Suicide is a complex phenomenon wherein, in addition to the individual impacted, its effects seep into many lives including those of their caregivers. Caregivers seek help everywhere but face unique challenges including limited access to timely resources and personal mental health struggles. Mobile health apps offer a promising solution, but addressing caregivers’ specific needs remains a concern. We present LifeLink, a persuasive mobile app to support caregivers of individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts. The app was developed in three stages. First, we reviewed 80 existing suicide prevention apps. Second, we designed a low-fidelity prototype of LifeLink using the Persuasive System Design model and refined it through a study conducted with 45 caregivers. Finally, incorporating evidence-based strategies and caregiver feedback, we developed and evaluated LifeLink in another study with 50 caregivers. Results show that LifeLink is user-friendly, engaging, elicits positive user experience and effectively empowers caregivers. LifeLink usage was associated with improved mental wellbeing, increased mental health literacy, and a more supportive environment. Our findings highlight the importance of involving caregivers in the design process. We offer recommendations for designers and researchers developing impactful persuasive technology for suicide prevention and for those working in related areas.

Persuasive games, designed and tailored to change users’ behavior, have enhanced user experience across various domains. However, their role in emotion regulation remains understudied, despite the increasingly immersive environments they create that trigger emotional responses. Sensors have emerged as key artificial intelligence (AI) tools in persuasive games supporting emotion regulation compared to other AI technologies, such as chatbots. Yet the effectiveness, challenges, and applications of these sensors lack comprehensive exploration. Our scoping review analyzed 32 articles published from 2013 to 2023 on persuasive games using AI-based sensing technologies for emotion regulation. Results from 27 articles (84.8%) reporting the effectiveness of sensors revealed mostly large to moderate effects (d ≥ 0.8 ≤ 0.4). Common challenges with integrated sensors (camera systems, facial recognition, smartwatches, and altimetric pressure sensors) included emotion detection accuracy and ethical concerns. We provide design recommendations for developing ethically sound and effective persuasive games for emotion regulation in the future.

In recent years, there has been growing research interest in aligning technological designs with users’ lived experiences. The goal of this work is to review existing work on the current state-of-the-art on incorporating individual and community values and beliefs into various kinds of interactive computerized technologies, emphasizing socio-cultural sensitivity. After screening 235 records, 45 papers were included in this review. Our research reveals that researchers are at the forefront of developing advanced socio-cultural digital tools and interactive educational platforms. They frequently employ techniques like collaborative dialogue facilitation, personalized linguistic support, and the integration of culturally significant design principles, such as cultural narratives and symbols. This commitment to technology’s transformative potential extends beyond education, making its mark in healthcare, social networks, finance, and other domains. We conclude by providing an overview of the questions that other researchers can investigate in the future for designing technologies that are socio-culturally sensitive. Future studies would benefit from a wider use of theories to account for the complexity of human behavior while designing socio-culturally sensitive technologies.

Exergames are becoming increasingly popular and have shown potential for motivating physical activity. Past research suggests that social (multiplayer) exergames offer players an engaging experience and good aerobic exercises. Our systematic review summarizes existing work and identifies gaps, trends, and patterns on social exergame research in the domain of health and wellness. A search was conducted in the ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, and PubMed. After screening 2272 records, we identified 73 studies from 2013 to 2023 that meet the inclusion criteria. Our results reveal that step tracking is the most commonly implemented measure of physical activity in social exergames, and that competition, rewards, and cooperation are the most common features used for designing the games. Our results also show that the effectiveness of social exergames is intricately linked to a combination of factors, including group size, player matching, and game features. The main contribution of this paper is (1) an analysis of features and group dynamics employed for designing social exergames, and (2) how game features affect the games’ outcome (both positive and negative) uncovering challenges and opportunities to advance future research in this area. Our findings in the current review provides insights for the design and implementation of social exergaming helping users to experience more socially satisfying game experiences thereby increasing the motivation for exercise, as well as gaining social benefits.

mHealth apps and tracking technology are becoming popular because they help people adopt a healthier lifestyle and form healthy habits. One way mHealth apps can help users is by presenting visuals to help them better understand their health data. Commendable efforts have been carried out to personalize health-promoting interventions to help users become more aware of their own health, and health practitioners for providing healthcare services. For example, digital self-tracking apps nowadays can be used to monitor physical activity, nutrition and sleep patterns. This systematic review aims to investigate the current trends, challenges, gaps, and opportunities in health visualizations on mobile devices. Peer-reviewed papers in English collected using online databases (ACM Digital Library, PubMed, and Web of Science) from 2012 to 2022 were considered, and 56 studies were selected out of 1,168 studies. Results showed that among 11 different health domains, general health and physical health were the most heavily studied. Relatedly, results also showed that physical fitness data is the most frequently collected data type automatically from sensors/trackers. Furthermore, bar and line charts are the most popular type of visualizations used for presenting a variety of health data, and while most apps present static visualizations, interactive visualizations, as well as a combination of both static and interactive visualizations, are becoming more common. Based on our results, we offer recommendations for future research as designers and researchers continue to improve the presentation of data visualizations in mHealth apps.

For nearly a century, electroencephalography (EEG) research has been a crucial tool in the study of brain activity, and this valuable research technique is becoming increasingly accessible due to recent advancements in technology. In this article, we report on a collaborative effort between cognitive neuroscientists and human–computer interaction (HCI) researchers to design, develop, and evaluate Sans Tracas – a cross-platform web application for running EEG experiments online. Using a multidisciplinary and user-centric iterative design approach, Sans Tracas was designed to be easy to use by researchers and study participants alike. To evaluate the feasibility of Sans Tracas for conducting online EEG experiments for people with varying EEG and Brain Computer Interface (BCI) knowledge, we conducted a study with 55 participants, followed by a semi-structured interview with 11 participants to uncover more qualitative insights into the usability and people’s perception of the platform. Results showed that the average number of trials to connect the Muse with Sans Tracas was 2.55 (SD = 3.42). The average time to complete the entire study was 17 minutes (SD = 4 minutes). Participants also found Sans Tracas fun to participate in EEG experiments independently and reported more interest in EEG and BCI research than before the study. We conclude that Sans Tracas is a usable platform for conducting online EEG studies and offers an alternative to traditional in-lab settings.

There is a rising interest in chatbots dedicated to enhancing sexual health. However, there is limited research on the effectiveness of these chatbots, and the current literature lacks sufficient exploration of gaps and patterns in this field. In this review, we provided an overview of the state-of-the-art research conducted on sexual health chatbots, with the goal of identifying prevalent trends, design patterns, and features. In addition, we investigated existing research gaps, challenges, and shortcomings in the landscape of sexual health chatbots. Further, we proposed potential enhancements and directions for future research and development to create more effective chatbots in this field. A systematic search and screening of the literature from the past decade (2013–2023), extracted from seven databases, yielded a total of 1040 studies, out of which 29 articles were included in the final review following screening. The findings suggest that chatbots are usable and effective tools in sexual health education, persuasion, and assistance that are appreciated for their confidentiality, efficiency, and 24/7 availability. However, their performance is hindered by limitations such as restricted scope of knowledge and challenges in understanding user inputs. Additionally, constraints such as text-only input/output modalities and a predominant reliance on the English language limit their accessibility and acceptability. There is also a crucial need for more research in low-income or lower-middle-income countries, where individuals require increased sexual health education and support.

Suicide is a complex phenomenon because in addition to the individual who is impacted, its effects seep into many lives including caregivers of the individual experiencing suicidal thoughts and those who die by suicide. Often, caregivers seek help everywhere, but face various challenges including long wait times, difficulty accessing resources quickly, personal struggles with mental health, and time sensitivity. Mobile-health interventions are a promising solution for this, as they are easily accessible, available, geographic location independent and affordable. Many mobile apps for suicide prevention exist. However, not much is known about their design and efficacy, and if these apps address the unique mental health needs of caregivers dealing with suicidal individuals. To address these gaps, we designed LifeLink, a persuasive mobile application (app) specifically for supporting caregivers of individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts. Firstly, we reviewed 25 studies to determine risk factors that are most strongly associated with suicide and considerations for developing technological interventions for suicide prevention. Secondly, we reviewed 80 suicide prevention apps from app stores and academic literature to identify gaps and different persuasive strategies’ implementations using the Persuasive System Design (PSD) model. Thirdly, using the findings from the two systematic reviews, we designed a low-fidelity prototype of LifeLink app, implementing various evidence-based persuasive strategies. Next, using a user-centered design approach, 45 caregivers evaluated the user experience of LifeLink. Finally, we conducted a survey and semi-structured interviews to understand caregivers’ needs when supporting an individual, their assessment of perceived persuasiveness of the app and implemented strategies. Our results reveal that all the persuasive strategies were effective and significantly persuasive. LifeLink was found to be easy to use, engaging, useful, easy to navigate, elicited positive user experience, was helpful and impactful for caregivers. We also conducted a thematic analysis of participants’ qualitative feedback to uncover more insights. Findings from our evaluation demonstrate the potential of LifeLink as a valuable tool for caregivers that can increase mental health literacy and foster a supportive environment.

The importance of physical activity (PA) for overall health and well-being cannot be overstated, especially in today’s fast-paced and sedentary society. Engaging in enjoyable activities like dancing can significantly enhance PA levels and positively affect one’s mood. Advances in technology have the potential to increase individuals’ engagement in more physical activities. This work explores the effectiveness of augmented reality-driven persuasive intervention in enhancing users’ physical activity and mood. To achieve our goal, we developed AR Dancee, a mobile-driven intervention combining Augmented Reality, Machine Learning, and persuasive technology to encourage adults to increase their PA through dancing, ultimately improving their mood. A 15-day user study with 104 participants showed that the intervention effectively increased PA levels, with equal effectiveness across genders and a stronger impact on younger adults. The results also show that the intervention improved participants’ mood while reducing anxiety levels, demonstrating its potential for stress management. Overall, the contribution of this work to the HCI fields is threefold: (1) the design and development of an AR-driven persuasive mobile app, (2) providing design recommendations, and (3) pinpointing limitations and providing suggestions for future work.

Persuasive Technologies (PTs) are widely used for managing stress and improving well-being. PTs could contribute to the effort toward equality by making mental healthcare more accessible, even among underserved communities. However, most existing persuasive applications (apps) focus on designing for people in developed countries. Therefore, to address this gap, this paper presents the evaluation of iCare, a mobile health (mHealth) app for managing stress and improving well-being among an underserved population—the working-class Indian women. Specifically, we combined the power of mobile health and PTs to design the iCare app. To evaluate the effectiveness of iCare for stress management, 30 participants were recruited to use the app for two weeks and completed a post-test questionnaire about their experience followed by an optional interview with 22 participants to uncover additional insights. Quantitative questionnaire data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative interview data was analyzed using a thematic analysis. Results showed that the iCare app was perceived as highly motivational, persuasive, and useful. Also, results show that using the iCare app brought significant positive changes by helping participants to better manage their stress and anxiety. We contribute to HCI research and practice by offering guidelines and insights for designing technologies for people from underserved communities.

People often congratulate and celebrate one another on social media, unknowingly disclosing critical information about themselves which may lead to privacy issues. Through quantitative, structural equation modeling, and thematic analytical methods used on our data of 700 Nigerian participants using snowball sampling, comprising 48.4% men (339) and 51.6% women (361), we assessed influences on birthday disclosures, emphasizing social gratification, social media usage, and knowledge of privacy settings. Despite a general understanding of privacy measures, many Nigerians prioritize the immediate rewards of social gratification. Prolonged platform usage tends to reduce birthday disclosure. Gender-based differences were notable: with increased social media use, Nigerian men disclosed birthdays less frequently than women. Identification of the unique considerations that Nigerians make before disclosing their birthday, including emotional and religious factors as well as consideration of the impact of disclosure on reputation, sets this study apart from similar previous studies in the Western context. The findings highlight the necessity of acknowledging regional cultural nuances in digital practices and support the call for region-specific digital literacy initiatives.

• This paper details the design, development, and evaluation of an mHealth application called “SmileApp,” which aims to promote positive emotions as a way to address stress. • A total of 101 participants used the app for 14 days, completed a questionnaire about their experience, and a subset of participants also participated in interviews to provide additional insights. • SmileApp uses artificial intelligence and persuasive technology to promote positive emotions. • Our findings offer valuable insights into how technology can enhance emotional well-being, with important implications for the design and development of future mHealth applications. Digital health technologies, particularly mobile health (mHealth) applications have been shown to address various needs, such as stress management and the promotion of positive health habits. In this research, we designed, developed, and evaluated an mHealth application called “SmileApp” to promote positive emotions as a means of addressing stress. SmileApp utilizes the advantages of artificial intelligence and persuasive technology and was created by incorporating well-established psychological theories and models. To evaluate the effectiveness of SmileApp , we conducted a 14-day within-subject study involving 101 participants in-the-wild. This is followed by an interview with 23 participants. Our results show that SmileApp can promote positive emotions using artificial intelligence and persuasive technology. Our findings underscore the importance of utilizing technology to support emotional wellbeing and lay the groundwork for further research and development in this area. The implications of this study demonstrate a paradigm shift in mHealth app design by introducing a new approach of promoting desired behaviors by encouraging users to read persuasive messages and play mobile games using their smile.

Fun and social affiliation are good predictors of long-term intention to use game-based interventions including those for motivating physical activity, yet current player matching algorithms are poor at facilitating social connectedness. In this paper, we report on the results of a study investigating how different player traits are associated with interest in social features of an exercise game for improving player experience through better player matching using common and complementary characteristics. Twelve conceptual scenarios were illustrated using storyboards and data was collected from 196 respondents who rated their attitudes and preferences towards gamification elements. Correlational results showed that all scenarios, except for cutting corners, were perceived as persuasive, enjoyable, engaging and are likely to increase future exercise intention for players who score high on Philanthropist- and Socialiser-oriented traits. Results also showed that many players favour the altruistic donation feature. Furthermore, qualitative results underscore that it is the player's partner that matters more than the players’ personalities. We conclude with practical recommendations for designing more personalised exercise games that can include more socially engaging game mechanics in the future.

Persuasive gamified systems are effective tools for motivating behaviour change using various persuasive strategies. In line with the reinforcement theory, some persuasive gamified systems employ reward and punishment in their design to achieve the intended behavioural outcome. Research has argued both in favour and against using these strategies in behaviour change applications due to mixed results with respect to their effectiveness. However, there is a lack knowledge about how interventions using these strategies could motivate or demotivate behaviours. Therefore, this paper explores the mechanism through which Reward and Punishment motivate or demotivate behaviours with respect to their strengths and weaknesses. The results of large-scale exploratory studies (N = 1768) uncover important strengths and weaknesses that could facilitate or hinder the effectiveness of Reward and Punishment at motivating behaviour change. These include their ability to engage users and make behaviour fun, reinforce commitments to goals, and reveal some consequences of bad behaviour. We also compared the perceived effectiveness of reward and punishment quantitatively.

Despite the growing number of mHealth apps for tracking and helping users to form and sustain health habits, most apps are not evidence-based and are not evaluated by the users to uncover potential issues and determine effectiveness. To fill this gap, we used a mixed methods approach to evaluate a mood-self-tracking app called Feeling Moodie. Data was collected from 34 participants [age range: 18–55 years old, with 15/34 (44%) being between the ages 26 and 35 years old; sex: 17 males and 17 females] who used the app for 15 days and completed a questionnaire about their experience followed by an interview with 18 participants to uncover more qualitative insights. Results showed a positive range for attractiveness, perspicuity, efficiency, dependability, and stimulation, but not for novelty which suggests that Feeling Moodie can be improved by increasing the level of creativity to further captivate the user’s interest. Furthermore, interviews revealed that while some participants expressed doing mood check-ins felt like a “chore,” others reported that at first, they had to use it intentionally, but after a while, it became a “rhythm,” pulling them to the experience. Based on the insights, we offer practical guidelines for increasing the level of interactivity and gradually guiding the user by using a variety of features to help them to form good habits. The results obtained in this work can inform designers on how to design more personalized apps and increase the possibility that the app will be adopted. The article contributes to a better understanding of the emotional and technological implications for designing and improving the quality of mood-tracking apps.

In this research, using storyboard implementation, we investigate the relationship between social game elements and the Hexad user type model for motivating exercise and play. The goal is to see if and how different gamer types are associated with interest in social features and if they can be used as the basis for player compatibility matching (similar or complementary). Participants (N = 60) rated the level of perceived persuasiveness, enjoyment, social engagement, and intention for future play on 8 social elements for step-based asynchronous exergames. Preliminary results show a significant positive relationship between social game elements and player types. Correlational analyses demonstrated that the gamification elements “Sharing Knowledge”, “Supportive Updates”, “Rotating Leadership” and “Leaderboard” were most strongly related to the “Philanthropist” player type. We conclude with recommendations for designing personalized multiplayer mobile exergames.

Gamification and exergames in particular have been broadly employed in health and fitness as an attempt to promote exercise and more active life styles. Motivated by popularity and availability of wearable activity trackers, we present the design and findings of a study on the motivational effects of using activity tracker-based games to promote daily exercise. Furthermore, we have investigated user behaviors, usage patterns, engagement, and parameters that affect them. An exergame was developed with an accompanying wearable device, for which different variations of application updates were pushed out periodically over a 70-day period. The results of this long-term study show that the usage of wearable activity trackers during exercise, even when gamified for increased entertainment, sees a consistent decline over time. This decline, however, is observed to be reversible with periodic updates to the game. This work, we believe, can make a significant contribution to solving the user retention problem of wearable-based exergames.