What are the success strategies for changing behaviour? : An explorative intervention study of an application based and a non-application based approach for reducing smartphone overuse with focus on persuasive design 

Abstract: With the growing role the smartphone technology is gaining in our daily life the concerned voices about its negative impacts on human social skills, social interactions and mental health are getting louder. Smartphone use has become a habit not at least due to high access to different kind of rewards provided by this technology. In this thesis, a qualitative explorative study analyses two approaches, an application based and a non-application based, in their ability to deal with the subjectively perceived smartphone overuse in order to find weaknesses and advantages behind those approaches. The study design is based on behaviour change theories such as the Goal-Setting Theory, the Social Cognitive Theory, and the Cognitive Dissonance Theory and on the persuasive design strategies. The results of the five weeks long intervention study, during which eight participants tried both approaches in a within-group design setup, suggests that a combination of an application based and a non-application based intervention could be more beneficial than relying on technology alone in order to support the user with means to reduce the smartphone overuse. The results furthermore suggest that the application based approach functioned well as an eye opener and as an incentive to prepare participants to take own actions.