Choosing a digital tool for your client

What it is

A digital tool is, for example, an app, a website or an online exercise. You use it together with your client, during a conversation. Or your client uses it on their own, between your conversations.

Choosing means finding out which tool fits this client, this question and the agreements in your organisation. Sometimes the outcome is that an app does not fit, and that a paper planner or a phone call at a fixed time works better.

Why it matters

Not everyone can simply use an app or website. In the Netherlands, 3 million people aged 16 and over have difficulty with reading, writing or maths, and almost 1 in 5 people over the age of 12 find computers and the internet difficult. The two are linked: people who find reading and writing difficult are three times as likely to have limited digital skills.

Also, do not assume that someone with fewer digital skills does not want digital help. This often happens, and then the subject does not even come up: your client may miss something that could have helped. So ask, and do not decide for your client in advance.

Your client also needs to know what they are starting. The Inspectie Gezondheidszorg en Jeugd (IGJ), the Dutch inspectorate that supervises healthcare and youth care, expects organisations to inform clients well, so that they can choose for themselves whether to use a digital tool. This includes: what skills and motivation your client needs, what it costs, how it works, what risks or downsides there are, and what other options there are. If you do not work in healthcare or youth care, this is still a useful list for informing your client.

How to do it

1. Start with your client’s question. What does your client want to achieve? Write that goal down in one sentence, ideally in your client’s own words, and only then start looking. “I want to forget fewer appointments” is a goal. “A planning app” is already a choice of tool. Not sure yet what the question is? Then first talk about different parts of your client’s life.

2. Ask what your client wants and can do. How does your client prefer to get information, and how do they want to keep in touch? Does your client have their own phone and enough internet? With the short quickscan from Pharos (a Dutch knowledge centre on health inequalities), you check how digitally skilled someone is. For example, you ask whether someone can install and use apps, and whether they manage to look something up online. You also look out for signs, such as someone saying: “My partner always does that”.

   Talk about what you notice without judging. Feel free to mention that many people find this difficult, because that makes it easier to talk about.

3. Search widely. Ask colleagues which tools they use and what they notice when they use them. Also look in our overview of tools, with our own tools and those of others. With the Tool finder you answer three short questions and see which tools fit. Put two or three options side by side, and include an option without a screen, such as a daily planner with pictures on the fridge.

4. Check the privacy. Read the privacy statement. The AVG (the Dutch name for the GDPR) says that it must state what data the maker collects, why, and whether the maker shares or sells it. Is the statement unclear or impossible to find? Then it is better to choose something else.

   Also look at what access an app asks for, for example to contacts or location. Some apps collect more data than they need, while an app should only collect what it needs to work, and should ask for permission separately for each type of data. The privacy checklist for an app helps you go through the points.

5. Check the accessibility. Make the text bigger and see if everything stays readable and usable. Is it a website? Then try whether you can use it with only the keyboard, and whether you can always see where you are. The Keyboard test takes you through this in ten short steps. Is the text in the app easy to understand? Paste a piece into the Plain language check (in Dutch), and you will see long sentences and difficult words.

   Quick checks like these do not tell you everything, because a website can pass them and still have big barriers. So also check whether the maker has an accessibility statement. In the Dutch system, status A means that research shows the website or app meets all the requirements. Dutch government organisations are required to have such a statement. Since 28 June 2025, because of the European Accessibility Act, this also applies to many businesses that sell something online to consumers: they must explain on their website or in their app how they meet the accessibility rules. Does a maker have no statement? Then ask how they tested the accessibility. You can read more about the requirements in What is WCAG?.

6. Find out what it costs. Does your client have to pay anything, now or later? Look at subscriptions, in-app purchases and free trials after which you start paying automatically. Tell your client in advance what the costs are, because that is also part of good information.

7. Ask for evidence. Ask the maker whether research shows that the tool helps. Is it part of an approach for social work? Then check whether that approach is in the database of Movisie (a Dutch knowledge centre for social issues). There you can see whether an approach is well described, well founded or effective. Does an app promise to help with a diagnosis or treatment? Then it may be a medical device, and separate European rules have applied to those since 2021.

8. Try it yourself first. Use the tool yourself for a few days. Then you know how it works and can explain it well. Also try it the way your client would use it: on a small phone, with larger text, or with little time. Notice what you have to do before you can start, such as creating an account or entering an email address.

9. Decide together with your client. Explain what the tool does, what your client needs to be able to do for it, and what the downsides are. Also mention what can be done without an app. Show the tool, on your own screen or with a screenshot, because it is sometimes hard to imagine how something works.

   If your client is unsure, list the pros and cons together, for example with Weighing it up. Your client decides whether it fits: if it does not fit, for whatever reason, you do not do it. Deciding together often takes more than one conversation.

10. Agree when you will look back. After a few weeks, check together whether the tool helps. Use the goal from step 1: has it come closer? For example, ask your client to show on a scale of 0 to 10 where they are now. If things go differently than expected, for example because a planner is not kept up to date, agree who will do that from now on, and when.

Choices you make

• Simple or extensive. An app with many features can do more, but there is also more to learn and more that can go wrong. If something simple covers the goal, choose that.
• With or without an account. With an account, you can save data and work on more devices. But your client then needs to have and remember an email address and a password, and the maker holds data. Without an account it is easier to start, but the work is sometimes lost when you close the page.
• Your client’s phone or your organisation’s. On your client’s own phone, the tool is close at hand. But if data about your support ends up on it, your organisation needs to have agreements about that. Ask what has been agreed in your organisation.

Points to watch

• Use a tool alongside your contact with your client. Digital help often works better when it is combined with real contact with a care professional.
• Do not put client data in an app without agreements. If the maker of an app works with client data on behalf of your organisation, your organisation must sign a data processing agreement (verwerkersovereenkomst). You can read what that is in The AVG (GDPR) in care and support. Also ask your organisation’s data protection officer (in Dutch: functionaris gegevensbescherming, FG).
• Take extra care with children and young people. Extra rules apply to apps for children. If a child is under 16, for example, a parent or guardian must give permission before an app uses the child’s data on the basis of consent. And an app may not use children’s data for adverts aimed specially at them.
• Leave medical questions to a doctor. Does an app give advice about health or medicines? Let your client discuss that with a GP or the person treating them.
• Look beyond the stars. Reviews in the app store show what other people think of an app. Whether it fits your client, you find out yourself with the steps above.
• Do not choose if you are unsure. A tool you cannot explain yourself is hard to support your client with.

Questions

My client already uses an app. Should I do anything with it? Ask what the app does and what your client gets out of it. Do you also want to use the app in your support, for example by looking together at what is in it? Then go through the steps above, and ask your organisation whether that is allowed.

How do I know whether an app is a medical device? That depends on what the maker made the app for. Software is a medical device if the maker made it for medical use, such as an app to monitor people with heart failure at home. So a sports watch that measures your heart rate does not have to be a medical device, but if the watch can also detect a heart problem, it is. If you are unsure, ask the maker.

What if my client does not want a digital tool? Then don’t use one. Make sure there is a good other route, such as an appointment by phone or meeting in person. Does your client want to get better at using computers and the internet? Then refer them to the library, a Taalhuis (a local place where adults can learn language and digital skills) or volunteers who help with this. Do it with a warm handover: you put your client in touch yourself, instead of only giving them an address.

Find out more

• The privacy checklist for an app: points to tick off before you start.
• Introducing a digital tool in your team: if you want to use a tool with your whole team.
• What is e-health?: everything that counts as digital care.
• What is digital inclusion?: why not everyone can take part digitally.
• Recognising and discussing low literacy: if reading is hard for your client.
• The checklist for a text at language level B1: is the text in an app easy to understand?
• Moodnu is our app for keeping track of how you feel. You can try out the steps on it.