Building the persuasiveness into information systems

Often the purpose of personal health and wellbeing systems is to change users' behaviour. Many theoretical frameworks have been developed to support the design and evaluation of these persuasive systems for behaviour change, but their design remains challenging. No systematic way yet exists by which to put the information into practice and build in persuasiveness effectively. The aim of this study is to investigate how the Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) model can be utilised to support an identification of persuasive aspects in the early stages of iterative, user?centred, information systems development. To do this, the study integrates the PSD model into the development of two health?related behaviour change support systems. In Case 1, the purpose of using the PSD model was to identify new persuasive functionality within a fall risk assessment and fall prevention system. In Case 2, the purpose of using the PSD model was to identify new persuasive functionality and new service concepts within an existing smartphone application for mental wellbeing. The study reveals that the PSD model can be successfully applied during the user requirements analysis and concept design phases to identify new potential persuasive functionalities. In both Case 1 and 2, this resulted in having more variety in persuasive functionalities compared to those in the initial user requirements or existing application. It should be pointed out however that the high number of persuasive functionalities does not necessarily guarantee an effective system nor the users' adherence to the intervention delivered through the system.