ABSTRACT

Digital personal assistants (DPAs) have recently grown in popularity because they are both a commercially available new technology and reasonably affordable to the average household. This opens opportunities for new ways to assist people in everyday activities in their homes through voice-interaction. Physical activity has significant health benefits, and yet globally, 1 in 4 adults are not active enough. To address this, we investigate the persuasive potential of DPAs in increasing people’s physical activity at home. We conducted a study with 48 participants to understand the effect of applying three of Fogg’s persuasive principles to the design of a DPA exercise programme: Suggestion, Virtual Reward, and Praise. Our findings show that DPAs have the potential, within their current technical and reactive capabilities, to persuade people to increase their physical activity at home, using Suggestion to encourage physical effort, Virtual Reward to encourage endurance, and Praise to create reassurance for beginners. Based on this, we offer three alternate perspectives for developing persuasive DPAs. We also discuss limitations of the study and suggest future research directions around using persuasion with DPAs.

摘要

数字个人助理 (DPA) 最近越来越受欢迎，因为它们既是一种商业上可用的新技术，又是普通家庭可以负担得起的。这为通过语音交互帮助人们在家中进行日常活动提供了新的机会。体育锻炼对健康有显着的好处，但在全球范围内，四分之一的成年人不够活跃。为了解决这个问题，我们调查了 DPA 在增加人们在家中的身体活动方面的说服潜力。我们对 48 名参与者进行了一项研究，以了解将 Fogg 的三个说服性原则应用于 DPA 锻炼计划设计的效果：建议、虚拟奖励和表扬。我们的研究结果表明，DPA 在其当前的技术和反应能力范围内具有潜力，说服人们在家中增加体力活动，使用 Suggestion 鼓励体力劳动，使用 Virtual Reward 鼓励耐力，并使用 Praise 为初学者创造信心。基于此，我们为开发有说服力的 DPA 提供了三种替代视角。我们还讨论了这项研究的局限性，并就使用 DPA 进行说服提出了未来的研究方向。