Motivating Sustainable Recycling Practices Through Persuasive Technologies

Despite the importance of recycling in the current and pressing context of preserving the environment, it is still not adopted by all of us. Several mobile tools have become available with the aim of sensitizing and motivating the population towards sustainable behaviours, with limitations in information availability and in integration with formal as well as informal sources. Moreover, persuasive characteristics, such as the use of gamification also need improvement towards raising competitiveness (and awareness) in the targeted community. The authors thus propose a mobile responsive gamified application for motivating recycling attitudes centred around an interactive map, supported by the curated data of one of the reference companies of the environmental sector in the region. The app includes collaborative persuasive elements as well as validation processes for crowdsourced content proposed by the community. The results of an evaluation process, with promising results, are described.

Messagerunner: Gamifying Behavioural Change Through Mobile Media

<p>This research proposes a design solution that integrates gamification and behavioural change theories into a mobile fitness application to promote and maintain physical activity for young adults. This research proposes that the usability of mobile apps on behavioural modification can be improved by integrating psychological interventional methods into the product design. The design output, Messagerunner, will provoke critical reflection about the future design of mobile fitness applications. During the design process, I identified and collected related theories to analyse existing precedents, and then extracted design methods and criteria. Various methodologies including literature analysis, contextual inquiry, and iterative prototyping support the design solution. Messagerunner seeks to balance the tedious exercise routine with the enjoyment from gamification. It uses widely accepted theories and methods on behavioural intervention to promote physical activity. This research was started by analysing the benefits and cost of behavioural intervention counselling and mobile persuasive technologies. Mobile applications have the benefits of being low cost and easy to access, compared to counselling. However, the existing applications have limits compared to professional intervention. Design solutions that combine intervention methods with persuasive technologies could lead to a better management for sedentary lifestyles. Messagerunner adopts activity promotion methods drawn from a range of theories. These includes the transtheoretical model (TTM), the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) , and flow theory. The design of the app is inspired by three precedents: Pokémon Go, Habitica, and Run An Empire. To test the method, the design process includes contextual inquiry, prototyping, and user testing. The design outcomes apply to users worldwide and reflect on the design of current commercial fitness apps. The outputs produce a concept and UI design for the final iteration of Messagerunner. This research will provide insightful perspectives for future designs for fitness applications.</p>

Messagerunner: Gamifying Behavioural Change Through Mobile Media

<p>This research proposes a design solution that integrates gamification and behavioural change theories into a mobile fitness application to promote and maintain physical activity for young adults. This research proposes that the usability of mobile apps on behavioural modification can be improved by integrating psychological interventional methods into the product design. The design output, Messagerunner, will provoke critical reflection about the future design of mobile fitness applications. During the design process, I identified and collected related theories to analyse existing precedents, and then extracted design methods and criteria. Various methodologies including literature analysis, contextual inquiry, and iterative prototyping support the design solution. Messagerunner seeks to balance the tedious exercise routine with the enjoyment from gamification. It uses widely accepted theories and methods on behavioural intervention to promote physical activity. This research was started by analysing the benefits and cost of behavioural intervention counselling and mobile persuasive technologies. Mobile applications have the benefits of being low cost and easy to access, compared to counselling. However, the existing applications have limits compared to professional intervention. Design solutions that combine intervention methods with persuasive technologies could lead to a better management for sedentary lifestyles. Messagerunner adopts activity promotion methods drawn from a range of theories. These includes the transtheoretical model (TTM), the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) , and flow theory. The design of the app is inspired by three precedents: Pokémon Go, Habitica, and Run An Empire. To test the method, the design process includes contextual inquiry, prototyping, and user testing. The design outcomes apply to users worldwide and reflect on the design of current commercial fitness apps. The outputs produce a concept and UI design for the final iteration of Messagerunner. This research will provide insightful perspectives for future designs for fitness applications.</p>

Persuasive Technology in Climate Change Interventions: A Systematic Review Protocol (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The climate crisis is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Technological innovations particularly, persuasive technology have been identified as a veritable tool for effecting behaviour change in the climate-change domain. However, there is limited work on the synthesis of the findings of the existing literature on persuasive technology and climate-change interventions. Therefore, we aim to conduct a systematic review based on the PRISMA-P protocol to examine how persuasive technologies have been used hitherto as a motivational tool to address the problem of climate change and foster behaviour change. OBJECTIVE The objectives of this study are to explore, how effective is persuasive technology in fostering behaviour change aimed at reducing climate change, what persuasive strategies are being employed to promote positive behaviours aimed at reducing climate change, what behaviour theories are being employed in developing persuasive technologies aimed at reducing climate change, what are the behavioural outcomes targeted by persuasive technologies aimed at reducing climate change and what are the study methodologies being employed in persuasive technology/climate change research? METHODS Scopus, PubMed (MEDLINE), IEEE Xplore Digital Library, ACM Digital Library, Web of Science, and ProQuest databases were searched between October 30, 2020, and November 20, 2020, using specific keywords related to “persuasive technology” and "climate change." For the articles to be included in the systematic review, they must have been peer-reviewed user studies that evaluated the effectiveness of persuasive technology designs, prototypes, or implementations that promoted positive behaviours to reduce climate change. RESULTS Summarized findings of the eligible studies will be tabulated under specific themes as described in the objectives of the study. The findings will relate to the effectiveness of persuasive technologies, persuasive strategies employed in technical solutions for climate change, a range of applications of behavioural theories for climate change, targeted behavioural outcomes, etc. CONCLUSIONS The systematic review will help uncover empirical findings on behavioural outcomes related to climate-change persuasive interventions such as adoption intention, attitude, compliance with environmental guidelines, and adherence to pro-environmental behaviours.

Persuasive Technology

This chapter begins by illustrating a scenario which provides a wider view of the phenomenon of persuasive technologies in society. A technology that commands such a totalizing influence over the human experience would naturally touch on virtually every ethical issue imaginable. Perhaps the closest analogue in our time would be the internet. The chapter then distinguishes two types of ethical issues: those pertaining to content within the system, and those pertaining to the form of the system. Many of the most pressing ethical questions that have to do with the form, rather than the content, of such a technology relate to the dynamics of influence — persuasion, coercion, manipulation, and the like — and particularly their implications for users' freedom or autonomy.

Der psychotechnologische Komplex – Die Automatisierung mentaler Prozesse als demokratietheoretisches Problem

ZusammenfassungDie Digitalisierung umfasst neben vielen anderen Aspekten auch die Automatisierung psychischer Prozesse. Damit wird allerdings ein wesentlicher Aspekt für ein demokratisches und progressives Politikverständnis unterlaufen. Der Artikel setzt sich mit der Verflechtung von Psyche, Technik und Politik zunächst anhand einer Diskussion des französischen Philosophen Bernard Stiegler (1952–2020) auseinander, der in seinen späteren Arbeiten Medien als Psychotechnologien zu konzipieren begann und dafür plädierte, die seit Foucault in vielen Disziplinen häufig gebrauchte Kategorie der Biomacht um diejenige der „Psychomacht“ zu ergänzen. Der in dieser Diskussion ebenfalls aufblitzende Begriff „Psychopolitik“ wird anschließend mit zwei deutschsprachigen Theoretiker*innen, Alexandra Rau und Byung-Chul Han, konkretisiert. Auf dieser begrifflichen wie zeitdiagnostischen Grundlage wird in der zweiten Hälfte des Artikels das „psychotechnologische Arsenal“ der Gegenwart umrissen: Gemeint sind damit jene digitaltechnologischen Innovationen, die auf die Beeinflussung psychischer Prozesse von Nutzer*innen abzielen, und zu denen man u. a. persuasive technologies, Micro-Targeting, Apps für Wellness und psychische Gesundheit sowie affective computing zählen kann. All diese Entwicklungen erzwingen zum Schluss eine Auseinandersetzung mit der vielfach beobachteten Rückkehr des Behaviorismus unter datenwissenschaftlichem Vorzeichen sowie mit der Frage, wie die Fähigkeit zu politischem Handeln innerhalb dieser Konstellation noch bewahrt werden kann, bevor der im Entstehen begriffene „psychotechnologische Paternalismus“ die psychische Kapazitäten zur freien Deliberation und vor allem auch zur politischen Imagination völlig außer Gefecht setzt.