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Abstract

The opportunities technology offers for improving mental health have led to a rapid increase in digital interventions. Although different frameworks for intervention development have been proposed, steps needed for converting theoretical intervention techniques into specific technological features are missing in existing frameworks. In this article, we present the Digital Intervention Development Guide (DID-Guide), which details explicit steps for translating theory into technological features of digital interventions and can be used in combination with other frameworks. The DID-Guide builds on and extends the Behavioral Intervention Technology framework (Mohr et al., 2014) by adding 1) theoretical mechanisms, 2) intervention conceptualization, and 3) choice of delivery technology. We describe the different steps included in the DID-Guide, with a specific focus on smartphone applications (apps) and Virtual Reality (VR) as delivery technologies, and provide case examples from the development process of a recent mental health intervention.