A Review of the Use of Persuasive Technologies to Influence Sustainable Behaviour

What is it about?

In this paper, we review games, mobile applications, web applications and other technologies that have been developed, peer-reviewed and published to influence people to adopt more sustainable behaviour that can preserve the planet. We reviewed articles that have been developed over the last five years to determine the current trend and state-of-the-art, and we summarize our main findings based on three main themes: 1) how the technologies were designed and developed, 2) how the technologies were evaluated to determine if they met the design requirements and 3) the results or findings from the evaluation.

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Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

Why is it important?

We need to preserve the planet we live on for our generation and the generations coming after us by adopting sustainable behaviours. One way to influence people to adopt more sustainable behaviours is through the use of technology. Many people have access to mobile phones and computers and other devices compared to a decade ago. With the widespread availability of these devices, researchers are continuously developing applications on these devices that can positively influence behaviour change such as adopting sustainable behaviours. Understanding how these applications were designed, developed and evaluated could inform future app developers and researchers about what works and what doesn't work. This research is important because it highlights the current trend regarding adaptive technologies for influencing sustainable behaviours. It shows what has been done and how they were done. It also highlights what was successful. For example, this research shows that applications for influencing sustainable behaviours are not only built for mobile and web devices but also for IoT devices. This research furthermore highlights the need for standardization in evaluating technologies. All these will contribute to the development of technologies that work to influence sustainable behaviours that could preserve our planet.