Web-based resources for peer support - opportunities and challenges.
Social software and Web 2.0 provides new opportunities for participation and collaborative knowledge construction in peer support and self-care to live well despite transient or permanent health problems. Opportunities include many to many interactions to share and accumulate knowledge and experiences from several perspectives. We are conducting a study to create a collaborative environment for peer support and knowledge construction related to a rare condition. The study draws from participatory design and agile approach to development; extensively using design workshops and iterative prototyping. Several workshops led to systematize perspectives of different participant groups, and provided feedback about functionalities illustrated in different mock-ups and prototypes. Here we report experiences, and focus on feedback from participants leading to special considerations in design of the web-based environment.
Moen
Anne
A
Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oslo, N-0318 Oslo, Norway. anne.moen@intermedia.uio.no
Smørdal
Ole
O
Sem
Idunn
I
D004493:Education; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services; D020407:Internet; D010379:Peer Group; D012657:Self-Help Groups