Building Persuasiveness into Information Systems

Abstract

Abstract: Often the purpose of personal health and well‑being systems is to change users behaviour. Many theoretical frameworks have been developed to support the design and evaluation of these persuasive systems for behaviour change, but their design remains challenging. No systematic way yet exists by which to put the information into practice and build in persuasiveness effectively. The aim of this study is to investigate how the Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) model can be utilised so as to support the development of personal health and well‑being systems. To do this, the study discusses and analyses related research and also integrates the PSD model into the development of two health‑related behaviour change support systems. In Case 1, the purpose of using the PSD model was to identify new persuasive functionality within a fall risk assessment and fall prevention system. In Case 2, the purpose of using the PSD model was to identify new persuasive functionality and new service concepts within an existing smartphone application for mental wellbeing. The study shows that the PSD model has been used in the development of BCSSs to describe the overall process, analyse the persuasion context and design system qualities. It has also been applied in the evaluation of the existing systems by providing heuristics for expert evaluations and systematic ways to analyse user experience data. The study also reveals that the PSD model can be successfully applied during the user requirements analysis and concept design phases to identify new potential persuasive functionalities. In both Case 1 and 2, this resulted in having more variety in persuasive functionalities compared to those in the initial user requirements or existing application. The PSD model provides support for designing and evaluating BCSSs, but some future directions of development of the model can be recognised.