Using Engineering Methods During Intervention Design to Increase Participant Engagement: A Case Study
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Using parallel prototyping, the authors tested multiple versions of experiences on the Live It online platform with college students to determine which experience format would be most engaging. They found that students preferred having a choice between experiences and used communication and social skills. Parallel prototyping provided early insight into how to design programs with high user engagement. The authors suggest intervention developers could use similar rapid testing methods to improve program scalability.
Using Engineering Methods During Intervention Design to Increase Participant Engagement: A Case Study
- 1. Using Engineering Methods During Intervention Design to Increase Participant Engagement: A Case Study Emily A. Waterman, Meg L. Small, Siri Newman, & Jessica Menold The Pennsylvania State University Conclusions and Future Directions The authors sincerely thank Kerry Small and the Live It staff for their tireless efforts on the current project, as well as support from the Social Science Research Institute and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (T32 DA017629, P50 DA10075, P50 DA039838) for support. The views expressed in this work are ours and do not necessarily reflect the funding agency. For information about Live It, visit www.liveitu.com. For more information, contact Emily Waterman at eaw237@psu.edu. Live It Online Platform Parallel Prototyping • Engineering design aims to optimize the product and service design process via techniques such as parallel prototyping • Parallel prototyping is the rapid creation of multiple versions of a product or service to test with users • Parallel prototyping increases product satisfaction, which is linked to higher consumer adoption and return on investment (Anderson et al., 1994; Häggman et al., 2013; Neeley et al., 2013) • Time between intervention development and dissemination is about ten years (Balas & Boren, 2000), and interventions often lack high participant engagement (Miller & Shinn, 2005) • Intervention developers could use parallel processing to rapidly test intervention components • Live It is an online platform that aims to build college students’ identity and skills while facilitating college adjustment and social connections (Azmitia et al., 2013; Côté, 2005; Waterman et al., 2016) using custom co-curricular experiences • Due to the versatility of the Live It platform, we wanted to determine which co-curricular experience format would be most desirable to the users, college students • Aim: To apply parallel prototyping to the Live It platform as an intervention development method • Using parallel prototyping, we were able to identify students’ reactions to the Live It platform early in the intervention development process. We gained valuable insight, including students’ desire for a choice in their experience and the types of skills they practiced during the experience. • Parallel prototyping may be used by preventionists to design programs with high user engagement, improving the scalability of programs after they are tested with a randomized controlled trial. • Intervention program developers who wish for more rigorous testing of intervention component prototypes might consider the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST; Collins, Murphy, & Strecher, 2007). Process and Results from 5 Classes Class Question Data 1 Do students want a choice of different Live It experiences? • 100% of students agreed: “I felt empowered by having a choice between several Live It experiences.” 2 What skills do students use during Live It experiences? • 87% of students described using communication and other social skills during the Live It experience. 3 Can Live It experiences be implemented with a large class with minimal instruction? • 86% of students completed the Live It experience. 4 Will students complete the Live It experience if it is not required for class? • 53% of students completed the Live It experience when it was not required for the class. 5 Will students share their experiences on the online platform? • 100% of students downloaded pictures or text descriptions of their experience.