Foreword

Suddenly began attracting attention in 2006:

In early 2005 our Persuasive Technology Lab at Standford university blogged about hosting a conference on mobile persuasion. We got almost no response. … Eighteen months later, in July 2006, we made a similar announcement. … In 2006 the response was hot. In fact, it was so hot that we had to postpone the event five months so we could find a larger venue and plan for a crowd. —p1

Overview

Perspective 1. The Future of Persuasion is Mobile

by B. J. Fogg

Heart, Wristwatch, and a Magic Wand:

I see three reasons that mobile phones will rule the persuasion universe. To make these reasons memorable, I propose three metaphors: a heart (we love our mobile phones), a wristwatch (they are with us always), and a magic wand(these devices have many capabilities). —5

Early Movers

Perspective 2. Using Technology to Promote Sexual Health

by Deb Levine

Using mobile phones, which can intervene around the clock, to reach, persuade, and educate teenagers in ways they are comfortable with.

Perspective 3. MyFoodPhone: The Start of a Mobile Health Revolution

by Sebastien Tanguay, Peter Heywood

How it works:

Step 1: Take a snapshot of all the food you eat
Step 2: Send the photos to your food journal
Step 3: Get feedback from your dietitian

Building community of users. It enables the members to:

share their food journals with their MFP buddies to get helpful tips and motivating feedback
share ideas about cooking, vegetarian eating, managing diabetes, how to avoid that candy bar and more
find friends for one-on-one support of buddies with similar interests

Lessons learned:

Lesson 1: Taking and sharing pictures improves behavior.
Lesson 2: Personalized feedback is motivating
Lesson 3: Video interaction has the same high impact as face-to-face meetings
Lesson 4: Making it fun keeps it engaging
Lesson 5: Convenience = Compliance = Success

Perspective 4. Persuasive Games on Mobile Devices

by Ian Bogost

Approaching the topic(Persuasive technology) through the discipline of Rhetoric:

My approach to building and understanding “Persuasive Games” is different from B.J. Fogg’s approach to “Persuasive Technology.” (see Persuasive technology: Using computers to change what we think and do) Instead of approaching the topic through the discipline of psychology, I approach it through the discipline of Rhetoric. —p31

Designing mobile persuasive games:

When designing mobile persuasive games, one could treat mobile devices as just another microcomputer, applying the representational strategies I’ve described above to the smaller form factor of the mobile phone. But such an approach doesn’t take into consideration the social or “mobile” aspects of such devices. …

But if we recall the gap between the procedural representation in a videogame and the source system that the game models, we might fall upon another approach: using mobile devices’ properties of presence and location to amplify difference and incongruity rather than to remove them. This technique recalls the artistic technique of defamiliarization, which compels the viewer to see the ordinary in a new and unfamiliar way. —p32

Perspective 5. Simply Persuasive: Using Mobile Technology to Boost Physical Activity

by Eric Damen

How PAM (Personal Activity Monitor) motivates users:

One attractive feature of the PAM Score is that, unlike calories, it is weight independent. As a result, the PAM Score enables people with very different body types to compare their physical activity, and thus has the potential to be more motivating than counting calories.

Another motivational aspect of PAM is the online coaching site that is a part of the product offering. … At the site, users are directed to their own personal space where they not only can find their physical activity data but can communicate with friends, be part of a group, play games, and share pictures. The unique combination of a measuring device and a coaching website creates the motivation to generate behavioral change. —p41

Motivating and Facilitating Behavioral Change with Technology:

Biofeedback
Automatic data input
Goals
Rewards
Community
Games: Gaming engages people and increases personal performance. Gaming also creates identity and promotes social contribution. (see also Gamification)
Identity: … people want identity. Web portals that incorporate this element into their design strategies strike a fundamental chord of human values.

Perspective 6. Managing Chronic Disease through Mobile Persuasion

by Peter Boland

Managing chronic disease:

Data collection by the patient
Monitoring by the medical team
Feedback based on medical algorithms
Stage-specific health education
Repeated motivational messages

Key Learnings:

Two of the most effective means for influencing patient behavior are to directly involve individuals in making decisions about their care, and to give them continuing feedback and support. —p50

Under Development

Perspective 7. Augmented Reality: Using Mobile Visualization to Persuade

by Sean White

Persuasive Augmentation (a plant identification system example):

Changing perception of and attitudes toward the environment
Designing a new worldview

Perspective 8. Transforming the Mobile Phone into a Personal Performance Coach

by Alex Kass

Behavior modification using a Personal Performace Coach (PPC):

The mobile device collects data about the user’s body and environment
The server analyzes these data streams and determines what coaching is needed
The device provides immediate feedback
The PC provides more detailed feedback

A hypothetical example involving Joe. Joe is often late to meetings, monopolizes the conversation, and interrupts others, making meetings run over. How could a PPC modify Joe’s behavior?

A headset could record when Joe speaks.
Some sort of device could determine which meeting room Joe has entered.
The PPC analyzes Joe’s behavior against the schedule and criteria he entered beforehand: speaking for no more than 25% of a meeting, listening for at least two minutes before interrupting someone, and so on.

Perspective 9. Personal Health Assistant in the Palm of Your Hand

by Paul Hedtke

Perspective 10. Mobile Persuasion for Everyday Behavior Change

by Sunny Consolvo, Eric Paulos, Ian Smith

Two example applications.

UbiFit Garden:

Exercise makes the garden on the phone’s wallpaper more beautiful.
The garden resets each week. If the user met the previous week’s goal, however, a small butterfly flies around.
Being on the wallpaper means the user sees it dozens of times a day.

Environmental Awareness:

A device with built-in GSP, a carbon monoxide sensor, and so on.
Measurements are sent to the phone, which forwards them to a server. Carbon monoxide levels are measured across the entire area in real time, raising environmental awareness among citizens.

Sared design Strategies:

Persuading users to get started - Attractive wallpaper that changes with exercise levels, warnings about polluted areas.
Motivating continued use - Users can see their exercise trends, observe how pollution varies by location and time of day, and compare pollution levels with people in other areas, friends, and family.

Benefiting society as a whole - Users will be more likely to use it if it improves society as a whole as well as their own lives.

Design Insights

Perspective 11. Designing Engaging Mobile Experiences

by Jush Ulm

Perspective 12. The Four Pillars of a Successful Mobile Marketing Vision

by Eric Holmen

Perspective 13. Pervasive Persuasive Play: Rhetorical Game Design for the Ubicomp World

by Steffen Walz

Perspective 14. Mobile Persuasion and the Power of Meaning

by George LeBrun

Perspective 15. Mobile Persuasion Design Principles

by Mirjana Spasojevic, Rachel Hinman, Will Dzierson

Principles:

Focus on the unique characteristics of mobile
Think always with you, not just “on the go”
Build and reinforce common ground and identity
Enable access to what’s essential, not just browsing
Consider what emerging markets can teach us about the foundamentals of mobility

The Bigger Picture

Perspective 16. The Need for Simplicity

by Martin Cooper

Perspective 17. The Jetson Kids Reboot HealthCare

by Susan Ayers Walker, Michael Saarfatti

Perspective 18. Ethical Dangers of Mobile Persuasion

by Jerry Michalski

Perspective 19. Redefining Persuasion for a Mobile World

by Dean Eckles

Perspective 20. Your Perspective on Mobile Persuasion

Appendix

Increasing Persuasion Through Mobility

by B.J. Fogg

Principles of Mobile Persuasion:

Kairos: Mobile devices are ideally suited to leverage the principle of kairos - offering suggestions at opportune moments - to increase the potential to persuade.
Mobile Loyalty: Mobile applications that are perceived to serve the needs and wishes of the owner first, rather than those of an outside party, will have greater persuasive powers.
Mobile Marriage: Mobile applications designed to persuade should support an intensive, positive relationship between the user and the product.
Information Quality: Computing technology that delivers current and relevant information has greater potential to create attitude or behavior change.
Social Facilitation: People are more likely to perform a well-learned target behavior if they know they are being observed via computing technology, or if they can discern via technology that others are performing the behavior along with them.
Social Comparison: People will have greater motivation to perform a target behavior if they are given information, via computing technology, about how their performance compares with the performance of others, especially others who are similar to themselves.
Competition: Computing technology can motivate users to adopt a target attitude or behavior by leveraging human beings’ natural drive to cooperate.