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Persuasive Technology Directed Research Group

Description

The goal of this group is to understand the current research space for Persuasive Technologies and generate new ideas for technologies, which we will design and evaluate. This will be offered over the 2009-2010 school year, and will meet on Wednesdays from 4:00-5:00 P.M. in the CHiLL Lab (Sieg Hall, 314).

Schedule

The Autumn quarter will be more about understanding the current state of the art and research progress so we can identify which areas are left to explore. This will likely happen through reading of relevant research papers, researching commercially available products, and discussing the findings during our weekly meeting time. The outcome of autumn quarter will be a mapping of the existing research and a list of areas as yet to explore. Each week, we will select one research paper to read and discuss as a group.

The Winter and Spring quarters will be about designing and executing a study based on the findings from the Winter quarter. Thus, more details will come on this later.

Autumn 2009

  • Sept. 30th - No meeting
  • Oct. 7th - Julie Kientz - Consolvo et al., 2009 (PDF)
  • Oct. 14th - Sajanee & Julie - Halko & Kientz, 2010 (PDF)
  • Oct. 21st - Dawn & Mandy
  • Oct. 28th - Jenn & Eun Kyoung
  • Nov. 4th - Taylor & Danyel
  • Nov. 11th - (No meeting?) Kimberly & Eun Kyoung
  • Nov. 18th - Kimberly & Eun Kyoung
  • Nov. 25th - No meeting - Thanksgiving
  • Dec. 2nd - Laura & Kimberly
  • Dec. 9th - Julie Kientz - Quarter Wrap up/Looking forward

Official Description:

Persuasive technologies are being increasingly used to encourage users to lead healthier lifestyles. Web-based, mobile technologies, video games, and social networking tools have all been used to encourage people to exercise more, eat healthier, stop smoking, drink more water, or get more sleep.

This research group will bring together people who are interested in designing, developing, and evaluating technologies that encourage users to make better choices that can lead to healthier outcomes. Over the 2009-2010 academic year, we will explore the design space for persuasive technologies for health, identify a particular topic to pursue, and the work to design, develop, and evaluate a persuasive technology. We will also discuss related topics regarding the ethics of persuasive technology and how we can learn from other fields to design more effective technologies.

If you are interested in participating in this group, please send an email to Julie Kientz ( jkientz@u.washington.eduThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) with a short statement of your interests in the group and your skills. Weekly meetings will be held on Wednesdays from 4:00-5:00 P.M. Students with a psychology background and/or design and implementation skills are especially encouraged to participate.

Recommended background reading:
Fogg, B. J. 2002. Persuasive technology: using computers to change what we think and do.