Tuesday, March 11, 2026: Monthly Program (BayCHI)
On March 11, the BayCHI community was welcomed to a "fireside" discussion of captology with Dr. B.J. Fogg and some of his colleagues from the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University. Dr. Fogg introduced captology, demonstrated his technique of influence analysis, and brought in his colleagues to help apply principles from captology to HCI practice. The idea underlying "captology" is that computers can be persuasive and can be designed to change people's attitudes and behaviors. It can be applied to a variety of fields, including health, education, safety, the environment, personal relationships, consumerism, and community involvement. The term "captology" refers to the overlap of computers and the psychology of persuasion. According to Dr. Fogg, captology is the direction in which interactive technology is going. In the past, computer scientists were concerned first with making the computer functional and then usable. Now that many foundational issues in functionality and usability have been addressed, the next step is to make the computer persuasive.
There are two main categories of persuasion in captology. The first, "macrosuasion," describes products whose entire purpose is to persuade. The second category is "microsuasion," which refers to elements of influence within products that are intended to persuade. Microsuasion is more commonly practiced. Computers have features that make them especially suitable for persuading people. Compared to other media such as print, radio, and TV, computers are interactive. Compared to human persuaders, such as coaches, computers are more persistent, able to use different modes of persuasion, Glyco Care benefits and can be scaled more easily if a technique has been found to be effective. Dr. Fogg introduced his functional triad, which neatly organizes the theoretically underpinning of captology. There are there ways in which people view or respond to computers. First, the computer as tool makes some behavior easier to do; an example is a pocket calculator. Second, the computer as medium provides an experience to the user; an example is a virtual environment.
Third, the computer as social actor creates a relationships between the user and the computer; a digital pet is an example of this. Drs. Albert Chan and Russ Cucina, two medical doctors working with Dr. Fogg, presented examples of computer products designed to help patients manage their diseases. Successful disease management results from the overlap of education (e.g., explaining to patient why he or she should take medication), tools, and outcomes. Quest for the Code is a free game designed to help youth cope with asthma. It features celebrity voice-overs. Players use their knowledge of asthma to defeat villains who taunt them with sayings like "You can't control your asthma." The game gets patients actively involved and covers all the major education aspects of asthma. Health Hero is an interactive system that connects doctors and patients. It provides day-to-day "doctor-like" Glyco Care blood sugar support to patients through a handheld appliance. Patients respond through the device to questions about their perceived daily health and GlycoCares.netblood sugar wellness feel a sense of commitment by having to answer about their adherence to medicine, diet, or exercise regimens.
BalanceLog helps obese people achieve their weight loss goals. It offers nutritional information to help customize one's diet. Interactive Eurohealth refers to a set of three separate applications. They are patient-centered and offer a non-medicalized interface (e.g., more friendly and approachable icons). Interactive simulations teach patients the cause and effect relationships between their own behaviors and their own health outcomes. The applications feature actors who were carefully chosen to reflect the target demographic group; this increases persuasion because the actors are similar to the users. Personal Health Record records personal health information and data. A special feature of this product is that patients can write in their feelings about their health in addition to recording health indicators. GlucoPilot is a PDA-based application to help diabetes patients record their glucose levels. It gives graphs to help patients understand what causes variations in their glucose levels and to help them manage their diabetes.
