Difference between revisions of "Captology"

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= Captology =
 
= Captology =
  
A critical phenomenon impacting organizations that have invested heavily in the development of mobile apps or are contemplating such an investment is app abandonment. Research shows that many people abandon  mobile apps after only a few uses. The NBCC Mobile First Technology initiative (MFTi) is keenly interested in developing design heuristics encourage retention and consistent use of mobile apps, particularly to support desirable behaviours, such as exercise or educational activities.  
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''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'' (a.k.a. persuasive design) is a field of study that is concerned with identifying intentional practices in design that can encourage target actions. Research has shown that certain functions within a system may by their characteristics encourage certain behaviours. Such characteristics may be present in a system inadvertently or by design. Examples of target actions include adherence to a fitness regimen or practices that encourage reductions in home energy usage.  
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''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:
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# The means by which it communicates with and guides the user to carry out the action,
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# The level of motivation the user has to carry out the action, and
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# The degree to which the user has the skills necessary to carry out the action.
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MFTi is developing ways to optimize the persuasiveness of mobile software systems by adapting to these three conditions.
  
MFTi is particularly interested in captology in the context of its efforts in the areas of health and wellness, and home energy usage. Mobile platforms have a number of characteristics that make them uniquely suited to creating persuasive designs. They are highly portable and make possible the development of highly personalized apps through location and context awareness. They also offer various means of notifying users, including several types of messaging (e.g., email, text, and audio) and haptics (e.g., vibration).   
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Mobile platforms are uniquely suited to this: 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'''
 
'''References'''

Revision as of 16:20, 9 April 2017


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Captology

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:

  1. The means by which it communicates with and guides the user to carry out the action,
  2. The level of motivation the user has to carry out the action, and
  3. 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 adapting to these three conditions.

Mobile platforms are uniquely suited to this: 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

Fogg, B. J. (2002). Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do. Morgan Kaufmann

Projects


Research topics

context awareness, haptics, notification

Technologies

GPS, haptic mechanisms, SMS