Harri Oinas-Kukkonen

Fourth generation hypermedia

World Wide Web authors must cope in a hypermedia environment analogous to second-generation computing languages, building and managing most hypermedia links using simple anchors and single-step navigation. Following this analogy, sophisticated application environments on the World Wide Web will require third- and fourth-generation hypermedia features. Implementing third- and fourth-generation hypermedia involves designing both high-level hypermedia features and the high-level authoring environments system developers build for authors to specify them. We present a set of high-level hypermedia features including typed nodes and links, link attributes, structure-based query, transclusions, warm and hot links, private and public links, hypermedia access permissions, computed personalized links, external link databases, link update mechanisms, overviews, trails, guided tours, backtracking and history-based navigation. We ground our discussion in the hypermedia research literature, and illustrate each feature both from existing implementations and a running scenario. We also give some direction for implementing these on the World Wide Web and in other information systems.

A review of information security issues and respective research contributions

This paper identifies four security issues (access to Information Systems, secure communication, security management, development of secure Information Systems), and examines the extent to which these security issues have been addressed by existing research efforts. Research contributions in relation to these four security issues are analyzed from three viewpoints: a meta-model for information systems, the research approaches used, and the reference disciplines used. Our survey reveals that most information security research has focused on the technical context, and on issues of access to IS and secure communication. The corresponding security issues have been resolved by using mathematical approaches as a research approach. The reference disciplines most commonly reflected have been mathematics, including philosophical logic. Based on this analysis, we suggest new directions for studying information security from an information systems viewpoint, with respect to research methodology and research questions. Empirical studies in relation to the issues of security management and the development of secure IS, based on suitable reference theories (e.g., psychology, sociology, semiotics, and philosophy), are particularly necessary.

A foundation for the study of behavior change support systems

The emerging ambient persuasive technology looks very promising for many areas of personal and ubiquitous computing. Persuasive applications aim at changing human attitudes or behavior through the power of software designs. This theory-creating article suggests the concept of a behavior change support system (BCSS), whether web-based, mobile, ubiquitous, or more traditional information system to be treated as the core of research into persuasion, influence, nudge, and coercion. This article provides a foundation for studying BCSSs, in which the key constructs are the O/C matrix and the PSD model. It will (1) introduce the archetypes of behavior change via BCSSs, (2) describe the design process for building persuasive BCSSs, and (3) exemplify research into BCSSs through the domain of health interventions. Recognizing the themes put forward in this article will help leverage the full potential of computing for producing behavioral changes.

Persuasive system design: state of the art and future directions

This paper provides an overview of the current state of the art in persuasive systems design. All peer-reviewed full papers published at the first three International Conferences on Persuasive Technology were analyzed employing a literature review framework. Results from this analysis are discussed and directions for future research are suggested. Most research papers so far have been experimental. Five out of six of these papers (84.4%) have addressed behavioral change rather than an attitude change. Tailoring, tunneling, reduction and social comparison have been the most studied methods for persuasion. Quite, surprisingly ethical considerations have remained largely unaddressed in these papers. In general, many of the research papers seem to describe the investigated persuasive systems in a relatively vague manner leaving room for some improvement.

Persuasive features in web-based alcohol and smoking interventions: a systematic review of the literature.

Background In the past decade, the use of technologies to persuade, motivate, and activate individuals’ health behavior change has been a quickly expanding field of research. The use of the Web for delivering interventions has been especially relevant. Current research tends to reveal little about the persuasive features and mechanisms embedded in Web-based interventions targeting health behavior change. Objectives The purpose of this systematic review was to extract and analyze persuasive system features in Web-based interventions for substance use by applying the persuasive systems design (PSD) model. In more detail, the main objective was to provide an overview of the persuasive features within current Web-based interventions for substance use. Methods We conducted electronic literature searches in various databases to identify randomized controlled trials of Web-based interventions for substance use published January 1, 2004, through December 31, 2009, in English. We extracted and analyzed persuasive system features of the included Web-based interventions using interpretive categorization. Results The primary task support components were utilized and reported relatively widely in the reviewed studies. Reduction, self-monitoring, simulation, and personalization seem to be the most used features to support accomplishing user’s primary task. This is an encouraging finding since reduction and self-monitoring can be considered key elements for supporting users to carry out their primary tasks. The utilization of tailoring was at a surprisingly low level. The lack of tailoring may imply that the interventions are targeted for too broad an audience. Leveraging reminders was the most common way to enhance the user-system dialogue. Credibility issues are crucial in website engagement as users will bind with sites they perceive credible and navigate away from those they do not find credible. Based on the textual descriptions of the interventions, we cautiously suggest that most of them were credible. The prevalence of social support in the reviewed interventions was encouraging. Conclusions Understanding the persuasive elements of systems supporting behavior change is important. This may help users to engage and keep motivated in their endeavors. Further research is needed to increase our understanding of how and under what conditions specific persuasive features (either in isolation or collectively) lead to positive health outcomes in Web-based health behavior change interventions across diverse health contexts and populations.

Behavior change support systems: a research model and agenda

This article introduces the concept of a behavior change support system and suggests it as a key construct for research on persuasive systems design, technologies, and applications. Key concepts for behavior change support systems are defined and a research agenda for them is outlined. The article suggests that a change in complying, a behavior change, and an attitude change (C-, B- or A-Change) constitute the archetypes of a behavioral change. Change in itself is either of a forming, altering or reinforcing outcome (F-, A- or R-Outcome). This research model will become helpful in researching and designing persuasive technology.

Influencing Individually: Fusing Personalization and Persuasion

Personalized technologies aim to enhance user experience by taking into account users’ interests, preferences, and other relevant information. Persuasive technologies aim to modify user attitudes, intentions, or behavior through computer-human dialogue and social influence. While both personalized and persuasive technologies influence user interaction and behavior, we posit that this influence could be significantly increased if the two technologies were combined to create personalized and persuasive systems. For example, the persuasive power of a one-size-fits-all persuasive intervention could be enhanced by considering the users being influenced and their susceptibility to the persuasion being offered. Likewise, personalized technologies could cash in on increased success, in terms of user satisfaction, revenue, and user experience, if their services used persuasive techniques. Hence, the coupling of personalization and persuasion has the potential to enhance the impact of both technologies. This new, developing area clearly offers mutual benefits to both research areas, as we illustrate in this special issue.

Social interaction and reflection for behaviour change

This article introduces the theme issue on social interaction and reflection for behaviour change. A large body of research exists on systems designed to help users in changing their behaviours, for instance, to exercise more regularly or to reduce energy consumption. Increasingly, these systems focus on multiple users, often to encourage open-ended reflection rather than prescribing a particular course of action. As background for this theme issue, this article presents a literature review on behaviour change support systems that focus on social interaction and reflection. The review highlights five key approaches amongst these systems: social traces, social support, collective use, reflection-in-action, and reflection-on-action. Each approach offers unique benefits, but also challenges for the design of behaviour change support systems. We highlight how the articles in this theme issue contribute to our current understanding of these five approaches, and beyond that, set out some broad directions for future work.

Persuasive features in six weight loss websites: a qualitative evaluation

Websites for weight loss have been demonstrating promising results. Still, it is unclear which website components contribute to successful outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to explore the utilization of various persuasive features on six weight loss websites. The websites were selected by using a set of criteria for this qualitative evaluation. The Persuasive Systems Design Model was applied to extract and analyze persuasive system features found in the sites. The results of this study suggest that there is room for improvement in both designing and implementing web-based interventions for weight loss. The evaluated sites provided relatively good primary task support and strong social support. However, there were weaknesses in both dialogue and credibility support. Overall, the evaluation showed that the evaluated weight loss websites may not be very persuasive.

Balancing the vendor and consumer requirements for electronic shopping systems

This paper examines how to balance the tension between the differing requirements of consumers and vendors in electronic commerce systems. It describes a conceptual information technology framework for enhancing Web-based shopping systems, and suggests a research vehicle for studying the effects of such enhancements. Enhanced navigation capabilities are viewed as an intermediary dimension between distinguishing products and comparing products. Web flow is selected as the central construct to study their effect, and different antecedents and consequences of flow are defined.