Background: E-health solutions are increasingly developed to meet patients’ preferences and promote their participation in their health care. This has led to increased interest in person-centred technology developed by means of participatory approaches. However, few studies explore the participatory design process from the perspective of person-centeredness including how it becomes materialized in the informational technology. This paper explores how applied participatory approaches and the design of four web based supports correspond to key areas of person-centeredness.

Aim and method: The purpose was to create shared knowledge and understanding of each separate case and to generate relevant categories. Data was collected from four Swedish research projects. The analysis followed an inductive approach involving a step-wise cross-case analysis.

Results: A number of question areas describe the dialogue with the participants in the cases. The areas cover individual, social, and practical issues. The results of the dialogue are categorized into four support areas; psychological/emotional, personal, information, technical. By means of common as well as specifically developed technical solutions the support areas becomes visible in the design. Person-centredness will appear in the participatory design (PD) process as the approach promotes the development of a holistic view of the person and the illness and a partnership between patients and carers.

Conclusions: Our results contribute to a central development area within eHealth involving greater opportunities for the patient to actively contribute in real time, getting access to and add information, and sometimes interact directly with carers. However, it is concluded that neither participatory approaches nor technology for online information and communication can guarantee personcenteredness by itself. Instead, it is the design of the PD process and the forming of the actual use of technology together with the particular purpose of the web based support that shape person-centred online support.