Design challenges and guidelines for persuasive technologies that facilitate healthy lifestyles

Many diseases and health risks are the result of unhealthy lifestyles and technology could be used as an intervention. However, designing healthy lifestyle technologies is challenging, as the technology should be able to influence user behavior. In this case study, the design and evaluation process of a persuasive healthy lifestyle assistance technology was investigated. The iterative design and evaluation process included: contextual inquiry, storyboarding, concept generation, paper prototyping, video prototyping, interactive prototyping and user testing. Several design challenges are identified and guidelines are described for designing a technological intervention to encourage healthy lifestyles.