Designing for persuasion: mobile services for health behavior change

ABSTRACT

There is a pressing need for an effective means of transforming health behaviors. Obesity, anxiety and other behavior-generated health conditions result in billions of dollars of healthcare costs and a great deal of human suffering. Technology innovations are rapidly presenting new delivery mechanisms that can be harnessed to influence health behaviors.

The mobile platform is a uniquely persuasive delivery medium with ever increasing reach. Mobile phones are intimate, responsive, and serve as our constant companions and guides. The ability to reach people whenever and wherever they are provides a capability to persuade and influence behavioral decisions in real time that never existed before.

Effective health interventions must be built on a foundation of persuasive design principles and behavior change theory. Important traditional factors for effective behavior change include setting clear goals, tracking progress, getting reminders and social support, among others.

In this panel, we'll explore the use of mobile technology for reminders, repetition and reinforcement and how contextawareness contributes to effectiveness. We'll discuss goal-setting theory and how the mobile platform contributes to creating and engaging in intentions. We'll look at how location-awareness creates unique opportunities for social support of new behaviors, providing more subtle influences on frequent decisive moments. We'll describe mobile tools for tracking and logging behavior and how they provide awareness and insight. Lastly, we'll discuss the near future and our predictions for this incredible platform to create impact and make positive change in our collective health.

INDEX TERMS

Keywords:
SMS, behavior change, healthcare, mobile persuasion, mobile phones, persuasive technology, text messaging