A SET OF CRITICAL HEURISTICS FOR VALUE SENSITIVE DESIGNERS AND USERS OF PERSUASIVE SYSTEMS

This paper proposes a set of critical questions to guide reflections on persuasive systems. The questions are mainly based on value-based practical reasoning as suggested in argumentation research. Value based reasoning is involved in any persuasive design discourse to assess the purposiveness, goodness or rightness of system actions to be designed. In this approach, the critical questions are structured according to practical discourses suggested by Habermas (1993) in order to help focusing on, and guiding, pragmatic, ethical, and moral discourses of persuasive system design and use. This paper contributes to the current research by enriching reflective methods with a set of concrete questions which can in particular be employed for a value sensitive participatory design of persuasive systems. This article is conceptual-theoretical by its nature. It illustrates the applicability of the approach by employing it to analyze a commercial webbased persuasive system

Designing and presenting digital nudges on mobile phones Building an app based on system requirements and usability heuristics

The environment is progressively affected by global warming and pollution, whereas fossil fuel transportation is one of the major causes. This thesis describes a system that aims to support users in choosing environmentally friendly transportation alternatives. The system uses digital nudging to motivate behavioral change in a non-intrusive manner. This project focuses on the presentation of nudging in a mobile environment. Mobile applications reside in a complex environment with many constraints and limitations. The applications also communicate and influence the end users based on architectural and front-end components. Such applications should thus follow strict guidelines to ensure a robust, extendable, and reusable foundation. Furthermore, the applications should utilize various techniques based on psychological effects and user experience principles to stay competitive in the current market. This project presents a selection of psychological requirements designed for nudging. Additionally, the project creates a novel set of usability heuristics designed for nudging. The project implements an Android app based on the requirements and heuristics. The app lays the foundation for future extensions of front-end designs and nudging

Native Mobile Applications For Personal Well-Being: A Persuasive Systems Design Evaluation

Smartphone applications have shown promise in supporting people to adopt healthy lifestyles. Hence, it is critical to understand persuasive design strategies incorporated in native mobile applications that facilitate behavior change. The aim of our study was to identify distinct persuasive software features assimilated in twelve selected applications using Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) model and provide a methodical framework for systems developers and IS researchers to extract and evaluate such features. Further, this study aimed to provide deeper comprehension of persuasive design and strategies by learning from practice. Exhaustive evaluations were performed by four researchers specializing in persuasive information systems simulating users walking through the applications step-by-step performing regular tasks. The results disclose the need for improvement in designing and incorporating persuasive techniques in personal well-being applications. While self-monitoring and personalization were moderately exploited, tailoring, a key persuasive feature, was not identified among the evaluated applications. In addition, evaluated applications lacked features that could augment human-computer dialogue as well as social support. The contribution of this paper is two-fold: while it exposes weakness in persuasive design of native mobile applications for personal well-being, it provides a methodical approach for enhancing general persuasiveness of such applications for instance, through enhanced dialogue support. We propose that designers and IS researchers perform rigorous evaluations of persuasive features incorporated in personal well-being applications

Supporting Diabetes Self-Management with Ubiquitous Computing Technologies: A User-Centered Inquiry

Ubiquitous computing technologies offer opportunities to improve treatments for chronic health conditions. Type 1 diabetes is a compelling use-case for such approaches, given its severity, and need for individuals to make frequent care decisions, informed by complex data. However, current apps, typically based on effortful reflection on collected data, generally show poor adoption, lack vital cognitive and emotional support, and are poorly tailored to users’ actual diabetes decision making processes. This thesis investigates how diabetes apps can be improved from a user-centered perspective. An initial questionnaire-based study investigated how well existing diabetes apps meet user needs. Perceived benefits, limitations, and reasons for low adoption rates were identified. A talk-aloud study of detailed user interactions with diabetes logging apps was conducted to characterize the benefits and limitations of diverse UI elements for T1 diabetes management, and to more precisely identify wider problems with current interaction designs. This led to positing a refined version of Mamykina et al.’s model for diabetes self-management, to account for observed practices, whereby the previously accepted habitual and sensemaking cognitive states are augmented by a posited ‘fluid contextual reasoning’ (FCR) mode, which allows multiple contextual factors to be balanced for dynamic course correction when navigating complex situations, using previously learned knowledge. To investigate user perceptions of the levels and kinds of monitoring anticipated in next generation diabetes decision support systems, a 4-week technology probe, in which participants used multiple networked devices and external data aggregation, was used to frame requirements for user-centered development of such future systems. Integrating all of the above work, an iterative design process was undertaken to create DUETS, a card-based system to facilitate reflection by designers, users, and other stakeholders on diabetes support management systems. The resulting tool and method were then implemented and evaluated through structured sessions with stakeholder focus groups

Useful shortcuts: Using design heuristics for consent and permission in smart home devices

Prior research in smart home privacy highlights significant issues with how users understand, permit, and consent to data use. Some of the underlying issues point to unclear data protection regulations, lack of design principles, and dark patterns. In this paper, we explore heuristics (also called “mental shortcuts” or “rules of thumb”) as a means to address security and privacy design challenges in smart homes. First, we systematically analyze an existing body of data on smart homes to derive a set of heuristics for the design of consent and permission. Second, we apply these heuristics in four participatory co-design workshops (n = 14) and report on their use. Third, we analyze the use of the heuristics through thematic analysis highlighting heuristic application, purpose, and effectiveness in successful and unsuccessful design outcomes. We conclude with a discussion of the wider challenges, opportunities, and future work for improving design practices for consent in smart homes

AN ARGUMENTATION-BASED DESIGN RATIONALE APPLICATION FOR REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

This study presents an argumentation-based design rationale application for supporting communication and reflection in design. The study employs a design science research methodology and contributes to research by investigating the design and evaluation of a software artefact, namely the Rationale Browser. Preliminary evaluation of the software artefact in an experiment indicates its usefulness and usability. We conclude that the artefact can be of particular relevance to both researchers and practitioners, by serving as a reflection and documentation tool in valu-sensitive, ethical or reflective design projects

The ethics of gamification in a marketing context

Gamification is an increasingly common marketing tool. Yet, to date, there has been little examination of its ethical implications. In light of the potential implications of this type of stealth marketing for consumer welfare, this paper discusses the ethical dilemmas raised by the use of gamified approaches to marketing. The paper draws on different schools of ethics to examine gamification as an overall system, as well as its constituent parts. This discussion leads to a rationale and suggestions for how gamification could be regulated and/or controlled by more informal codes of conduct. The paper ends by outlining a practical framework which businesses can use to evaluate the potential ethical implications raised by their own gamified marketing techniques