Interoperability | Ease of integration with other apps and technologies (eg, health apps or convenient authentication methods) | Competence |
| Interoperability | Mobile integration as young people do not use email or computers frequently | Autonomy and competence |
| Security and privacy | Industrial-grade data security | Autonomy |
| Security and privacy | Fine-grained (individual level) data sharing functionality | Autonomy |