Oyibo Kiemute, Morita Plinio Pelegrini
School of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Health, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
JMIR Form Res. 2022 Sep 6;6(9):e34212. doi: 10.2196/34212.
The adoption of contact tracing apps worldwide has been low. Although considerable research has been conducted on technology acceptance, little has been done to show the benefit of incorporating persuasive principles.
This research aimed to investigate the effect of persuasive features in the COVID Alert app, created by Health Canada, by focusing on the no-exposure status, exposure status, and diagnosis report interfaces.
We conducted a study among 181 Canadian residents, including 65 adopters and 116 nonadopters. This study was based on screenshots of the 3 interfaces, of which each comprised a persuasive design and a control design. The persuasive versions of the first two interfaces supported self-monitoring (of exposure levels), and that of the third interface supported social learning (about how many other users have reported their diagnosis). The 6 screenshots were randomly assigned to 6 groups of participants to provide feedback on perceived persuasiveness and adoption willingness.
A multivariate repeated-measure ANOVA showed that there is an interaction among interface, app design, and adoption status regarding the perceived persuasiveness of the interfaces. This resulted in a 2-way ANOVA for each interface. For the no-exposure interface, there was an interaction between adoption status and app design. Among adopters, there was no significant difference P=.31 between the persuasive design (mean 5.36, SD 1.63) and the control design (mean 5.87, SD 1.20). However, among nonadopters, there was an effect of app design (P<.001), with participants being more motivated by the persuasive design (mean 5.37, SD 1.30) than by the control design (mean 4.57, SD 1.19). For the exposure interface, adoption status had a main effect (P<.001), with adopters (mean 5.91, SD 1.01) being more motivated by the designs than nonadopters (mean 4.96, SD 1.43). For the diagnosis report interface, there was an interaction between adoption status and app design. Among nonadopters, there was no significant difference P=.99 between the persuasive design (mean 4.61, SD 1.84) and the control design (mean 4.77, SD 1.21). However, among adopters, there was an effect of app design (P=.006), with participants being more likely to report their diagnosis using the persuasive design (mean 6.00, SD 0.97) than using the control design (mean 5.03, SD 1.22). Finally, with regard to willingness to download the app, pairwise comparisons showed that nonadopters were more likely to adopt the app after viewing the persuasive version of the no-exposure interface (13/21, 62% said yes) and the diagnosis report interface (12/17, 71% said yes) than after viewing the control versions (3/17, 18% and 7/16, 44%, respectively, said yes).
Exposure notification apps are more likely to be effective if equipped with persuasive features. Incorporating self-monitoring into the no-exposure status interface and social learning into the diagnosis report interface can increase adoption by >30%.
全球范围内接触者追踪应用程序的采用率较低。尽管在技术接受方面已经进行了大量研究，但在展示纳入说服性原则的益处方面做得很少。
本研究旨在通过关注无暴露状态、暴露状态和诊断报告界面，调查加拿大卫生部创建的COVID Alert应用程序中说服性特征的效果。
我们对181名加拿大居民进行了一项研究，其中包括65名采用者和116名未采用者。本研究基于3个界面的截图，每个界面都包括一个说服性设计和一个对照设计。前两个界面的说服性版本支持自我监测（暴露水平），第三个界面的说服性版本支持社会学习（了解有多少其他用户报告了他们的诊断）。这6张截图被随机分配给6组参与者，以提供关于感知说服力和采用意愿的反馈。
多变量重复测量方差分析表明，在界面、应用程序设计和采用状态之间，关于界面的感知说服力存在交互作用。这导致对每个界面进行双向方差分析。对于无暴露界面，采用状态和应用程序设计之间存在交互作用。在采用者中，说服性设计（均值5.36，标准差1.63）和对照设计（均值5.87，标准差1.20）之间没有显著差异（P = 0.31）。然而，在未采用者中，应用程序设计有影响（P < 0.001）——与对照设计（均值4.57，标准差1.19）相比，参与者受说服性设计（均值5.37，标准差1.30）的激励更大。对于暴露界面，采用状态有主效应（P < 0.001），采用者（均值5.91，标准差1.01）比未采用者（均值4.96，标准差1.43）受设计的激励更大。对于诊断报告界面，采用状态和应用程序设计之间存在交互作用。在未采用者中，说服性设计（均值4.61，标准差1.84）和对照设计（均值4.7,，标准差1.21）之间没有显著差异（P = 0.99）。然而，在采用者中，应用程序设计有影响（P = 0.006）——与对照设计（均值5.03，标准差1.22）相比，参与者使用说服性设计报告诊断的可能性更大（均值6.00，标准差0.97）。最后，关于下载应用程序的意愿，成对比较表明，未采用者在查看无暴露界面（13/21，62%表示愿意）和诊断报告界面（12/17，71%表示愿意）的说服性版本后比查看对照版本后（分别为3/17，18%和7/16，44%表示愿意）更有可能采用该应用程序。
如果具备说服性特征，暴露通知应用程序更有可能有效。将自我监测纳入无暴露状态界面并将社会学习纳入诊断报告界面可以使采用率提高30%以上。
