``No One Should Know I Used This App": Challenges and Design Opportunities for Digital Mental Well-Being Support for Young Saudi Women

Paper Title

"No One Should Know I Used This App': Challenges and Design Opportunities for Digital Mental Well-Being Support for Young Saudi Women"

Publication Info

• Topic area: Digital mental health support for young Saudi women in a culturally sensitive context.
• Keywords: mental health apps, Saudi Arabia, young women, cultural sensitivity, digital privacy, stigma, co-design, value-sensitive design, AI chatbots, collectivist culture.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Existing mental health apps in Saudi Arabia fail to align with cultural, religious, and privacy needs, limiting their adoption and effectiveness. Many rely on surface-level translations of Western resources, neglecting the unique sociocultural context of young Saudi women (YSW).
• Significance: Mental health challenges are rising among YSW, but stigma, cultural norms, and structural barriers make traditional support inaccessible. Digital apps offer potential solutions but require culturally sensitive design to be effective.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research has focused on mental health apps in Western contexts, with limited exploration of Arab populations. Existing studies in Saudi Arabia document app availability and user interest but do not address the lived experiences of YSW or their sociocultural barriers to app use.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A mixed-methods study combining interviews and co-design workshops to explore the challenges and design opportunities for mental health apps tailored to YSW.
• Novelty:
  1. First study to examine YSW’s lived experiences with mental health apps in Saudi Arabia.
  2. Identification of sociocultural barriers, including privacy concerns, stigma, and misalignment with cultural and religious values.
  3. Co-design of culturally sensitive app features and design considerations.
  4. Proposal of a holistic framework for privacy, usability, and cultural alignment in mental health apps.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted 20 semi-structured interviews to explore challenges and opportunities in using mental health apps.
  • Ran 11 co-design workshops with 38 participants to identify design preferences and solutions.
  • Used thematic analysis to derive insights and propose design recommendations.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Apps failed to address cultural and religious values, with many relying on Western translations.
  • Privacy concerns, including fear of traceability and family/social stigma, were significant barriers.
  • Participants preferred anonymity, even with professionals, and highlighted the need for features like pseudonyms and encrypted data.
  • AI chatbots were valued for immediate, judgment-free support but faced ethical and reliability concerns.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Proposed culturally sensitive features such as AR masks, pseudonyms, and customizable app interfaces to enhance privacy and usability.
  • Recommendations for integrating spiritual practices (e.g., Ruqyah) and collectivist-oriented content to align with local values.
  • Strategies to reduce stigma through non-diagnostic language and destigmatizing app branding.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Interviews and workshops revealed unmet needs and design gaps in existing apps.
  • Participants evaluated seven popular Arabic mental health apps, identifying specific shortcomings and proposing improvements.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Sample limited to university students, potentially excluding less educated or non-digital-savvy populations.
  • Recruitment through social media may have biased the sample toward individuals more open to discussing mental health.
  • Future research should include diverse age groups, developers, and policymakers to validate and expand findings.

Summary

This study investigates the challenges and design opportunities for mental health apps tailored to young Saudi women (YSW), addressing cultural, religious, and privacy concerns. Through interviews and co-design workshops, the authors identified significant barriers, including stigma, misalignment with cultural values, and inadequate privacy features. They proposed culturally sensitive design recommendations, such as AR masks, pseudonyms, and collectivist-oriented content, to improve app accessibility and acceptability. These findings provide actionable insights for developers and healthcare stakeholders to create more inclusive and effective mental health technologies in Saudi Arabia and similar contexts.