THE EFFECTS OF ANTHROPOMORPHISM AND AFFECTIVE DESIGN PRINCIPLES ON THE ADOPTION OF M-HEALTH APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Previous research has found that M-Health initiatives have not been adopted and used effectively in many cases, especially in rural communal locations. Based on this, the researcher has surmised that factors contributing to the non-use of such initiative could be the resulted of a lack of knowledge with regard to the use of technology, literacy challenges, possible fear of technology and a lack of information regarding interventions that have the potential to improve quality of life. Consequently, an initiative that has usability as its core function may play a critical role in the use and adoption of such technologies. The researcher wondered if and how anthropomorphic and affective design principles which aspire to extract an emotional or positively reinforced sub-conscious reaction from users may influence the adoption and use of M-Health initiatives when applied to said interventions. This study therefore set out to investigate the effects of anthropomorphism and affective design principles on the adoption of M-Health applications, with the Sethakeng rural community in the Northern Cape province of South Africa research population after consent was obtained from the relevant community leaders. The researcher wanted first to ascertain whether anthropomorphism and affective design could influence the adoption of Mobile-Health applications, then to identify which was the more effective method to design Mobile-Health applications and finally, to provide guidelines and recommendations about the most effective design theory, as identified in the study, when designing applications. This study predominantly employed a mixed approach research methodology which included action research cycles and quantitative data in the form of usage statistics, obtained from CloudWare, in the final report. A case study was conducted in a rural South African setting to explore and eventually understand the relation between the case community and the intervention. A qualitative research design best allowed the researcher to get a better understanding of the research problem identified and the obstacles facing the relevant rural community and quantitative data assisted with better understanding the relevant usage trends in terms of the M-Health intervention. The objectives of the case study were to observe the phenomenon and describe it with regards to the case community, document the reactions of the case community to different instances and variations of the phenomenon and, lastly, to report on the design principle that yielded the most positive reaction from the community from a usage perspective; thereby indicating the adoption of the design methodology employed. The research contributed towards the successful development, placement and scrutiny of two emotion-driven interfaces for the same M-Health intervention. A distinctive perspective was provided with regard to affective and anthropomorphic design to identify the better design model for improved application acceptance in a rural community context. At the conclusion of the study, evidence suggested that community members found the anthropomorphic interface design superior. The researcher was thus able to explore, identify, develop and list a set of guidelines that can be used in the area of emotional design. Each guideline was based on what worked in practice and was applied successfully throughout this study. The researcher would like these guidelines be implemented and utilised by other designers in the field of interaction design for future designers.