JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

Diabetes self-management applications can provide functions facilitating the management of the disease. Having better self-management can lead to better glycemic control and even decrease inpatient care costs through preventing complications. Therefore, it is important to have an application that is pleasant to use and has the features needed to support self-management. This Master’s thesis is a qualitative research of the topic “Makings of a Relationship: Perceived Qualities of Type 1 Diabetes Self-management Applications”. This research analyses love- and break-up letters and date-adverts from 33 respondents by using grounded theory as a method. The goal of this thesis is to reveal which elements or qualities of type 1 diabetes self-management applications affect the user experience of these applications. Moreover, this research analyses answers from a questionnaire in the aim of finding what persuasive features have the biggest effect on those experiences. Based on the results, the most important elements or qualities in self-management applications are automatic data transfer, visualization, dose calculation, pleasant outlook, ease of use, and connection with health care personnel. The persuasive features having positive effects on user experience are reminders, tailoring/personalisation, similarity, liking, social role, self-monitoring, and trustworthiness/expertise. In this research, competition, social comparison and recognition were strongly rejected as being possibly harming features in diabetes self-management.