20110401 Draft Proposal PhD Research Arjan Haring

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8/7/2019 20110401 Draft Proposal PhD Research Arjan Haring

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Detail: speedometer 2009 Ford Fusion Infotropism display

Example 2: Health promotion

Another field in which interaction designers are primarily focused on changing behavior is the domain of

mobile health devices. Philips developed DirectLife which is a combination of an activity monitor and a

web-based service. DirectLife users can see statistics and results of their physical activities. The system

aims to stimulate people to become and stay physically active.

Another initiative that focuses on stimulating physical activity is the exercise-challenge service

IMoveYou.com which enables users to publicly challenge friends to reach specific health-related goals.

IMoveYou founder and designer Jen McCabe declares that its design is based on principles that come

from the field of behavioral economics.

Philips DirectLife Social media initiative I Move You

Example 3: Commerce

On a simple level, interaction designers are influencing behavior change in commercial settings too. At

Dutch bank ABN AMRO, interaction designers use social pressure to stimulate clients to make an

appointment with mortgage advisors. And the discount airline Ryanair uses the psychological principle

of scarcity as a way of influencing consumers to act.

These last two examples are inspired by the work of professor Robert Cialdini. In the 1970s, Cialdini

researched different compliance practitioners (e.g. Hare Krishna fundraisers and car salesmen), and

identified widely applicable psychological principles for changing behavior .

Existing theoretical models and their shortcomings

Though interaction design is influenced by behavioral sciences, the use of well-founded theories and

frameworks that focus on behavior change is fragmented. The available frameworks, BJ Foggs 8-Step

Design Process for Behavior Change, and the Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) framework by Hari Oinas-

Kukkonen, aim to give designers a framework to develop and evaluate their products by. Though Foggs

design process is highly accessible, it is too brief and generic to inform interaction designers properly.

The PSD model is a more extensive framework but is rooted in software engineering, which is why its

applicability to common interaction design practices is limited.

The field is also hampered by a lack of methodologies for measuring behavioral change

In line with the fragmented use of well-founded theories and frameworks, there are only few studies

available that report about measuring behavioral change induced by interaction design. There a few

studies that evaluate the effect of the designs, especially in a real world setting, more studies would

benefit practitioners that want to demonstrate their added value.

Need for research

Here are the two main research problems that emerge from the field of designing for behavior change:

1. Create an overview of current approaches, methods and techniques of persuasive product- andservice development, and their applicability in the interaction design practice.

2. Develop metrics that can demonstrate the effect of behavior change efforts and conduct studies to

validate these metrics .

Research objective

The objective of this research project is to investigate the effectiveness of different design frameworks

that focus on behavior change in the domain of sustainability, health or commerce. The results of this

research will inform interaction designers in such a way that they can make better-founded decisions for

an approach, method or technique within persuasive product- and service development.

20110401 Draft Proposal PhD Research Arjan Haring

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