Hispanic adults may not fully benefit from fitness applications and health technologies because these tools often fail to adequately address their unique needs and preferences, resulting in lower effectiveness. This paper identifies strategies to create more inclusive and culturally resonant digital health solutions for U.S.-based Hispanics guided by the Motivational Technology Model and Kreuter’s strategies for achieving culturally appropriate health programs. Toward this goal, we conducted a series of interviews (N=15) with Hispanic adults living in the United States. Our data indicates the importance of cultural tailoring for digital health applications among our participants, including the need to integrate close friends and family groups to motivate their fitness journey. However, our data also shows hesitancy toward cultural targeting. Participants felt that applications often consider Hispanic users as a monolith. Instead, effective cultural tailoring needs to support customization that can address individual needs and preferences. We also discuss potential design implications of our findings toward creating a more inclusive digital health ecosystem that better serves U.S.-based Hispanic individuals and communities.
Rogel et al. (2026) studied this question.