Lessons from Practice: Designing Tools to Facilitate Individualized Support for Quitting Smoking.

Many health care providers, with a variety of trainings, counsel clients on quitting smoking on a day-to-day basis. In their clinical practice, they draw from and adapt guidelines and research-based strategies to fit individual client situations and challenges. Designers of technologies to support quitting smoking can learn from these real world practices to create tools that better adapt to individual differences. We present findings from interviews with 28 providers with diverse experiences in smoking cessation counselling. Through analysis of their individualization strategies, challenges, and perceptions of technology, we find that providers: (1) individualize context appropriate coping strategies by involving clients in brainstorming, (2) emphasize the need to support nicotine withdrawal in clients, (3) mitigate social triggers and mediate social support for clients, and (4) need to navigate dependencies with other providers for managing medications and comorbid health conditions of clients. With this empirical understanding, we extend the discussion on the design of technology to support quitting smoking, highlight current barriers to individualization, and suggest future opportunities to address these barriers.