How Persuasive are Serious Games, Social Media and mHealth Technologies for Vulnerable Young Adults? Design Factors for Health Behavior and Lifestyle Change Support: Sexual Health Case. Proceedings Third International Workshop on Behavior Change Support Systems (BCSS 2015)

Modern eHealth technologies, such as serious games, social media and mobile applications addressing health behavior support are evolving rapidly. High-risk young adults with low educational background and of foreign origin could especially benefit from personalized health technologies, designed for their special needs. Sexual health is a delicate subject and well-designed and tailored health technologies are needed to meet the needs of the target group and enhance uptake. The aim of this exploratory user study is to identify the persuasive features and design factors that contribute to the use and uptake of existing and new health technologies. Four focus groups were conducted with 37 young adults to gain insights into their needs and attitudes, with sexual health case used in the study. Qualitative data analysis was performed based on Persuasive Design model to identify stimulating, blocking and neutral persuasive features, specific for high-risk young adults, as well as generic design factors. Five generic design factors are formulated based on our findings: (1) anonymity, (2) interactivity, (3) portability (4) source and (5) comprehensibility. These findings aim at informing the design of health technologies for lifestyle and sexual health behavior change support of high-risk young adults, and could be applicable for young adults in general and other health topics.