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Institutionen för datavetenskap

Department of Computer and Information Science

Final thesis

A Method for Evaluating the Persuasive

Potential of Software Programs

By

Ammu Prabha Kolandai

LIU-IDA/LITH-EX-A--12/056—SE

2012-10-24

Linköpings universitet

SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden

Linköpings universitet 581 83 Linköping

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Final Thesis

A Method for Evaluating the Persuasive

Potential of Software Programs

by

Ammu Prabha Kolandai

LIU-IDA/LITH-EX-A--12/056—SE

2012-10-24

Supervisor: Eva L. Ragnemalm

Examiner: Magnus Bång

Linköping University

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Abstract

Today, web, Internet, mobile and other ambient technologies engage in persuasive interaction with people. The technology designed to reinforce and change user’s attitude or behaviors or both through persuasion and social influence are persuasive technologies. Recently, persuasive systems and services are becoming increasingly abundant and ubiquitous. Evaluation of these systems is a challenging endeavor and typically requires a simple and efficient method. Nielsen suggests heuristic evaluation as a method for intuitive, inexpensive and easy evaluation of a user interface design.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine heuristic evaluation as a method to evaluate the persuasive potential of software programs. The Heuristics used were operationalized version of Fogg’s persuasive design principles. Software programs MS Word, MS PowerPoint, Counter-Strike, The Sims, Stone and Plan Eat Smile were chosen with the goal of measuring their ability to change behavior or attitude of users. The Evaluation was performed on the software programs using three evaluators and the test results indicated that they possess significant persuasive potential. It was concluded that the set of heuristics which were developed can be used to perform summative heuristic evaluation and the method used was helpful in evaluating the persuasive potential of software programs.

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Acknowledgements

 First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Eva L. Ragnemalm for providing me this thesis opportunity. Her guidance and suggestions

certainly made this project a lot easier to complete.

 I would like to thank my examiner, Magnus Bång for his presence and feedback.

 Thanks to Johan Åberg, for assisting me with Plan Eat Smile.

 I would like to especially thank my evaluators Florent and Hongzhan, who gladly offered me their time.

 Special thanks go to my Dad, Mom and brother Siddharth for their endless love and encouragement throughout my studies.

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction ... 1 1.1 Background ... 1 1.2 Purpose ... 3 1.3 Method ... 4 1.4 Thesis Structure ... 4 2 Literature Review ... 5 2.1 Defining Persuasion ... 5 2.2 Persuasive Technology ... 6 2.2.1 Captology ... 7 2.2.2 Types of Persuasion ... 8 2.2.3 Levels of Persuasion ... 9 2.3 Functional Triad ... 10

2.3.1 Credibility and computers ... 11

2.3.2 Computers as persuasive Tools ... 13

2.3.3 Computers as a Persuasive Media (Simulation) ... 14

2.3.4 Computers as a persuasive social actors ... 16

2.4 Applications of Persuasive Systems ... 17

2.5 Evaluation of Persuasive Systems ... 20

2.5.1 Heuristic Evaluation... 20

2.5.2 Usability inspection methods vs. usability testing ... 21

2.5.3 Why Heuristic Evaluation ... 22

2.5.4 Ten Usability Heuristics ... 22

2.5.5 General Procedure ... 23 3 Test Objects ... 25 3.1 Tools ... 25 3.1.1 Microsoft Word ... 25 3.1.2 Microsoft PowerPoint ... 26 3.2 Computer Games ... 27 3.2.1 Counter-Strike ... 27 3.2.2 The Sims ... 28 3.3 Educational Programs ... 28 3.3.1 STONE ... 28

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4 Test Conduction ... 31

4.1 Test Procedure ... 31

4.1.1 Operationalization of the principles into heuristics ... 31

4.2 Test Participants ... 32

4.2.1 Evaluator A ... 32

4.2.2 Evaluator B ... 33

4.2.3 Evaluator C ... 33

5 Test Analysis & Discussion ... 35

5.1 Test Observations ... 35 5.2 Test Results ... 37 5.3 Evaluators Agreement ... 47 5.4 Comparative Study ... 54 6 Conclusion ... 56 Bibliography ... 58 Appendix ... 61 Appendix A: Heuristics ... 61

Appendix B: Evaluation Feedback ... 64

Appendix C: Results Summary ... 70

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Table of Figures

Figure 1: Fogg's Captology ... 7

Figure 2 : Types of Persuasion... 8

Figure 3 : QuitNet, an online smoke cessation program ... 9

Figure 4 : Fogg's Functional triad ... 10

Figure 5 : Key dimensions of Credibility ... 11

Figure 6 : Nike Sports Kit, a persuasive tool ... 14

Figure 7 : Baby think it over, a persuasive simulator ... 15

Figure 8 : Smokey Bear, a persuasive social actor ... 16

Figure 9 : Alcohol 101 Plus, online program against alcohol drinking ... 17

Figure 10 : Powerhouse, a game for energy saving ... 19

Figure 11 : Shower calendar ... 19

Figure 12 : Usability problems Vs. No: of Evaluators... 23

Figure 13 : Screenshot: Microsoft Word ... 26

Figure 14 : Screenshot: PowerPoint presentation ... 26

Figure 15 : Screen shot: Counter-Strike game ... 27

Figure 16 : Screenshot: Sims Game ... 28

Figure 17 : Screenshot: Stone ... 29

Figure 18 : Screenshot: Plan Eat Smile... 30

Figure 19 : Mean: MS Word ... 38

Figure 20 : Mean: MS PowerPoint ... 39

Figure 21 : Mean: Counter-Strike ... 41

Figure 22 : Mean: The Sims ... 42

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Figure 24 : Mean: Plan Eat Smile ... 45

Figure 25 : Evaluator Agreement: MS word... 48

Figure 26 : Evaluator Agreement: MS PowerPoint ... 49

Figure 27 : Evaluator Agreement: Counter-Strike ... 50

Figure 28 : Evaluator Agreement: The Sims ... 51

Figure 29 : Evaluator Agreement: Stone ... 52

Figure 30 : Evaluator Agreement: Plan Eat Smile ... 53

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List of Tables

Table 1 : Types of Credibility ... 12

Table 2 : Evaluator A ... 32

Table 3 : Evaluator B ... 33

Table 4 : Evaluator C ... 34

Table 5 : Heuristic Evaluation Form ... 36

Table 6 : Five-Point Rating Scale ... 36

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1 Introduction

1.1 Background

In today’s world, people interacting with computer-based devices and systems are commonplace. We use numerous interactive products such as mobile phone, the web, calculator, video game, ticket machine, ATM and many more in our daily life. Most products require users to interact with them in order to perform their tasks e.g. playing music from an iPod or purchasing tickets online from the web. Generally, interactive products or devices are engineered as systems to accomplish a specific function or set of functions and it may not be necessarily created with users in mind.

The practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services for people’s use is referred as Interaction design. It is observed as the fundamental to all disciplines, fields, and approaches that are concerned with research and designing computer based systems. The main objective of interaction design is to develop interactive products that are efficient, easy and enjoyable to use from the user’s perspective. In other words, it is about building user experiences that enhance and augment the way people work, communicate, and interact (Newman & Lamming, 1995).

According to ISO definition, user experience is a person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service. It is essential that the designers should know about users, technologies, and interactions between them in order to develop an effective user experience. Persuasive technology has emerged as a new discipline with the ability to influence all aspects of the way in which users interact with computers.

Persuasion is “intended communication that affects how others think, feel, or act toward some object, person, group or idea” (Cegala, 1987). Systems which are designed to intentionally change or reinforce user’s attitude or behavior through persuasion process, without involving coercion or deception are known as persuasive systems. Fogg labels this phenomenon as “persuasive technology” (Fogg, 2003). Persuasive design shapes a product's user experience so that the user's actual interaction with the product changes their behavior. Persuasive technologies

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2 can be categorized by their functional roles such as tools, media, or social actors or as more than one at once which is referred as Functional Triad. It is based on how people view, use or respond to the computing technologies.

Recently, Persuasive technology has rapidly established a wide range of applications in many fields of research and development like marketing, education, entertainment, health care, safety and environment. These persuasive applications are increasingly developed to have systems that can motivate and provide opportunities for positive change in behavior. Though persuasive technologies are found in many domains, considerable recent interest has centered on behavior change in health and environment domains. Here are some examples of persuasive technologies: “Mind bloom” is an online life game that encourages users to set goals, priorities and targets at improving the quality of life by building meaningful relationships. The game represents a user’s life as a “Life Tree” whose branches include: Career, Creativity, Finances, Health, Lifestyle, Relationships, and Spirituality. It motivates user to take steps to fulfill his or her goals, the Life Tree grows and the user is rewarded with seeds that can be used to unlock new features.Mind bloom also incorporates a social networking aspect where users are encouraged to share their trees with friends (Kientz et al., 2010).

“Pos or not” is an online game to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. It shows real photographs of real people and asks the player to choose whether the person pictured has HIV positive or negative. The game result proves that it is really hard to assume a person by their looks and it raises the consciousness of the users about their body, health and motivates to get tested and to know more about HIV. Also, it demands users for postal code to locate the nearest testing centers. Users are encouraged to join the game by uploading photos and sharing their personal details (Inc, 2009).

“Code red rover” is an interactive home safety website that offers games, activities, home safety checklists, safety tips for kids, parents, and teachers. It motivates children to make safe, smart choices in and around the home by providing home safety checklist, and template for creating escape plan. It also provides sources to know and read about other kids who are home safety heroes, or to submit a story or artwork (Council, 2004). More applications of persuasive systems will be discussed in the section 2.4.

The framework and principles developed by Fogg, offers valuable means for understanding persuasive technologies but they seem to be too general when applied to design and evaluate persuasive systems. Therefore, evaluation of persuasive technologies requires a fully-operational prototype and long-term deployment (Oinas-Kukkonen & Harjumaa, 2008). Ever since it was

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3 first introduced by Jakob Nielsen, Heuristic evaluation has been a classic and popular usability inspection method in the field of human-computer interaction.

Practitioners have stated that heuristic evaluation as an efficient method to discover significant usability problems at various stages of the design process (Nielsen & Mack, 1994). Heuristic evaluation method has been widely adopted, and lately, there has been progress in the development and validation of more specialized heuristics for evaluating technologies. This thesis work helps to explore the use of summative heuristic evaluation as the method to design and evaluate persuasive technologies.

1.2 Purpose

The main objective of this thesis is to examine summative heuristic evaluation as a method to evaluate the Persuasive potential of software programs. Based on Fogg’s design principles, a set of heuristics are designed and developed to be more appropriate for evaluating technologies which aim at persuading users. The specialized heuristics are categorized as providing system credibility, Computer as a persuasive tool, computer as a persuasive medium and computer as a persuasive social actor.

The software programs used for evaluation are tools “MS Word” and “MS PowerPoint”, computer games “The Sims” and “Counter-Strike”, and educational programs “STONE” and “Plan Eat Smile”. Using three expert evaluators, the method of heuristic evaluation is performed. This thesis shows how efficient is the heuristics developed and how effective is the method used in assessing the software programs which results in behavior change.

Following Research questions will be addressed during this thesis:

 Does the different heuristics which are developed exhibit different behavior?

 Does the specialized heuristics developed can be used to evaluate different software technologies?

 What insights can we get about the evaluated software using the method?

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1.3 Method

This section describes the steps and procedure used to explore heuristic evaluation as a method to examine the persuasive potential of software programs. First, the research was initiated with literature study about persuasive technology, Fogg’s design principles and the method “heuristic evaluation”. Specialized heuristics were developed based on persuasive principles presented by Fogg. Six software programs such as MS Word, MS PowerPoint, Counter-Strike, The Sims, Stone and Plan Eat Smile were chosen with the goal of measuring their persuasive potential. It also helps to find whether the set of heuristics developed can be applied to evaluate the software technologies.

Tools MS Word, MS PowerPoint is designed with no persuasive intentions and is expected to exhibit low persuasiveness on the heuristics scale. Games Counter-Strike, the Sims are expected to be persuasive by its nature but it is tough to predict. Counter-Strike being a violent game and Sims being a non-violent game, they were chosen in order to identify whether the nature of the game affects the persuasiveness and results in behavior change. Educational Programs Stone, Plan Eat Smile are assumed to engage persuasive strategies to reinforce learning. These software programs were selected because an effective method used for evaluation should be able to discriminate the programs based on their persuasive features and exhibit diverse results.

Using the method of heuristic evaluation, three expert evaluators performed the test evaluation on the test objects i.e. six software programs. Each expert reviewed the software individually and reported with a feedback. Once the evaluators have worked their way through the goals set and provided their ratings and comments, it was recognized as results. This result was used to determine the persuasiveness of the technologies. Consequently, this helps to show how helpful is the method used in assessing the persuasive potential of the software programs.

1.4 Thesis Structure

The thesis is organized as follows: Firstly, literature review is presented with good understanding of the topics: persuasion, persuasive Technology, functional triad, applications and evaluation of persuasive systems. Secondly, description about the test objects MS-Word, MS-PowerPoint, The Sims, Counter-Strike, Stone, and Plan Eat Smile. Thirdly, explanation about test conduction where it discusses about the procedure, specialized heuristics and test participants used to perform the evaluation. Finally, the test analysis, discussion and conclusion of this thesis work are presented.

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2 Literature Review

2.1 Defining Persuasion

Fogg defines persuasion as “an attempt to shape, reinforce, or change behaviors, feelings, or thoughts about an issue, object, or action” (Fogg, 2003). It is a form of interaction that targets at changing the way people think, feel or act. The user experience is a significant factor that should be included in the persuasion process. Researchers show considerable interest in the study of persuasion and theories from social psychology as they can be used for predicting user intentions and behavior (Harjumaa & Oinas-Kukkonen, 2007).

The study of persuasion helps to improve the persuasion process and acts as a key element in designing successful persuasive systems. The information systems and services that target at persuading and motivating people by altering their attitudes and behaviors are known as persuasive systems. It is important that persuasive systems should not involve the concept of coercion and deception. Coercion implies force or compulsion and deception involves misinformation and act of deceiving people.

Three successful goals of a persuasive system are reinforcement, changing, shaping of attitudes and behaviors.

 A reinforcing outcome means the strengthening of present attitudes, making them more impervious to change.

 A changing outcome means alterations in a person’s response to a problem, e.g. to social questions.

 A shaping outcome means the creation of a pattern for a situation when such one does not exist earlier.

In many cases, a shaping outcome may have a greater probability of success than interaction that aims at behavior change. Different purposes may involve the use of different persuasion strategies and techniques. Since computing technology is prevalent, it allows persuasive messages through technology to be interactive instead of altering and adjusting the design of interaction based on the characteristics or actions of the persuaded party. Researchers and industry both have developed a number of applications that use software, mobile technologies, games, and websites that encourage and motivate people. The web, internet and mobile

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6 technologies increase the likelihood for persuasive communication as they reach people simple and faster.

Foursquare and Mint are good examples of putting the concept of persuasion into practice. Foursquare is a location based social networking website for mobile devices such as smart phones. Once registered, the application persuades users to posts their location at a venue which they call "check-in" and to connect with friends. Users are also convinced to add pictures, personal information to have a profile and to choose to have their check-ins posted on their accounts on Twitter, Facebook, or both. Users are awarded with points at each check-in and it also offers badges like Newbie, Adventurer, Explorer etc., by checking into various venues and cities.

Mint is a free web based application for personal financial management. It persuades people by simplifying the tasks of managing all their financial accounts through a single user interface. It has options like budget, cash flows, alerts, advices where it provides a good overview of the user’s bank accounts, sending reminder to pay bills on time and suggestions to maintain a good budget. The application can also be accessed from mobile and other digital services like iPad, Tablets that act as an easy and fast way to track user’s bank transactions and expenditure. Both applications use persuasive strategies like reduction, rewards, suggestions which will be discussed in section 2.3.

2.2 Persuasive Technology

Persuasive technology is a recent research field that integrates both computing and human psychology aspects. It is defined as “the technology designed to change attitudes or behaviors of the users through persuasion and social influence, but not through coercion” (Fogg, 2003). While the concept of persuasive technology can sometimes comprise a range of definitions, persuasive technologies can also be categorized by whether they change attitude and behaviors through direct interaction or through a mediating role (Oinas-Kukkonen & Harjumaa, 2008).

Most popular persuasive technology research centers on health, safety, environment and education. Persuasive technology can also be used in other domains like marketing, religion, politics, diplomacy, and management. A variety of interfaces have been used for persuasive technologies, including interactive web-based applications, computer and video games, computerized toys and many more. On the other side, persuasive technology could also be used

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7 unethically. For instance, People might be convinced to buy products which they really do not desire or need. As computers are machines, they do not possess objectives of their own.

There is a “golden rule” which is used to guide is that “the creators of a persuasive technology should never ask to persuade anyone of something they themselves would not consent to be persuaded of” (Berdichevsky & Neuenschwander, 1999).It can be briefly said as that designers of persuasive technology should not create any product that persuades someone to do or think something that they, the designers would not want to be persuaded of themselves. Designers are the ones who build, distribute, or adopt the technology and who have the intention to influence someone’s attitudes or behavior. It is considered that the responsibility of the designer is to develop ethical and reliable technologies and systems. The following section explains Captology, types and levels of persuasion.

2.2.1 Captology

B.J. Fogg is the first scientist to express the concept of "Captology," a word he devised to illustrate the overlap between persuasion and computers. Fogg defined “Captology as design, research, and analysis of interactive computing products created for the purpose of changing people’s attitude or behaviors”. According to Fogg, persuasion is based on intentions and not on results whereas Captology focuses on endogenous intent built into products not on exogenous intentions (Fogg, 2003).

Figure 1: Fogg's Captology- Computing technology and Persuasion Overlap, Adapted from (Fogg, 2003)

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8 When a technology is deliberately designed with the purpose to persuade and it has planned persuasive effects, the technology inherits endogenous intent. For example, energy conservation game which targets the user with a purpose to change the behavior and thoughts towards energy saving. When someone personally chooses to use a technology with the intention to change his or her own thoughts or actions, the technology is said to inherit exogenous intent. For example, Zune mp3 player is not a persuasive product by design but a person buys the product to play music and considers that listening to music encourages him/her to stay active and happy.

2.2.2 Types of Persuasion

Understanding a persuasive system needs a detailed study of the persuadee, message, channel and context. Persuadee is a human information processor which observes at the individual attributes that can either retard or propel persuasion. Persuader is one who or that which persuades, influences, or leads on. Messages are conveyed through channels, with nonverbal and verbal social interactions. The situation in which the message is delivered is referred as context and it may include the surrounding environment or broader culture.

Originally, persuasion has been regarded as a communication process in which a persuader sends a persuasive message to a persuadee or audience (individuals or groups to which the message is delivered). The aim of the persuader is mostly to convince the persuadee with the idea of altering the attitudes or behavior, even though always letting the persuadee with the power of decision and control.

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9 Three types of persuasion exist: Interpersonal persuasion, human-computer persuasion and computer-mediated persuasion (Fogg, 2003). Interpersonal persuasion happens when two or more people interact with each other, involving e.g. verbal and non-verbal behavior, feedback and coherence of behavior. Human-computer persuasion is the study of how people are persuaded when interacting with computer technology e.g. Apple laptop persuades people by their design.

Computer-mediated persuasion means that people are persuading others through computer-mediated communication, e.g. discussion forums, e-mail, or social network systems like Facebook, Google+, Twitter and more. Persuasive systems may employ either human-computer persuasion or computer mediated persuasion.

2.2.3 Levels of Persuasion

The technology can persuade on two levels, macro and micro. Macrosuasion refers to products that are used exclusively for persuasion. The overall target of the product would be to persuade and to have behavioral change. For instance, Figure 3 QuitNet shows good example for Macrosuasion which is developed to motivate users to quit smoking.

Figure 3 : QuitNet, an online smoke cessation program (Health, 1995 )

QuitNet is an online smoke cessation program which helps people to quit smoking. It has applications like Quit Gadget that helps to calculate the money and lifetime that users have saved by quitting. Quit Wizard and self-assessment quizzes persuade the user to plan and pick a date to

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10 stop smoking. QuitNet encourages users by providing certificates for achievement of each quitting milestone and gadget stats. The website displays the list of active users celebrating their quitting anniversaries and also sends greeting cards and emails for appreciating smoke quitters (Fogg, 2003).

Microsuasion refers to products that include small persuasive elements meant to persuade and they do not have an overall intent. Microsuasion can be just feedback or rating system in an online websites like e-Bay, IMDB where they do not have an overall goal to persuade but they incorporate in smaller persuasive amounts to achieve a completely different target (Fogg, 2003).

E-Bay is an online shopping website which has a feedback mechanism where both buyers and sellers are encouraged to rate one another at the end of each transaction. It motivates users to be trustworthy and responsible in order to have a good feedback, seller rating and these ratings are valued by the customers. It also encourages sellers by giving reward like “eBay top-rated seller” badge. IMDB (Internet Movie Database) has a rating scale where the users are influenced to provide their feedback and reviews for a movie, series or television show. To encourage this, it displays overall rating in a star, Meta score, Top 500 features which are valued by the viewers.

2.3 Functional Triad

B.J.Fogg proposes the Functional Triad as a classification of three basic ways that people view or respond to computing technologies. The persuasive technology can function as tools, media or social actors based on the functional role of the computing device or system.

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11 Firstly, the computer as a persuasive tool can encourage people by performing some behavior easier or more capable to do, or guiding people through a process or performing calculations or measurements that motivates. Secondly, the computer as a persuasive medium can influence by permitting people to explore cause-and-effect relationships, or affording people with vicarious experiences that motivate or helping people rehearse activities. Thirdly, the computer as a social actor can persuade by rewarding people with positive feedback, or exhibiting a target behavior and providing social support (Fogg, 2003).

2.3.1 Credibility and computers

It is significant for the designers of persuasive technology to understand the concepts of credibility. Credible products have the ability to change thoughts and behaviors, to motivate and persuade. Fogg refers “credibility as believability; Credible people are believable people; credible information is believable information”. Basically, researchers describe credibility as a perceived quality made up of multiple dimensions which does not reside in an object, a person, or a piece of information. Therefore, in discussing the credibility of a computer product, one is always discussing the perception of credibility. If the credibility for a product is low, the potential for behavior change is also considerably low.

Although studies vary on how many dimensions contribute to credibility evaluations, the vast majority of scholars identify two key components of credibility:

 Trustworthiness

 Expertise

In evaluating credibility, a person makes an assessment of both trustworthiness and expertise to attain at an overall credibility valuation.

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Trustworthiness is described as system that is observed as truthful, fair and unbiased will have

increased powers of persuasion. The three main aspects of trustworthiness are credibility of source, arguing against own interests, familiarity. Website provides information about its products rather than simply marketing information.

Expertise is a system that is viewed as incorporating expertise (knowledge, experience, and

competence) will have increased powers of persuasion. Website updates information on a regular basis without obsolete data.

Four Types of Credibility

Fogg’s four types of credibility are presumed, reputed, surface and earned.

TYPES EXPLANATION

Presumed credibility When user trusts someone or something because of general assumptions in their mind.

Surface credibility User makes initial assessments of the system credibility based on a firsthand inspection.

Reputed credibility Recommendations from credible third-party endorsements, reports, or referrals.

Earned credibility Performance consistent with expectations (positive).

Table 1 : Types of Credibility

Credibility perceptions can strengthen or weaken over time, but once lost, credibility may be hard to regain. (Near) Perfection is a principle that emphasizes computing technology will be more persuasive when it never commits errors or mistakes (or very few and easily explained) (Fogg, 2003).

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2.3.2 Computers as persuasive Tools

As tools, persuasive technology increases the ability of users to perform a target behavior by simplifying target. Persuasive principles suggested by Fogg are reduction, tunneling, tailoring, suggestion, self-monitoring, surveillance and conditioning.

Reduction means using technology to simplify complex tasks. The aim of this strategy is to

make the desired behavior more tempting by making it easier for the user. For instance, some online shops don’t make you fill out forms during registration, instead request you to provide your personal number where it automatically fills out your details for signing up new account.

Tunneling means guiding the user through a process or experience provides opportunities to

persuade. Tunneling makes it easier to go through a process for the users. For designers, it controls what the user experiences - the content, possible pathways and the nature of the activities. Software installation provides a simple example of tunneling technology. It helps you through the process, step by step.

Tailoring means tailoring information to the user's specific situation, interests, personality or

needs increases the persuasive effect. Tailoring has been acknowledged as one of the most potential persuasive strategies in e-commerce. They email discount coupons, offer newsletters to keep customers informed of new products and promotions.

Suggestion means intervening at a time when the target behavior is/would be relevant or at

‘opportune moments’, which means interacting with the user at the right time and in the right context and place. Application for healthier eating habits advises children to eat fruits instead of chocolate at a snack time.

Self-monitoring means systems that allowing people to monitor themselves and learn from information on their actions in order to change their behavior. Simulations can persuade by enabling them to observe immediately the link between the cause and the effect. Heart rate monitor displays user’s heart rate and the duration of the exercise.

Surveillance technology is based on the overt monitoring of other people’s behavior and it

increases desire to fulfill perceived expectations. For example, Parental Controls in antivirus software like Norton where it helps to track children’s online activities.

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Conditioning means using operant conditioning to have immediate positive reinforcement after

target behavior. The levels, game points and rewards provided in online games like angry birds makes the player to continue the game and play more.

Example of a persuasive tool – Nike + IPod Sports kit

Nike iPod Sports Kit is a tool that has attempted to motivate people to exercise more. It uses a design that is compatible with the iPod and running shoes. It implies persuasive strategies reduction, suggestion and self-monitoring to have behavioral change.

Figure 6 : Nike Sports Kit, a persuasive tool

It keeps track of distance covered in a work-out, time to complete individual goals and other fitness benchmarks. It also provides auditory directions for working out, satisfying the role of a virtual personal trainer (Wai & Mortensen, 2007 ).

2.3.3 Computers as a Persuasive Media (Simulation)

Computer as a persuasive medium discovers the current and potential use of the simulations.

Cause and Effect relationships are a scenario that provides simulation and persuades by enabling

them to observe immediately the link between the cause and its effect. For example, before and after pictures of people who have lost weight are shown on a weight losing Website.

Virtual Rehearsal is defined as a system providing means with which to rehearse a behavior can

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15 virtual dressing room where you can customize a model to look alike you, and then "try on" clothes.

Virtual reward is a system that provides virtual rewards for users in order to give credit for

performing the target behavior. Punch cards provided at Subway, a card is stamped with each qualifying purchase. Once you have the required number of punches, you get a free sandwich. This type of reward program persuades people to eat more in subway.

Simulations in real-world contexts provide persuasive information vicariously through life-like

settings. Baby think it over is a good example.

Example of a persuasive medium - Baby Think It Over

Baby Think It over Program (BTIO) designed to educate teens about parenting responsibilities. It is a baby stimulator (hi-tech doll) that looks like a human baby and simulates many infant needs. Participants are required to care the baby stimulator, just as they would care an actual baby. It implies persuasive strategies virtual rehearsal, cause and effect relationships and simulations in real-world.

Figure 7 : Baby think it over, a persuasive simulator

It helps teenagers to understand how much attention a baby needs. In a study of 100 and more young students who participated in this program, 95% of them were not ready to accept the responsibility of parenting. This shows strongly the persuasive potential of BTIO as a simulated object (Fogg, 2003).

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2.3.4 Computers as a persuasive social actors

The third corner in the functional triad which persuade by providing a variety of social cues that elicit social responses from their human users.

Attractiveness is a System that is visually attractive for its users is likely to be more persuasive.

If appearance of the website or design of a game is appealing, it tends to be more persuasive.

Similarity is a System that imitates users in some specific way. A good example of similarity,

when a user is allowed to alter the graphical layout of an application or personalize his/her character.

Praise leads the user to be more receptive to the giver of praise. A System can use praise through

words, images, symbols, or sounds as a way to provide positive response for a user.

Reciprocity is defined as returning a favor. When the customer is ready to fill a feedback form/

survey then the system is said to be reciprocative.

Authority is a system that refers to people in the role of authority. Website displays the logo of

ISO 9001 certification.

Example of a persuasive actor – Smokey Bear

“Smokey Bear” is an online website and mobile application for the prevention of forest fires. Smokey is a fictional character (mascot) of the United States Forest Service created to educate people about the dangers of wildfires.

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17 The role of the smokey motivates people to know the importance of wildlife conservation. The application provides step by step guide for wildfire prevention, smokey’s past history, kids' section features "Bear Facts" about Smokey's species, campfire games and stories. It also displays the map of current wildfires across America (Ad Council, n.d.).

2.4 Applications of Persuasive Systems

First, the most significant application domain for persuasive systems is health and wellness. For instance, health care technologies can be developed to promote physical fitness, encourage people towards healthy behavior, perhaps delay or prevent medical problems and early death (Kientz et al., 2010). Some popular persuasive applications for health are:

Alcohol 101 Plus:

Alcohol 101 plus is an interactive online program which fights against alcohol drinking and drunk driving. It aims to help students make safe and responsible decisions about alcohol on college campuses. It has various interactive programs to persuade students in a virtual campus like virtual bar, DUI (driving under the influence), alcohol and the brain.

Virtual Bar, Virtual Brain shows how alcohol can influence body functions, activities and actions whereas DUI creates awareness about the issues, legal work, penalties caused as a result of drunk driving.

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18 Figure 9 shows the interactive program in alcohol101plus. It uses the technology of virtual rehearsal and cause and effect where it provides a motivating simulation environment to rehearse a behavior and shows the consequences of user’s actions that motivate people to change their attitudes and behaviors in real world (Council, n.d.).

Stay Teen:

Stay teen is an online website to prevent teen and unplanned pregnancy. It conducts quiz, polls campaign and also includes videos encouraging teens stay teens and avoid teenage pregnancy. It has featured games and videos which help to evaluate the health of their relationships and know more about birth control measures.

Pocket Pikachu:

It is a digital pet as a technology that persuades individuals to be physically active on a consistent basis. The user had to walk, run, or jump anything to activate the pedometer.

HIV roulette:

It is a kiosk that simulates the health threats of having unprotected sexual contact. It provides the user with hypothetical choices about sexual behavior. It uses the cause and effect technology to show how these choices would affect their chances of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Another common application area is energy conservation. New design products and systems are also developed to persuade human behavior towards the aim of saving resources efficiently like saving water and reducing the use of electricity through individual or feedback systems.

The Powerhouse:

It is a computer game designed to persuade teenagers to have an energy aware lifestyle and to promote efficient use of energy in their homes. The game tries to influence players’ interest in energy-related issues and improve their knowledge on energy-consuming activities in their houses. In the game, player manages a simulated domestic environment with seven characters. Almost all activities in the game need electrical energy such as taking a shower, washing clothes, and watching television.

The objective is to direct the characters to perform the appropriate energy-efficient actions. The game engages many persuasive strategies like cause and effect relationships provides instant

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19

Figure 10 : Powerhouse, a game for energy saving, source (Bång et al., 2006)

feedback for the actions performed, virtual rewards like energy and money meter and conditioning provides sound and visual effects to motivate user to play more (Bång et al., 2006).

Shower Calendar:

It is a persuasive system for reducing consumption of water used for showering. It introduces a little competition to get people to change their behavior. While in shower, it helps to track water use against everyone else you live with (Laschke et al., 2011).

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2.5 Evaluation of Persuasive Systems

In order to study user’s thoughts and behavior, theories and methods from social psychology have been applied. These theories were modeled for predicting the user acceptance of the information systems rather than providing systematic analysis and design methods to develop software technologies. Fogg’s design principles and framework, which offers first and most utilized theories of persuasive technology but these concepts, are too limited for evaluating persuasive systems. Fogg’s principles do not explain how the proposed principles can be modified into software requirements and further implemented as actual system features (Oinas-Kukkonen & Harjumaa, 2008).

However, there has not been an agreed method for evaluating persuasive systems and it is seen as a very difficult task for several reasons. The main reason concerns the fact that determining the efficacy of persuasive technologies needs a research method to assess whether the persuasive strategies used are functional and effective. A typical research study involves an intervention where variables of interest are measured before and after using the system for target and control groups. The problem is that statistical research approach represents a bottleneck: they are expensive and resource intensive, in terms of the amount of work required, techniques for data collection and the subsequent statistical analysis.

Moreover, an additional problem, in terms of system development is that iterative evaluations cannot be done as part of the design process. Therefore, the method for evaluating persuasive systems as described above requires a fully operational prototype and long term deployment. For this reasons, there is a need for quick and inexpensive evaluation method for assessing how successful a technology may be in helping to promote behavior change or the likelihood of long-term adoption (Ragnemalm et al., 2011).

2.5.1 Heuristic Evaluation

Heuristic evaluation is an informal usability evaluation method in which several evaluators comment on interface design judging based on usability principles termed ‘heuristics’. It involves small set of evaluators who analyze whether each dialogue element conforms to the heuristics or not. The main goal of heuristic evaluation is to identify the usability problems in the design so that they can be attended as part of an iterative design process.

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21 It is considered as an efficient evaluation method as it discovers many usability problems not found by 31 user testing; since it is bounded to specific tasks as user testing is. The evaluation method reveals about twice as many minor problems as major problems in absolute numbers (Nielsen & Mack, 1994). There are two ways to distinguish heuristic evaluation based on their purpose. When it is more intentional on finding problems, it is formative evaluation. This type of evaluation provides design feedback, mostly in the form of a list of problems and recommended solutions.

Heuristic evaluation can also be used in a summative manner; it provides an overall assessment of a single interface or a comparison of multiple interfaces, often in the form of numerical data which is statistically analyzed. It also centers on the effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction of a product. This thesis centers on the summative heuristic evaluation of the persuasive potential of software programs.

Some researchers use the term heuristic evaluation in a bit different meaning than Nielsen and Molich. For example, they use the term to specify an evaluation that user interface specialists conduct depending on their experience with similar systems without any specific strategies. In this thesis, the term heuristic evaluation stands for an inspection using heuristics relying solely on the evaluators' expertise.

2.5.2 Usability inspection methods vs. usability testing

According to Nielsen “Usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use”. Usability testing is a technique used in user-centered interaction design to evaluate a product by testing it on users. It focuses on determining a human-made product's competence to meet its planned purpose.

Usability testing can be regarded as an exclusive usability method, since it offers direct feedback on how real users use the system. However, real users can be difficult or expensive to recruit in order to test all aspects of all the versions of an evolving design. Nielsen conforms that many usability issues are overseen by user testing, but that user testing also discovers problems that are ignored by inspection.

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22 Usability testing is in contrast with usability inspection methods where experts use different techniques to evaluate a user interface and does not entail users. Usability inspection is the common name used for a set of methods that are all based on having experts review a user interface or examine usability-related aspects of a user interface. Usability evaluators can be usability specialists or experts who should have a broad background in usability evaluation and human computer interface (HCI) design. An example would be in evaluating a website – a person who is an expert in HCI and web designing (Nielsen & Mack, 1994).

2.5.3 Why Heuristic Evaluation

Heuristic evaluation is a popular discount usability technique that enables a few expert evaluators to examine a technology artifact for finding the usability problems. It is easy to learn, cheap and it does not require advance planning so it is also referred as discount usability method. In addition, it can be used very early or any part of the development process, since it does not require a running version of the system.

An important advantage of using this technique is to provide some quick and relatively inexpensive feedback to designers. Feedback can be obtained early in the design process as they can be attended to as part of an iterative design. Drawbacks of using this method, it requires a certain level of knowledge and experience to apply the heuristics effectively. Trained usability experts are sometimes hard to find and can be expensive. It is not a thorough method to detect each and every problem and does not provide a systematic way to fix the problems found (Nielsen & Mack, 1994).

2.5.4 Ten Usability Heuristics

Rolf Molich and Jakob Nielsen developed a set of heuristics that are most likely used in the field of interface design. In 1994, Nielsen came up with a refined set of ten heuristics for user interface design. They are called "heuristics" because they are more in the nature of rules of thumb than specific usability guidelines. Nielsen's Ten Heuristics

1. Visibility of system status

2. Match between system and the real world 3. User control and freedom

4. Consistency and standards 5. Error prevention

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23 6. Recognition rather than recall

7. Flexibility and efficiency of use 8. Aesthetic and minimalist design

9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors.

2.5.5 General Procedure

Number of Evaluators

In general, heuristic evaluation is difficult for a single individual to do because one person will never be able to find all the usability problems in an interface. Nielsen recommends using three to five evaluators since one does not gain that much additional information by using large numbers. The evaluation is performed by having each individual evaluator examine the interface alone.

In figure 12, Curve shows the proportion of usability problems in an interface found by heuristic evaluation when various numbers of evaluators are added. The curve represents the average of six case studies of heuristic evaluation. The heuristic Evaluation involves essential three stages: a pre-evaluation training session, actual evaluations and debriefing session (Nielsen, 1992).

Figure 12 : Usability problems Vs. No: of Evaluators, Source (Nielsen, 1992)

Briefing on the Method, the domain and the scenario

During training session, a short lecture given to the evaluators as they knew very little about the topic.

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Actual Evaluations

Each evaluator is asked to evaluate the interface within a given period of time. Evaluators are expected to find as many usability problems in the interface as possible, including both major and minor. The evaluators were also asked to state what established usability principle was violated by each usability problem and to classify the problem as major or minor. Later, all evaluations completed by the evaluator are allowed to communicate and their results are collected. This assures independent and unbiased outcomes from each evaluator.

Debriefing session

Debriefing session (If needed) is conducted after the last evaluation session in order to deliver some design advice. The participants in the debriefing should contain the evaluators, and representatives of the design team. A debriefing is a good chance for discussing the positive aspects of the design, since heuristic evaluation does not otherwise address this important issue.

Severity rating phase

Severity ratings can be used to assign the important resources to resolve the most serious problems and can also provide a rough estimation of the need for additional usability efforts. During a heuristic evaluation session, it is tough to get good severity estimates from the evaluators as they are more focused on finding new usability problems.

It is recommended that severity ratings can be collected by sending a questionnaire to the evaluators after the actual evaluation sessions, listing the complete set of usability problems that have been discovered, and asking them to rate the severity of each problem. Nielsen also indicates that severity ratings from a single evaluator are too unreliable. As more evaluators are asked to judge the severity of usability problems, the quality of the mean severity rating increases rapidly, and using the mean of a set of ratings from three evaluators is satisfactory for many practical purposes (Nielsen & Mack, 1994).

The following 0 to 4 rating scale can be used to rate the severity of usability problems: 0 = I don't agree that this is a usability problem at all

1 = Cosmetic problem only: need not be fixed unless extra time is available on project 2 = Minor usability problem: fixing this should be given low priority

3 = Major usability problem: important to fix, so should be given high priority 4 = Usability catastrophe: imperative to fix this before product can be released

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3 Test Objects

Tools “MS word”, “MS power point”, computer games “The Sims”, “Counter-Strike”, educational programs “STONE” and “Plan Eat Smile” are the test objects evaluated in this project. The hypothesis was that when presented to a summative heuristic evaluation, tools are expected to rate low on a persuasive heuristics scale. Due to the reason, tools do not have planned intentions to persuade and cause behavioral change. MS Word and MS PowerPoint are tools that perform predefined set of functions like creating and editing files. Thus a computer tool which is aimed at performing some text manipulation functions is assumed to exhibit very low persuasive potential.

According to Fogg, computer games have natural persuasive power and they employ different types of persuasive strategies to have a high quality gaming experience. Games are developed to be persuasive but it is hard to predict whether they have persuasive potential to motivate people. If games have persuasive potential to cause behavioral change, they should rate high when evaluated against Fogg’s principles. Educational programs are expected to rate high on a persuasive heuristics scale because learning is reflected by change in observed behavior. Thus, an application intended for educational purposes must have persuasive potential to reinforce learning; otherwise no change of behavior would result. The method used should be capable of distinguishing and providing insights about these types of software based on their persuasiveness.

3.1 Tools

3.1.1 Microsoft Word

Microsoft Office Word (MS Word) is a word processor developed by Microsoft Corporation. Word is regarded as one of the most widely used product of Microsoft’s office suite. Word includes a built-in spell checker, a thesaurus, a dictionary, and utilities for manipulating and editing text like transferring, copying and pasting texts.

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Figure 13 : Screenshot: Microsoft Word

MS Word being an extensive tool with several features so, it was decided to assess limited features as it is unnecessary to examine all functions. Certain scenarios were mainly focused for evaluation such as Spell checking, importing files in other formats, Ribbon customization, preview and zoom, mail-merge and macros facility.

3.1.2 Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint (MS PowerPoint) is a presentation software program that is also a part of the Microsoft Office package. PowerPoint uses a graphical approach to do presentations in the form of slide shows that accompany the oral delivery of the topic. This program is an effective tool when used for training purposes and widely used in business and classrooms.

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27 MS PowerPoint has various functions and features so, selected features and scenario was motivated for evaluation such as designing the slides, adding animations, and slideshow.

3.2 Computer Games

3.2.1 Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike 1.6 is a tactical first-person shooter video game. Players can join either the terrorist team, the counter-terrorist team, or become spectators. The scoreboard displays team scores in addition to statistics for each player: name, kills, and deaths. The scoreboard also specifies whether a player is dead, carrying the bomb, or is the VIP (very important person), although information about players on the opposing team is hidden from a player until death, as this information can be significant.

Killed players become "spectators" for the duration of the round. While there are several maps, the missions are limited to kill/escort a VIP to a helipad, prevent/cause destruction of a bombsite, and prevent/rescue hostages. The game wins by killing everyone in the opposite team or ends with the death of everyone on a given team. Each team tries to complete their mission target and/or eliminate the opposing team.

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3.2.2 The Sims

The Sims 3 is a strategic life-simulation video game by Electronic Arts. It is a simulation of the daily activities of one or more virtual persons called "Sims" in a suburban household near SimCity. There can be life stages in The Sims: infant, child, Teenage, adult and old person.

The objective of the game is to keep the Sims happy by watching the motive bars to see what they want/need, Control the Sims social life, when they eat and sleep, and what type of job they have. The player can design, build and decorate their homes, build up their skills to help them advance in their job, create a family of Sims to live together, and watch them interact, throw parties, get married, have babies, make friends.

Figure 16 : Screenshot: Sims Game

3.3 Educational Programs

3.3.1 STONE

STONE (Simple Tool for Online Education) has been developed at the Department of Computer Science, Linköping University, Sweden. It is used to teach students unfamiliar with local

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29 computer environment by providing introductory courses such as handling of common printers. Later after reading, it examines students' knowledge by conducting online tests.

Figure 17 : Screenshot: Stone

The test has the outline of the course and user needs to keep track of the progress. Each course in STONE consists of a number of steps. In the figure 17, each cell shows a step in the course UNIX. The steps that are green are completed and gray steps, it means they are not accessible because the prerequisites are not met yet. If there are blue steps, it shows they are active and in line to be studied.

3.3.2 Plan Eat Smile

Plan Eat Smile is a meal planning application which mainly attempts to support its users to change their food consumption behaviors by influencing their perceived behavioral control. It educates people to consume healthy food by providing recipes, plan and to shop online from food stores.

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Figure 18 : Screenshot: Plan Eat Smile

It comprises of a daily planner designed to help users schedule and freeze an entire month of meals for a family. Users can choose from various meal recipes with different nutritional requirements including vegetarian, Meat and seafood. It helps to make grocery shopping easier and helps to create a free, customizable, online shopping list. Meal planning database helps to find a recipe for the meal. Once you have found a recipe you like, the necessary ingredients can be easily added to your shopping list. You can also order food from your nearby restaurant.

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4 Test Conduction

4.1 Test Procedure

Researchers have recommended the use of heuristic evaluation to inspect persuasive technologies. In this thesis work, a specialized heuristics were developed to detect lack of persuasive elements in the persuasive system that involves intentions, adoption, or prolonged effectiveness of the technologies. The main assumption is that when summative heuristic evaluation is done, the software programs may rate high on a heuristics rating scale. The unit of evaluation may be assumed to be different when evaluating persuasive technology and usability.

To examine the summative heuristic evaluation as a method for analyzing the persuasive potential, six software programs are evaluated. Three evaluators are presented within the interface design, and they were asked to comment on the effectiveness of the product. During the process, it was initiated with a brief introduction about the heuristic evaluation method and set of heuristics developed for the evaluation. They were asked to analyze the programs separately and one program at a time, taking as much time as needed.

The evaluation of each program was performed in alternative days mainly to minimize the influence and effects between the software programs. Each evaluator reviewed the interface individually and they provided their feedback to the heuristics with a rating and comment. The program evaluation followed the same order like MS Word, MS PowerPoint, Counter-Strike, The Sims, Stone and Plan Eat Smile. This whole process took two weeks to complete.

4.1.1 Operationalization of the principles into heuristics

The design principles for persuasive systems defined by Fogg are formulated as a set of heuristics and revising them to be applicable for evaluating the software programs. These principles are divided into four sections comprising system credibility, computer as a persuasive tool, computer as a persuasive medium, and computer as a persuasive social actor.

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32 In total, 30 heuristics were derived from the 21 principles. Appendix A shows the persuasive principles and the corresponding heuristics. Reason for developing and validating a set of heuristics designed is to be more appropriate for evaluating technologies aimed to persuade users.

4.2 Test Participants

As Nielsen recommends using three evaluators, this thesis work involves three evaluators including the author to examine the software programs. The evaluation method is easy to apply so that it has possibility to have regular developers serve as evaluators, though better results are normally achieved when using usability specialists. An expert, who has knowledge in both principles and the domain make for better, more focused heuristic evaluations. Evaluators used in this project were students in computer and cognitive science whose experience of heuristic evaluation of usability was sufficient to this software evaluation.

4.2.1 Evaluator A

Evaluator A is a male, 23 years old, master’s student in computer science. He had only a brief introduction to the persuasive principles so the familiarity to the principles is low. Table 2 briefs the time spent by evaluator A on different programs.

Programs Time Spent Level of

familiarity Familiarity (Hours) Evaluation (Hours) Word >150 2 Advanced PowerPoint 60 3 Intermediate Counter-Strike >120 2 Advanced

The Sims 50 3 Beginner

Stone 20 4 Beginner

Plan Eat Smile 12 4 Beginner

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4.2.2 Evaluator B

Evaluator B is a male, 26 years old Graduate Student in Cognitive Science. He had only a brief introduction to the persuasive principles so the familiarity to the principles is low. Table 3 briefs the time spent by evaluator B on different programs.

Table 3 : Evaluator B

4.2.3 Evaluator C

Evaluator C is a female, 23 years old, master’s student in computer systems. She is the original constructor of the heuristics so the familiarity to the persuasive principles is high. Table 4 briefs the time spent by evaluator C on different programs.

Programs Time Spent Level of

familiarity Familiarity (Hours) Evaluation (Hours) Word >130 2 Advanced PowerPoint 40 3 Beginner Counter-Strike >150 1.5 Advanced

The Sims 40 3 Beginner

Stone 70 3 Intermediate

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Programs Time Spent Level of

familiarity Familiarity Evaluation

Word >150 2 Advanced

PowerPoint >120 2 Advanced

Counter-Strike 30 3 Beginner

The Sims 80 3 Intermediate

Stone >110 2 Advanced

Plan Eat Smile 40 2.5 Beginner

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5 Test Analysis & Discussion

5.1 Test Observations

The three evaluators analyzed the programs based on whether the heuristic is satisfied or not. They were asked to provide feedback by selecting one response option in the five-point rating scale. The rating scale was displayed vertically with options from 1 to 5.

SYSTEM CREDIBILITY

# PRINCIPLES FEEDBACK COMMENTS

1.1 Trustworthiness

The system that is observed as truthful, fair and

unbiased will have increased powers of

persuasion.(Three aspects: credibility of source, arguing against own interests, familiar)

1. Does the Program appear Truthful, fair, Impartial? 2. Does it provide credible Information about the program and its source?

 1  2  3  4  5  1  2  3  4  5 1.2 Expertise

The system that is viewed as incorporating expertise (knowledge, experience, and competence) will have increased powers of persuasion.

1. Does the program show competency (skill/expertise)?  1  2  3  4  5 1.3 Surface credibility

People make initial assessments of the system creditability based on a firsthand inspection. Does the program look like it can do what it is supposed to do?

1. Is the program visually attractive?

2. Is the language used logical, understandable and familiar to the users?

 1  2  3  4  5  1  2  3  4  5 1 – E xt re m e ly sat is fi e s t h e he ur is tic, 2 – V e ry sat is fi e d, 3 – M ode rat e ly sa tis fi e s, 4 – S lig ht ly sat is fi e s, 5 – D oe s not sat is fy

References

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