Socio-technical approach to community health: designing and developing a mobile care data application for home-based healthcare, in South Africa

Abstract

Socio-technical interaction deals with the understanding of human behaviour in technology-mediated settings. In this research, home-based healthcare was selected as the case and the focus for the development of the practical application was on the needs of care givers. Service design methods were used to obtain a better understanding of the care givers’ needs where they were active participants in this process. The insights gained from the co-design, co-development and co-implementation approach contributed to the understanding of socio-technical design and development considerations applicable to the development of mobile health care applications for the benefit of South African Home-based Health care workers and the communities they serve.