Foto: Manuel Armayones y Eulàlia Hernández
Imma Alberch
The conference, a pioneering initiative in the field of persuasive technology, was held from 9 to 11 April in Cyprus. Among those attending were Eulàlia Hernández and Manuel Armayones, researchers from the UOCs eHealth Center.
The successful International Conference on Persuasive Technology serves as a meeting place for members of the scientific community working on the design, development and evaluation of digital persuasion technologies. Likewise, it stimulates research on interactive technologies that encourage behavioural and attitude changes through persuasion while avoiding coercive practices.
An app’s design should help promote its use
Manuel Armayones pointed out that many apps fail to reach their user adherence goals: “At the eHealth Center, we receive a number of support requests from our academic colleagues and other professionals from the field who claim that the mobile app they have developed is not garnering the expected results. In many cases, users download an app and proceed to either neglect and uninstall it or fail to follow its recommended guidelines”.
Eulàlia Hernández, in turn, highlighted the importance of devising an effective persuasion strategy while an app is still in its design phase, stating that this will guarantee its efficient and correct use: “That is what persuasive technology is for; it works based on models of behavioural change, or, in other words, psychology”.
Persuasive technology, a key component of successful e-health
At the eHealth Center, we strongly think that research on persuasive technology is an essential factor in our ability to meet our main goals: educating and empowering citizens to be self-sufficient in managing and improving their health with the help of technology.