Summary
In this work, the researchers present five behavior change strategies that they claim are currently used in effective health self-management interventions. They also discuss how these strategies can be used in applications that support behavior change in the health/wellness domain.
Opinion
The one thing I find questionable about the strategies that were proposed in this paper is: can the designer set goals for the user? Naturally, one would have thought that prior to the use of any behaviour-change technology, that there is an interaction – a form of negotiation – going on between the user and the designer, with each side able to assert their own priorities and goals. Again the authors of this paper do not make the important distinction on whether the proposed strategies are better served for usability or persuasion.
Perhaps it’s better to aggregate all persuasive technologies as conceptually unique systems which require a generalized framework of design principles. Designers should try to avoid developing strategies that are tailored to specific genre into a specialised area like health; but instead build on the observation that this research deals with central aspects of what design is about. From such a position we may take on the challenge of how to develop design to more consciously deal with issues of persuasion based on proven social and psychological concepts. Not primarily because we want to persuade people, but because we need to understand the persuasive dimension of the dialogue between the designer, the technology and the user, and how this dialogue can be improved or manipulated.
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