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Persuasive Features in Six Weight Loss Websites: A Qualitative Evaluation

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Persuasive Technology (PERSUASIVE 2010)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 6137))

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Abstract

Websites for weight loss have been demonstrating promising results. Still, it is unclear which website components contribute to successful outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to explore the utilization of various persuasive features on six weight loss websites. The websites were selected by using a set of criteria for this qualitative evaluation. The Persuasive Systems Design Model was applied to extract and analyze persuasive system features found in the sites. The results of this study suggest that there is room for improvement in both designing and implementing web-based interventions for weight loss. The evaluated sites provided relatively good primary task support and strong social support. However, there were weaknesses in both dialogue and credibility support. Overall, the evaluation showed that the evaluated weight loss websites may not be very persuasive.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Processing Science, University of Oulu, Rakentajantie 3, 90570, Oulu, Finland

    Tuomas Lehto & Harri Oinas-Kukkonen

Authors
  1. Tuomas Lehto
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  2. Harri Oinas-Kukkonen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Communication, Copenhagen Institute of Technology/Aalborg University, Lautrupvang 2b, 2750, Ballerup, Denmark

    Thomas Ploug

  2. Royal School of Library and Information Science, Birketinget 6, 2300, København, Denmark

    Per Hasle

  3. Dept. of Information Processing Science, University of Oulu, Rakentajantie 3, 90370, Oulu, Finland

    Harri Oinas-Kukkonen

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Lehto, T., Oinas-Kukkonen, H. (2010). Persuasive Features in Six Weight Loss Websites: A Qualitative Evaluation. In: Ploug, T., Hasle, P., Oinas-Kukkonen, H. (eds) Persuasive Technology. PERSUASIVE 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6137. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13226-1_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13226-1_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-13225-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-13226-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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