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Hanna Schneider, Kilian Moser, Andreas Butz, Florian Alt
Understanding the Mechanics of Persuasive System Design: a Mixed-Method Theory-driven Analysis of Freeletics
In CHI '16: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. San Jose, CA, USA, May 7 - 12, 2016. ACM, New York, NY, USA. (bib)

While we know that persuasive system design matters, we barely understand when persuasive strategies work and why they only work in some cases.We propose an approach to systematically understand and design for motivation by linking persuasive strategies with the fundamental building blocks of motivation, according to the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB): attitude, subjective norm, and perceived control. First, we quantitatively analyzed (N=643) the attitudes, beliefs, and values of mobile fitness coach users with TPB. Capacity (i.e., perceived ability to exercise) had the biggest effect on usersâ motivation. Second, we conducted semi-structured interviews (N=5) to understand how the persuasive strategies of the fitness coach influence usersâ motivation to exercise, finding that tunneling, rehearsal, self-monitoring, and rewards can have positive effects on perceived capacity. Integrating these findings, we conceptually link persuasive strategies proposed by Fogg to TPB. Practitioners and researchers can use our theory-based mixed-method research design to better understand user behavior in persuasive applications.