Captology
The New Brunswick Community College – Centre for Applied Research in Mobile & Ubiquitous Computing
App abandonment is a critical phenomenon impacting organizations that have invested heavily in the development of mobile apps or are contemplating such an investment. Research shows that a high proportion of mobile apps are abandoned after only a few uses. The NBCC Mobile First Technology initiative (MFTi) is keenly interested in developing design principles that encourage the retention and consistent use of mobile apps, particularly those apps that are intended to support desirable and life-critical behaviours, such as health and fitness regimens and educational activities.
Captology– also known as persuasive design – is a field of study that is concerned with identifying intentional practices in design that can encourage desirable target actions. The degree to which an information system can persuade users to carry out desired target actions depends on the following three conditions:
- The means by which the system communicates with and guides the user to carry out a target action,
- The level of motivation the user has to carry out the action, and
- The degree to which the user has the skills necessary to carry out the action.
MFTi is developing ways to optimize the persuasiveness of mobile software systems by enabling them to adapt to these three conditions in real-time. Mobile platforms are uniquely suited to adapting in this way: they are highly portable, the behaviour of mobile apps can be personalized to a high degree through awareness of the user's location and other usage contexts; and mobile platforms provide several ways of communicating with their users, including email, text, audio, images, video, and haptic stimulation.
References
B. J. Fogg, Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do, Morgan Kaufmann, 2002.
Projects
- NBCC Wellbeing app
- Residential Energy Efficiency Mobile App
- Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Improving Public Education, Awareness, and Behaviour Change
Research topics
context awareness, haptics, notification
Technologies
GPS, haptic mechanisms, SMS
Contact
William McIver Jr., Ph.D.
NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Mobile & Ubiquitous Computing
Centre for Applied Research in Mobile & Ubiquitous Computing
New Brunswick Community College
Centre for Applied Research in Mobile & Ubiquitous Computing URL: http://wiki.nbcc.mobi
E-mail: bill.mciver@nbcc.ca
Twitter: @mciverNBCC
Blog: http://mciver.mobi/
New Brunswick Community College URL: http://nbcc.ca
Media inquiries
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The New Brunswick Community College – Centre for Applied Research in Mobile & Ubiquitous Computing is supported by
the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. 
