Persuasive Technologies Driving Adoption of Fitness and Wellness Applications

Abstract

In contemporary society, obesity and sedentary behaviour are quickly becoming health concerns. The subject of persuasive and behaviour change technology is constantly evolving, and it increasingly aims to affect people's attitudes and behaviours in the area of health and wellness. The field of health and wellness is seeing an increase in the use of persuasive technology (PT) to encourage and support users with various lifestyles and behavioural health issues to alter their attitudes and/or behaviours. In several areas of health and wellness, including boosting physical activity (PA) and mental wellness, there is mounting evidence that PT can be successful. Recently, the focus of personal technology development has switched from creating products that strive to grab users' attention to creating products that enhance user wellbeing. Digital wellness technologies encourage users to engage in behaviours that are personally and socially beneficial, including health and wellbeing, by leveraging the same alluring properties of other persuasive apps. Mobile applications can employ persuasive technology to sway user behaviour. The primary shift is from devices that want to grab users' attention to those that want to enhance user wellbeing. The growing use of smartphones offers a tremendous deal of promise to help people change their behaviour in a positive way. As a result, this article assesses the efficacy of PTs used to promote PA and identifies trends in the results, including the persuasive techniques utilized and how they were implemented, behavioural theories, and the technology tools that were used. This study focuses on the possibility that persuasive technologies, particularly those created in accordance with ethical guidelines for digital wellness, can improve users' wellbeing.