Seeking New Insights: A Design Thinking Approach to Persuasive Technology Aimed at Supporting Clients of a Weight Management Program

The application of persuasive technology has been shown to be effective in a weight management context. However, it has been observed that the impact is not as significant as predicted. The aim of this project was to investigate whether a Design Thinking approach could generate new insights that could be used to drive the development of an innovative application to help people on their weight management journey. Findings show that although no radically new user needs were identified, the needs that users did express most pertinently are not effectively met by currently available technology. Further, we examined the Design Thinking approach itself and sought to identify criteria for the design of successful insight gathering activities, through end-user engagement. We summarize these at the end of this paper