January 30, 2009
HaveASec? Collect Mobile Feedback with Stanford iPhone App
The Stanford iPhone class released some great apps and finally got a little love from TechCrunch. One app I have been using frequently is HaveASec.
Developed by Nafis Jamal, Paul Wilson and Andrew He, HaveASec is perfect for collecting mobile surveys and polls even if your participants don't have an iPhone. Unfortunately, we are inundated with spam and it's often difficult to collect useful feedback with traditional tools like SurveyMonkey. One persuasive technique that's been effective for me is sending a short URL via text message. The personal nature of the phone and mobile optimized interface makes it easy to rapidly collect data with HaveASec.
As a researcher interested in contextual sensing, HaveASec is also useful for catching people in action. If you're an app developer you can embed a survey directly within your application and get the rich comments you can't possibly infer from just clickstream metrics. I can also see how health organizations or even restaurants can ask a few non-obtrusive questions to improve their service. I am much more likely to respond to a survey while I'm waiting in line than fill out some piece of paper weeks later. Try making a survey online or directly from your iPhone and let us know what you think in the comments below.
Go directly to HaveAsec in the iTunes App Store here or check out their web page where you can create a survey now.
Posted by Enrique at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 25, 2008
Texting Your Way to Love
WARNING PG-13: Possibly inappropriate for young viewers
Pay attention to the following steps and watch how to text your way to love:
1. The first text
2. Flirxting
3. Drunk Texting
4. The phone call
5. 80's party
6. The text message breakup
Posted by Enrique at 08:22 PM | Comments (0)
September 17, 2008
Lifestreaming diet challenge
Loic Le Meur (Founder, Seesmic) showed an interesting example of a video conversation thread challenging people to improve their diet and lose weight at the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB) event last night.
Do you think that video lifestreaming can improve your health? Let us know what you think in the comments. For more information on the importance of online video check out the recent conference we hosted at Stanford.
--Enrique
Posted by Enrique at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2008
How does Facebook motivate you to update your status?
Facebook uses a number of persuasive strategies to make you update your status with a new message. If your status message becomes stale after a week or you manually clear it, a security alarm goes off telling Facebook engineers to act quickly and convince you to update (surveillance).
Thinking of a new SMU can be difficult, so Facebook automatically places the question, “What are you doing right now?” prominently for you to see. Having a specific question to answer makes it easier to comply (tunneling). People have high ability when it comes to changing their status- it's a simple call to action. Facebook wants you to type anything in the little box even if it only makes sense to you. SMU on Facebook is like being on a stage but you can't always tell who watching.
Unless you subscribe to status updates on your phone like on Twitter or actively micro-blog, the chances of someone explicitly encouraging you to update is low. Therefore Facebook must use scheduled reinforcement to remind users to update their status regularly or face the punishment of a looming question (conditioning).
By asking what users are doing next to updates from friends, Facebook also encourages users to internalize their actions in relation to others. Facebook recommends SMUs from certain friends based on previous interaction (tailoring). The SMU algorithm senses interaction like chating or common group membership with someone and tries to display the most relevant SMUs. When you befriend a person you are telling Facebook that you are interested in this person right now. Facebook sees this as an opportunity to create an interaction point and displays your new friend’s SMU. The process of Facebook monitoring you is persuasive because people are more likely to change their status if they know Facebook is paying attention and friends they care about are doing it too. When users fail to disclose new information, Facebook increases motivation by using a combination of surveillance, tunneling (info), conditioning, and tailoring strategies.
What motivates you to update?
Posted by Enrique at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)
May 21, 2008
Persuasion through Status Message Update "SMU" on Facebook
Building on a recent presentation to the Psychology of Facebook Course at Stanford University and a previous post, it's time to addresses SMU persuasion at the platform level.
Behind the scenes, how is Facebook slowly persuading people to use SMU?
Lets start with reviewing the Facebook SMU calls to action:
-Asking users "What are you doing right now?" by automatically changing blank SMUs and placing the call to action prominently on the profile page of users (Strong)
* Similar to the hallmark persuasive tactic of putting a large ??question mark?? on blank profile images, users either ignore the question or answer it. The strength of social proof and impression management triggers increase when all your friends are answering the question but you aren't.
-View Status Stories (Weak)
* Just ask yourself how often you have viewed SMU stories. I would like to see Facebook analytics on this.
-Subscribe to status messages via RSS and SMS (Weak)
* Just ask yourself how many people you subscribe to directly from Facebook. Unlike Twitter and other platforms built around SMU, Facebook does not have a culture of "following" people.
Other interesting persuasive strategies:
-Displaying SMU during chat sessions
* By increasing the amount of times a user views their own SMU, the probability that they will change their SMU increases. Unless you really want to see the same SMU for a long time, you are likely to erase or change it after it becomes stale.
-Mobile interface news feed algorithm places more emphasis on SMU browsing in Home and Friends tabs
* When you are on your phone, SMU can be more useful especially when users disclose location and potential interaction points, like the intention to go...
-Automatically sensing status
*By far the most interesting aspect of SMU that I will explore more in my paper. How do you feel about Facebook sensing your status?
Where should Facebook go with SMU?
Currently Facebook SMU functionality includes:
1. Unlimited SMUs of 68 characters each
2. SMU with HTML links
3. SMU time stamp of minutes, hours, days, week, month
4. Personal SMU "stories" of 50+ days
5. Selective SMU viewing and subscription
6. Distribution of Status Message Updates
a. Profile Page Mini-Feed
b. Home Side-Bar
c. RSS and SMS
d. Chat
e. Friends Page
SMU can have multiple purposes ranging from perceptive presence to microblogging, but essentially it's all about managing and acquiring ATTENTION .
On Facebook many SMUs fall into the following categories:
-Materials: "lost money in a lottery half way around the world!!"; "is drinking a fine glass of Floral Springs Cab."
-Emotion: "is trying to relax."
-Health: "is about to start exercising... day went by quick!"
-Location: "is vegas"
-Recommendations: "eating organic stuff...you should too! :-) (And go hug a tree while you're at it)."
-Relationships: "just had the best talk with her dad :)"
-Tasks: "furiously preparing for Web 2.0 Expo SF!"
-Marketing: "says to check out http://getbackboard.com."
-Any other categories we are missing? Please comment
We cannot engage with SMUs posted by other users through commenting/sharing/rating and it's unclear where the conversation goes after someone reads an interesting SMU. People can react to SMUs through all the channels on Facebook (wall, poke, message, apps, etc) but Facebook isn't tracking this explicitly. Apparently, Facebook doesn't even care about your SMUs after a few weeks and deletes them, further decreasing the incentive to update frequently. In addition, we can only express ourselves through text based SMU instead of emoticons or anything else that can fit in the SMU box. Rather than push the limits of SMU, Facebook will wait to glean best practices from other companies and apps in the space.
Context will continue to be the most important persuasive element for platform developers as users express variations of the same content (text, images, video) through SMU. How can you design SMU features to harvest the most valuable content at the right time. More importantly how do you value some SMUs over others in aggregate?
Posted by Enrique at 12:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 16, 2008
Attention through Status Message Update (SMU)
Through the Psychology of Facebook and Data Mining and Electronic Business classes at Stanford, I propose the term:
Status Message Update (SMU).
SMU is a unit and mechanism of asynchronous light weight communication distributed to an audience. SMU can be a currency and service, similar to SMS.
Communicating "status" is essential to our most valuable source of capital- attention. We are experiencing a temporary attention micro-economy right at this moment if you are reading this. However, attention does not come in precise, indistinguishable units. SMU is a metric emerging from social media that can potentially help us better understand attention.
How to persuade attention through the Facebook SMU?
Getting attention is more than a momentary thing because you build on a SMU stock. For example, if I post a SMU to "BUY THIS VACUUM CLEANER!" every five minutes, my network of friends would change their privacy settings and think some combination of the following:
a. I'm wasting a 100k at Stanford
b. I have OCD
c. Some advertiser is paying something worth more than my soul
However, if your SMU is new, real, original, or provocative then you might start acquiring subscriptions exponentially through Facebook's various viral channels. Thus, obtaining attention through SMU is obtaining a kind of enduring wealth, a form of wealth that puts you in the VIP seat to get anything the attention economy offers.
"Contrary to what you are sometimes urged to believe, money cannot reliably buy attention."
-Michael H. Goldhaber
Stay tuned for the next addition of Kairos through Status Message Update (SMU). Please feel free to contact me and shred this post to pieces!
Thank you for your attention,
Enrique Allen
Mark reviews services like ping.fm, hellotxt, MoodBlast, and Socialthing that hopefully facilitate valuable SMU for you.
Facebook, if I get your attention, I would greatly appreciate analyzing your status data and comparing it with Super Status lol!
Posted by Enrique at 04:09 AM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2008
Mobile People Discovery
iFob acts as a beacon, saying “I am here!” and automatically exchanges “micro profiles” with other other iFob users in the area. You can maintain privacy with this mobile application by simply listening for other iFob pings and reaching out when you choose. This is a converging step towards discovery, status updates and serendipity with existing applications like twitter and dodgeball.
--Enrique Allen
Posted by Enrique at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)
February 02, 2008
Mobile Checkout at the Bustop
Bus operator Go North East claims to be the UK's first cashless and paperless fare system allowing customers to order and receive tickets by texting "txt2go" to the number 60060. The system was developed by Go North East in partnership with IT services company Atos Origin and mobile-ticketing specialist Swiftpass. I hope at the very least we can save a few trees.
--Enrique Allen
Posted by Enrique at 12:56 AM | Comments (0)
January 03, 2008
From Freerice to Mobile Mechanical Turks for Peace
Can we provide the right incentives for people to Subvert and Profit for things that increase positive net benefit like possibly an anonymous witness program to help solve problems such as too many unsolved murders right here in East Palo Alto.
How can we design more applications like FreeRice that incorporate the model of the Mechanical Turk to provide human intelligence tasks like analyzing the geospatial footage of Bhutto's recent assassination (people did it for Steve Fosset and Microsoft's James Grey). Lots of authentication and security issues but the take home is mass interpersonal persuasion of people in the wired world to do "good" things with their collective knowledge and providing meaningful opportunities for the developing part-time internet workforce. Just imagine what we could do with a mobile Turker Nation of crowd sourcing and more applications like Plusmo.
--Enrique Allen
Posted by Enrique at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)
December 28, 2007
Apple Mobile Checkout Skips Lines
As mobile phones continue to augment our experiences everyday, Apple hopes to patent a processing system "that includes a wireless communication interface that wirelessly communicates with one or more wireless client devices in the vicinity of an establishment. The wireless communication interface receives a remote order corresponding to an item selected by at least one of the wireless client devices. A local server computer located in proximity to the establishment generates instructions for processing the remote order received from the wireless communication interface. The local server computer then passes the processing instructions to an order processing queue in preparation for processing of the remote order" according to a recent patent application from engineer Anthony Fadell. Whether this exclusive technology will eliminate lines at our local Starbucks is yet to come, but hints at the coming intersection of location disclosure and consumer interests.
Posted by Enrique at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)
December 03, 2007
Mobile Story Bestsellers
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, half of Japan's top-10 selling works of fiction in the first six months of the year were composed on the tiny handset of a mobile phone. They sold an average of 400,000 copies prompting president of Goma Books, Masayoshi Yoshino, "to establish this not simply as a fad, but as a new kind of culture". The stories traverse teen romance, sex, drugs and other adolescent terrain in a succession of clipped one-liners, emoticons and spaces (used to show that a character is thinking), all of which can be read easily on a mobile phone interface. Mobile phone novels - or keitai shousetsu - may soon reach the bestseller lists outside Japan and provide inspiration for new channels of expression.
Posted by Enrique at 01:54 AM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2007
Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones
Demand for cell phone jammers is increasing according to oversea exporters who ship hundreds to cafe owners, hoteliers, public speakers and even bus drivers. “If anything characterizes the 21st century, it’s our inability to restrain ourselves for the benefit of other people,” said James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University. The F.C.C aims to prosecute distributors and detect usage in order to maintain multi-billion dollar contracts with cellphone carriers and address public safety concerns.
Posted by Enrique at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)
October 07, 2007
Deciphering Trends in Mobile Search
Google researchers published an article in the IEEE Computer Society's Computer Magazine showing that cell-phone subscribers are typing longer queries in less time and clicking on more results.
--The average mobile query was 2.56 words and 16.8 characters. Smartphone query strings were 2.64 words. (By contrast, PC search strings are roughly 2.5 words.)
--In 2005, users followed less than 10 percent of queries with at least one click on a search result. In 2007, that percentage rose to well over 50 percent. Additionally, the percentage of queries followed by a request for “more search results” increased from 8.5 percent to 10.5 percent.
--The number of queries per session has increased more than 25 percent from 2005.
Posted by Enrique at 01:57 AM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2007
Instant Media Messaging
Zannel integrates mobile status updates with photo and video sharing that can be viewed on your phone or the web. This adds another layer of multimedia to microblogging and mobile social networking sites such as Twitter and Yappd.
Posted by Enrique at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2007
New Forms of E-Learning Among US Teens and Tweens
Beyond just mobile persuasion, our lab is also interested in new forms of communication and how these new tools can enhance learning. We're interested to see how persuasion will play a role in the future of online (and mobile!) learning.
A new study released today by the National School Boards Association and Grunwald Associates LLC explores the online behaviors of U.S. teens and "tweens". The study shows that:
- 96 percent of students with online access use social networking technologies (chatting, text messaging, blogging, and visiting online communities such as Facebook, MySpace, and Webkinz)
- 60 percent report that one of the most common topics of conversation on the social networking scene is education.
- 50 percent of online students say they talk specifically about schoolwork.
- 50 percent have engaged in "creative activities," including uploading photos and video
Full study here: http://www.nsba.org/site/view.asp?CID=63&DID=41340
From NSBA.org
Posted by Dan at 01:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Health & Mobile Phones - Vodaphone's overview in 48 pages
Ken Banks sent me a link to Vodaphone's recent report on mobile phones and health care.
http://www.kiwanja.net/database/kiwanja_searchdetails.php?id=352
I've posted a snapshop of the contents below.
--BJ Fogg
Posted by BJ Fogg at 10:27 AM
August 07, 2007
Health Info, On the Go
TauMed Health, a social network centered around health, just launched a mobile version of their site. The idea of staying tapped in to a mobile health network 24/7 is compelling. As it is now though, TauMed's mobile service is focused more on information-gathering rather than social networking, which makes it less interesting from a persuasion standpoint.
There are a lot of players in the mobile health space, and here at the Captology lab, we're excited to watch as mobile health evolves.
from Mashable
Posted by Dan at 09:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 12, 2007
Google's persuasive mobile platform grows
Restaurants, shops, cinemas and bars among many companies are one step closer to promoting their services to mobile subscribers based on their immediate location through Google Maps. The free mobile version is available for a wide range of handset models and is growing through the introduction of personalized "Maplets" which can overlay anything that you can put into a normal webpage, including HTML, Javascript, and Flash. Realtors can overlay local crime statistics on a neighborhood while hotels can post pictures of the surrounding environment making maps used by potential clients more informative and interactive. However, Google's bottom-up approach continues to influence developers but its direct affect on consumers remains a question.
Posted by Enrique at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)
July 09, 2007
Persuasive GPS - Brings Your Friends Along!
New iPhone owners may be sorely disappointed at the lack of built-in GPS (including myself!), but TeleNav's new mobile GPS application may be a solution. TeleNav recently launched a new version of their in-phone GPS application which now includes key social networking features, allowing users to quickly send their current location information to friends and family. The app also enables users to review and rate businesses and share findings with friends. Timely suggestions in this application could be highly persuasive.
I believe that location-based mobile applications will define the future of mobile persuasion. Check back for updates from our lab on related projects and research.
[from CrunchGear]
----- Dan Ackerman-Greenberg
Posted by Dan at 02:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 27, 2007
Mobile Dating and the Principle of Kairos
An article in the Wall Street Journal showcases MeetMoi, a new dating service that connects prospective daters on their cell phones via SMS exchanges. Leading internet dating site Match.com also plans to go mobile in the near future.
Mobile dating opens the door for companies to use tried and true persuasion strategies in interesting new ways. For example, imagine an SMS dating service employing the "Principle of Kairos" - the strategy of providing the right
information at the best time. Timely notifications and messages could encourage mobile daters to change their behavior, potentially giving dating advice, good pickup lines, and suggestions for restaurants or bars.
Keep an eye out on the mobile dating scene - the use of persuasion techniques will be interesting.
----- Dan Ackerman-Greenberg
Posted by Dan at 04:10 PM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2007
SMS Campaigns in Asia Enable On-The-Go Social Activism
Recent protests in China, Pakistan and Thailand have involved a number of SMS-based mobile campaigns. Mobile Active points to the idea that the increased speed of SMS messaging enables a new kind of on-the-go social activism.
As the speed of mobile communication increases, an effective persuasive message has more potential to quickly reach a larger worldwide audience. Recent examples include....
CHINA
The Asia Sentinel reports that a recent backlash against a large petro-chemical plant incited a large scale mobile messaging campaign. The following message was sent to over 1 million mobile phones:
“For our children and grandchildren, act! Participate among 10,000 people, June 1 at 8am, opposite the municipal government building! Hand tie yellow ribbons! SMS all your Xiamen friends! “
http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=520&Itemid=31
PAKISTAN
DNA India reports that a popular message uses irony to deride the President of Pakistan General Musharraf:
“Imagine the pleasure of living in a land where the chief justice cannot get justice for himself and the army chief, security for his life.” Satire runs through a message pretending to be a campaign letter from Musharraf himself. Part of it reads: “I have the honour of kicking out from the country two former elected prime ministers...” The letter further reads, “I am the one who had handed over hundreds of Pakistanis to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation...” The letter then goes on, to say, “I almost sold a steel mill for the price of plastic toys... Please vote for my Pakistan Muslim League (Q) stooges... or don’t vote at all, so that I can enlighten you further!”
THAILAND
The Thai military is using SMS to overtly persuade people not to join protests. According to Forbes,
"Many people in Thailand have reported receiving unexpected SMS messages urging them to be calm and peaceful. 'Thai people should adhere to the king's speech, be calm ... reasonable and respect the laws,' said one message signed by the Council for National Security (CNS), as the junta calls itself. Another message read: 'The army chief and the junta leader want to see the country remain in peace and reach reconciliation. We request every party involved to do their best job and adhere to peaceful guidelines.' "
----- Dan Ackerman-Greenberg
Posted by Dan at 10:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 19, 2007
7 Categories of Mobile Texting for Health
Last week our lab members looked at how texting on mobile phones can be used to promote health. As it turns out, we decided that all the examples we found fit into seven categories.
1. Remind you to do health behavior
2. Collect data from you
3. Offer you words of inspiration
4. Keep you on schedule/routine
5. Alert you to health issue or crisis
6. Send you lab results
7. Give you health info on demand
Our next step is exploring texting for health in other countries and languages. If you know of some examples that don't fit into the categories above, let us know.
Posted by BJ Fogg at 02:51 PM | Comments (0)
Ian Bogost talks about Mobile Persuasion
Ian Bogost, one of my favorite academics and culture critics, talks about Mobile Persuasion in a recent blog post. He was an author in our new book, and his chapter is really insightful (as is all of Ian's work, except when I'm the subject of his critique!).
BJ Fogg, Ph.D.
Posted by BJ Fogg at 02:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 18, 2007
About 20 copies left of Mobile Persuasion book (first printing)
Our lab pulled together a book after the Mobile Persuasion event. We have about 20 copies left of the first printing. If you'd like to have this edition (for your collection, or perhaps to see which typos we missed in editing the first time around), you can order the book online at www.mobilepersuasion.com.
Mobile Persuasion: 20 Perspectives on the Future of Behavior Change
The book is a great collection of authors writing short chapters on the present and future for changing behaviors via mobile technology.
Posted by BJ Fogg at 06:25 PM | Comments (0)
Whew . . . Our busiest months ever
Our blog has been mostly silent, but we've had our busiest few months ever.
After we hosted an event on Mobile Persuasion for 280 people (www.mobilepersuasion.org), we published a book on this topic with 20 authors. (www.mobilepersuasion.com)
Then we hosted an academic conference on persuasive technology for 170 people. (www.persuasivetechnology.org) This was followed by a weekend at my home in wine country for 45 people, mostly from Europe.
Along the way my lab completed two experiments on mobile persuasion and launched some new lab projects. I spoke at a few conferences and companies. And I started planning a new course for fall.
Oh, yes: We also submitted a couple papers for publication and are now running the election for Persuasive 2008 (www.persuasive2008.org)
So you can see we've been busy. And we haven't kept you informed. We'll step back and cover some of what we've done. It has been perhaps the most interesting period in our lab's 10-year history. But we've done a poor job documenting this in blog form.
Posted by BJ Fogg at 05:43 PM | Comments (0)
November 01, 2006
Just Plain Simple
I'll admit I'm a gadget freak and the promise of mobile devices becoming more powerful to make my life easier is pretty exciting. Unfortunately, the complexity of today’s devices to perform multiple tasks is way beyond most people’s skill level and interest. While I believe that diabetes management is a futile area for innovation in mobile technology and health maintenance, I’m struck by a recent announcement by Lifescan. They just introduced an extremely simple and small glucose meter that has a large, easy to view screen and is small enough to fit in your pocket.
Mobile devices and health applications for older adults have a bright future but a cheap, easy to use glucose meter shows that simplicity is something high tech companies need to pay attention to as they develop their products.
Boomer Mobile Health Project
This entry is part of a study on how mobile devices and health applications will effect compliance, attitude and behavior change among older adults. The perspective of the Boomer Mobile Health project is that the considerable development of mobile health devices, applications and services will influence changes in the behaviors of older adults in the area of physical and mental fitness, disease management and education. If you know of good examples of mobile products designed for boomers, please e-mail me at MarkCarp@stanford.edu
Mark Carpenter
Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
Posted by Mark at 05:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 09, 2006
ELVAS Sighting
Paul Dybala has done some fantastic writing about ear-level voice activated systems (ELVAS) on the Audiology Online web site. The idea of hearing aids and other mobile devices becoming better connected has been around for a while and Paul’s article on hearing aids getting wired, lays out a future where wearing hearing aids become as hip as the latest wireless Bluetooth mobile phone headsets.
I think Paul’s perspective on this topic really points to a time in the not so distant future where, instead of denying a hearing loss problem because of the stigma of wearing a hearing aid, people will actually be looking for the latest in hearing aid fashion and technology. Imagine a world where when people age they don’t lose their hearing, it improves. The health benefits for the aging boomer segment are substantial and the opportunities for companies in this space, enormous.
Loss of hearing in old age can lead to a withdrawal from social interaction and cause depression and other health issues. A report from National Academy on an Aging Society says the 4 out of 5 American with hearing loss; do not use a hearing aid. Mobile technology advances and increased acceptance to in-ear and over-ear systems will help bring this number down.
Being able to hear well into your older years will greatly enhance the quality of life for aging populations and mobile technology will play a key role in this trend.
Comments markcarp@stanford.edu
Mark Carpenter
Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab
Posted by Mark at 06:55 AM | Comments (0)
October 01, 2006
Sports and Health
CBS Sportsline recently announced that it will be rolling out a mobile sports update service that sends scores, headlines, video and fantasy league information to mobile devices while ESPN announced it is ending a service that did the same. The difference? ESPN tried to wedge a particular handheld device and expensive plan into your hand while CBS is making it cheap (99 cents a month) and allowing you to use whatever device you want. This should be a lesson for mobile health device and application developers.
News story from Washington Post.
Mark Carpenter
Stanford University Mobile Persuasion Lab
markcarp@stanford.edu
Posted by Mark at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2006
RFID In Your Phone
As I was watching this segment on a local news channel, I started thinking that if a RFID tag in a phone could allow you to pay for and learn about products in a grocery store, it could probably help you make better drug interaction decisions. If the phone could read drug labels and compare them to what medications you are taking, it could save your life. RFID tags will make their way into phones for commerce reasons but extending capabilities to cover health applications won't be far behind.
Posted by Mark at 05:47 PM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2006
Motorola and Symbol
The Motorola acquisition of Symbol yesterday will help Motorola gain ground with big corporate clients in the retail, transport and health markets but will it also lead to new mobile consumer products using Symbol's RFID and scanning technologies? One can only speculate that Motorola's mobile handset building competency and Symbol's expertise in scanning technology could produce some pretty interesting mobile health applications. Could your mobile phone read the RFID tag in your blood pressure medication bottle to tell you that you haven't opened the bottle and taken your pills that day. Only time will tell...
Mark Carpenter
Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
markcarp@stanford.edu
Posted by Mark at 08:42 AM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2006
MobilAlert
Older adult's ability to live independently and remain mobile as they age is extremely important to their overall health and wellbeing. There have been a number of devices on the market to help people stay connected to caregivers for years. (Lifeline and Lifestation) New and improved products are now coming to market and will change the way in people live. MobilAlert is one of the new products. MobilAlert takes the Lifeline\Lifestation concept to the great outdoors in a simple to use design.
Keywords: health, technology, emergency, GPS, voice, aging
Description: A easy to use emergency alerting device for elderly users and those suffering from chronic diseases. MobilAlarm has two buttons that when pushed simultaneously will send a message over wireless network via a voice channel to a service that will be able to pinpoint the callers exact position using GPS and send help.
http://www.mobilalarm-eu.org/
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=42040
Persuasive Intent: To persuade people to go about their lives without fear as they age.
Target audience: 50 plus
Price: NA
Boomer Mobile Health Project
This entry is part of a study on how mobile devices and health applications will effect compliance, attitude and behavior change among older adults. The perspective of the Boomer Mobile Health project is that the considerable development of mobile health devices, applications and services will influence changes in the behaviors of older adults in the area of physical and mental fitness, disease management and education. If you know of good examples of mobile products designed for boomers, please e-mail me at MarkCarp@stanford.edu
Mark Carpenter
Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
Posted by Mark at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2006
Hearing Aids
My mother recently got a new hearing aid that has really changed her life. The device itself delivers really high quality sound and is almost invisible to wear. We were talking about it the other day and it occured to me that hearing aids were a good example of mobile persuasion. Poor hearing runs in my family and my mother was pointing out that this new Oticon Delta hearing aid was something I would need to consider at some point and this model is being marketed to baby boomers in denial about hearing loss because of the un-sightly devices that are typically sold today. You see more and more people wearing phone headsets these days on the streets and in airports. How far off are we from hearing aids being fashionable? When does the line between hearing aid and connected hearing gadget blur and your bluetooth phone is able to connect with your hearing aid?
Keywords: health, technology, hearing, bluetooth
Description: An extremely small and capable hearing aid that offers an in the ear speaker with an extremely small profile and advanced sound processing system. This product is squarely targeted at Baby boomers who are more likely to deny any hearing loss to avoid traditional hearing aids. This device is small and almost trendy. It is more like a bluetooth phone headset than a hearing aid and comes in multiple colors.
Persuasive Intent: To persuade people to do something about their hearing loss.
Target Audience: 50 plus
Price: $3,000
Boomer Mobile Health Project
This entry is part of a study on how mobile devices and health applications will effect compliance, attitude and behavior change among older adults. The perspective of the Boomer Mobile Health project is that the considerable development of mobile health devices, applications and services will influence changes in the behaviors of older adults in the area of physical and mental fitness, disease management and education. If you know of good examples of mobile products designed for boomers, please e-mail me at MarkCarp@stanford.edu
Mark Carpenter
Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
Posted by Mark at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2006
The Health ipod
So with Apple announcing the availability of movie downloads, new ipods and media devices, is it long before they move beyond the partnership with Nike and create the health ipod. The health ipod could monitor vital statistics and adjust the music to your current state and even suggest a movie that would help relieve any perceived stress. Why not an ipod that gives you an estimated mortality date based on the information it's picking up from your body. Just had a cigarette, watch the death clock tick down ever so slightly.
With more and more people using ipods for more and more things, it's not that far fetched to think that the ipod, not the traditional mobile phone will be the platform for mobile health applications and services.
Mark Carpenter
Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab
markcarp@stanford.edu
Posted by Mark at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)
September 04, 2006
Mobile Menstrual
He's an interesting mobile application I ran across while searching the web. While this may not be aimed at an older audience, it's at least aimed at a mature audience. I first ran across it as a add on to a new pink clam shell phone designed for women. I looked a around a little more and found that it is available as freeware on the Internet.
Keywords: health, technology, menstrual, mobile, phone
DescriptionThe Mobile Menstrual software is a free download and comes pre-instralled on the CKT 6689 mobile phone. This mobile application helps keep track of your menstrual cycle and is often called an ovulation calendar. The software runs on any mobile phone and will give you stats on past cycles, show multiple cycle statistics and will predict future cycles on past data. The application will show fertility information on it's calendar that can be used to help conception or to avoid it.
http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2006/07/ckt_6689_mobile.html
Persuasive Intent: To persuade women when and when not to engage in sexual activity base on the desire to conceive or to avoid conception.
Target audience: Mature women
Price: Freeware
Boomer Mobile Health Project
This entry is part of a study on how mobile devices and health applications will effect compliance, attitude and behavior change among older adults. The perspective of the Boomer Mobile Health project is that the considerable development of mobile health devices, applications and services will influence changes in the behaviors of older adults in the area of physical and mental fitness, disease management and education. If you know of good examples of mobile products designed for boomers, please e-mail me at MarkCarp@stanford.edu
Mark Carpenter
Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
Posted by Mark at 05:25 PM | Comments (0)
September 02, 2006
Simplicity
Features are constantly being added to mobile phones and most people really just want use them to talk. Bluetooth is a great addition to mobile devices but pairing a Bluetooth device is never an easy task. I've paired a pda, a headset, a computer and a car and each time the process created challenges. Using Bluetooth for add-on health applications is a sound technical direction but companies will need to make sure these devices talk to each other seamlessly.
Features and add-ons are great for the consumer but are often ignored because of the learning curve is too high and benefits are not often apparent. Health companies hoping to sell mobile health products and services to an aging population will need to address simplicity as a core strategic component of their offering. My experience tells me that older adults are more than willing to try new technology but have very little patience with complicated solutions to simple needs. Comments to MarkCarp@stanford.edu
Mark Carpenter
Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
Posted by Mark at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2006
Sexy or useful
As I've talked to people and looked around on the web at examples of mobile health devices and applications for boomers, I've come to realize that a vast majority of the focus is on chronic disease maintenance with the mobile phones playing a key role. The problem I see with this is that while mobile phones are becoming ubiquitous and extremely reliable, the majority of the effort of manufacturers and wireless carriers is on phone sexiness and entertainment.
My wife and I recently upgraded our phones and made some interesting decisions. I opted for a Cingular 8125 because I wanted something that would help organize my life, have a full keyboard and allow me to take fairly good pictures for me personal mobile blog. My wife decided to get a pink RAZR because it was thin and sexy. I see a disconnect between what people want in mobile phones and what is being sold and what would ultimately help transform the mobile phone into something to base health applications and services. MarkCarp@stanford.edu
Mark Carpenter
Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
Posted by Mark at 11:26 AM | Comments (0)
August 30, 2006
Alive Mobile Sports Monitoring
Mobile heart rate monitoring and other vital statistic tracking is a growing field for fitness and medicine. As these products get smaller and are capable of sending real time data over existing wireless networks, we will see more uses for older adults.
Keywords: health, technology,cardiac, fitness, heart, training
Description:
The Alive Heart Monitor is a wireless mobile sports monitoring system capable of recording real time ECG, heart rate, speed, altitude and location tracking. The devices connects to a mobile phone using bluetooth and transmits data to a central server or other mobile device. This device has both fitness and chronic disease management applications.
http://www.alivetec.com/products.htm
Persuasive Intent: To persuade athletes to better monitor important health statistics when training to optimize performance.
Target audience: Elite athletes and older recreational athletes with health concerns.
Price: NA
Boomer Mobile Health Project
This entry is part of a study on how mobile devices and health applications will effect compliance, attitude and behavior change among older adults. The perspective of the Boomer Mobile Health project is that the considerable development of mobile health devices, applications and services will influence changes in the behaviors of older adults in the area of physical and mental fitness, disease management and education. If you know of good examples of mobile products designed for boomers, please e-mail me at MarkCarp@stanford.edu
Mark Carpenter
Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
Posted by Mark at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)
August 29, 2006
Mobile Diabetes Management
A number of companies are rolling out mobile devices and software to help the rapidly growing number of Amercians suffering from diabetes. A few of the companies I looked at were Think Positive Diabetes, Welldoc Communications, and Diabetes Mobil from Symbian. These applications and devices can be used by anyone with diabetes but over half of all people with diabetes are over 50.
Keywords: health, technology, diabetes, management, mobile, disease, glucose, monitor
Description:These devices and applications give you reassurance that your condition is being closely monitored and lets you take better control of the disease by making it easier to track glucose levels, receive alerts and have access to up to date information. These systems will give you and your physician up to date feedback on results, make it easier to track changes to your condition and allow you to re-order supplies from your pharmacy. In some cases, all that is needed is a mobile phone for input but bluetooth is being used in glucose monitors to simplify the process.
Links:
https://www.thinkdiabetes.com/tpdiabetes/
http://www.welldoc-communications.com/index.html
http://my-symbian.com/s80/software/applications.php?faq=25&fldAuto=74
Persuasive Intent: To persuade people with diabetes to manage their disease better by tracking results, getting up to date information on their condition and receiving motivational feedback.
Target Audience: Thirty somethings to boomers
Price: $39.95 for simple tracking software to a few hundred dollars for bundled devices, services and applications.
Boomer Mobile Health Project
This entry is part of a study on how mobile devices and health applications will effect compliance, attitude and behavior change among older adults. The perspective of the Boomer Mobile Health project is that the considerable development of mobile health devices, applications and services will influence changes in the behaviors of older adults in the area of physical and mental fitness, disease management and education. If you know of good examples of mobile products designed for boomers, please e-mail me at MarkCarp@stanford.edu
Posted by Mark at 07:35 AM | Comments (0)
August 23, 2006
Mobile Workouts
Here's another example of mobile persuasion technology for health aimed at anyone who works out. These types of products are mostly targeted at boomers with busy schedules and a desire for personalized programs to optimize their time. Numerous examples of these products are available and they can be created by almost anyone. Due to the current popularity of pilates workouts and the lack of qualified instructors, ipod pilates workouts are taking off.
Keywords: health, fitness, pilates, weight training, technology, strength
Description:Using a video ipod or Palm Treo type device, these programs can act as personal trainers for strength training, pilates, cardio training and other instructor based fitness programs. With audio and visual instruction, you can make the most of your work out time and get the one on one experience of a physical trainer.
Links to mobile workout sites.
http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2006/01/18/pumppod_ipod_video_workouts.php
http://www.naturalphysiques.com/cms/index.php?itemid=535
http://www.marinaonline.com/new/mp3downloads.php
http://www.pumpone.com/?source=gawpup04&kw=ipod+pilates
Persuasive Intent: To persuade users to work out regularly by providing audio\visual instruction on a fashionable, mobile device.
Target audience: Thirty somethings to early boomers.
Price: $0 to $65 for software, $300 plus for video ipod or Palm Trio.
Boomer Mobile Health Project
This entry is part of a study on how mobile devices and health applications will effect compliance, attitude and behavior change among older adults. The perspective of the Boomer Mobile Health project is that the considerable development of mobile health devices, applications and services will influence changes in the behaviors of older adults in the area of physical and mental fitness, disease management and education. If you know of good examples of mobile products designed for boomers, please e-mail me at MarkCarp@stanford.edu
Posted by Mark at 06:42 AM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2006
My Last Cigarette
Here's another example of mobile persuasion technology for health aimed at anyone who smokes but with a slant towards boomers who will have been smoking longer than most smokers and will have access to advanced pda's and smartphones.
Keywords: health, smoking, cessation, technology, software, windows, mobile 5
Description:
A tool to track smoking cessation activities using a pda or smartphone and windows mobile version 5. The program allows you to track and visualize the damage cigarettes are doing you your body by giving you feedback on carbon monoxide intake, nicotine level, lung health and other vital statistics.
http://www.mastersoftmobilesolutions.com/lastcigarette_ppc.php
Persuasive Intent: To persuade smokers to stop smoking.
Prices: $14.95
Boomer Mobile Health Project
This entry is part of a study on how mobile devices and health applications will effect compliance, attitude and behavior change among older adults. The perspective of the Boomer Mobile Health project is that the considerable development of mobile health devices, applications and services will influence changes in the behaviors of older adults in the area of physical and mental fitness, disease management and education. If you know of good examples of mobile products designed for boomers, please e-mail me at MarkCarpenter@stanford.edu
Posted by Mark at 06:30 AM | Comments (0)
August 18, 2006
SIMpill
Here's another example of mobile persuasion technology for health aimed at primarily aimed at boomers.
Keywords: health, technology, medication, sms, mobile, medication, pharmaceuticals
Description:
SIMpill is a medication compliance technology in the form of a sms enabled pill bottle that sends text messages to a central server that stores the information for statistical purposes or sends out reminders to the patient or caregivers if action is required. SIMpilll is intended to remind people that they need to take their medication and provide feedback if the medication timeframe is missed.
Persuasive Intent: To remind and persuade on time medication use.
Target audience: Older adults
Price: NA
Boomer Mobile Health Project
This entry is part of a study on how mobile devices and health applications will effect compliance, attitude and behavior change among older adults. The perspective of the Boomer Mobile Health project is that the considerable development of mobile health devices, applications and services will influence changes in the behaviors of older adults in the area of physical and mental fitness, disease management and education. If you know of good examples of mobile products designed for boomers, please e-mail me at MarkCarpenter@stanford.edu
Posted by Mark at 07:13 AM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2006
myfoodphone
Here's another example of mobile persuasion technology for health aimed at primarily aimed at boomers.
Keywords: health, technology, boomers, diet, mobile, camera, phone, food.
Description:
myfoodphone is a mobile application that allows users to keep track of their food intake by taking a picture of their meal and sending it to a service that monitors what they eat and helps them to modify their eating habits. Users of this service can take pictures of food and post them to visual web based food journal, receive feedback from nutrition advisors, compare each weeks food intake, view graphs of bio-metric data changes over time and access a number of other personalized dieting tools on the go.
http://www.myfoodphone.com/index.aspx
Persuasive Intent: To persuade users to change eating habits and to provide tools and feedback to make better decisions about what to eat.
Target Audience: Boomers would be a primary target but this service could be used by anyone with a camera phone.
Price: $9.99 a month
Boomer Mobile Health Project
This entry is part of a study on how mobile devices and health applications will effect compliance, attitude and behavior change among older adults. The perspective of the Boomer Mobile Health project is that the considerable development of mobile health devices, applications and services will influence changes in the behaviors of older adults in the area of physical and mental fitness, disease management and education. If you know of good examples of mobile products designed for boomers, please e-mail me at MarkCarpenter@stanford.edu
Posted by Mark at 05:59 AM | Comments (0)
August 11, 2006
Brain Age
Here's another example of mobile persuasion technology for health aimed at Boomers specifically.
Keywords: mental, health, technology, software, nintendo, game, ds.
Description
Brain Age is a game for the mobile Nintendo DS gaming system that helps keep your brain healthy and fit. "Use it or lose it" is the old adage and Brain Age is intended to work your brain like you do any other muscle in your body. The Brain Age exercises include solving simple math and logic problems, reading aloud and memory tests.
Persuasive Intent: To persuade individuals to do daily brain sharpening exercises and improve their overall Brain Age score.
http://www.brainage.com/launch/index.jsp
Target audience: Boomers
Price: $19.95
Boomer Mobile Health Project
This entry is part of a study on how mobile devices and health applications will effect compliance, attitude and behavior change among older adults. The perspective of the Boomer Mobile Health project is that the considerable development of mobile health devices, applications and services will influence changes in the behaviors of older adults in the area of physical and mental fitness, disease management and education. If you know of good examples of mobile products designed for boomers, please e-mail me at MarkCarpenter@stanford.edu
Posted by Mark at 08:30 AM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2006
Nike + ipod Sport Kit
Keywords: health, running, fitness, technology, training, cardio, apple, ipod, nike.
Description
As your run or walk, the sensor sends information to your iPod nano, tracking your time, distance, pace, and calories burned. If you choose, real-time, spoken feedback can even alert you to milestones throughout your workout. This information can then be synced with a desktop computer, stored and compared.
http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/
Persuasive Intent: To persuade individuals to set goals and work harder at running and walking programs.
Target Audience: Mid thirties to early boomers.
Price: $29 for sport kit, $200 for ipod nano and $100 for shoes.
Boomer Mobile Health Project
This entry is part of a study on how mobile devices and health applications will effect compliance, attitude and behavior change among older adults. The perspective of the Boomer Mobile Health project is that the considerable development of mobile health devices, applications and services will influence changes in the behaviors of older adults in the area of physical and mental fitness, disease management and education. If you know of good examples of mobile products designed for boomers, please e-mail me at MarkCarpenter@stanford.edu
Posted by Mark at 08:04 AM | Comments (0)
July 23, 2006
Free Registration for Mobile Persuasion 06 (limited time)
Our lab is sponsoring Mobile Persuasion 06, a one-day conference on how mobile technology can change people's beliefs and behaviors. This event will be at Stanford University on Friday, November 10th.
We're offering free registration to the folks who sign up earliest. At some point, we'll end the free offer and start charging to attend.
To learn more see www.mobilepersuasion.org.
- BJ Fogg
Posted by BJ Fogg at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)
June 03, 2006
"MetroNerd" - a mobile phone app to make nerds cooler
Can a mobile phone application motivate people to be less geeky? Three Finnish students think so. They outlined the concept during a course I taught on mobile persuasion at the University of Oulu.
motivates... 
In eleven slides engineering students Teppo Raisanen, Saana Orjala, and Samuli Ruti describe how MetroNerd can help the "typical male nerd" to "be more popular with the ladies." Specifically, MetroNerd is a mobile quiz game intended to improve the appearance, behavior, and sex appeal of nerds (sign me up!). In theory, the app would motivate users with a vision of greater social acceptance [see storyboard]. As people play the game, they rehearse behaviors and receive instant rewards for hip choices.
The MetroNerd design trio won an award. To motivate the (often shy) Finnish students to take risks, I offered the class a prize for the wackiest project. After the presentations were done and the student votes were counted, MetroNerd came out on top. Their award for wackiness? Three big Snickers bars.
-- BJ Fogg
Posted by BJ Fogg at 08:27 AM | Comments (1)