MAD: Designing Social Comparison Features in Health Behaviour Change Technological Interventions

The unfairly misunderstood nature of comparisons in the design of technology that supports health behavior change. Even though Vasiliki Mylonopoulou was told in the past to avoid comparisons, today she defends her dissertation on how to design technology that supports health behavior change which facilitate positive social comparison i.e. the comparison of ourselves to others. Many people think that comparison and competition are similar, but this could not be further from the truth. The different ways social comparison features can be designed may also result in learning from others, support each other, or project ourselves in the future. However, the nature of social comparison is often overlooked in the design of technological applications regardless of its inclusion.

Vasiliki focuses her thesis on how designers who work on technology that supports health behavior change design the social comparison features. She presents how important is the participation of users/patients as well as healthcare professionals in the design process. The thesis concludes with a design tool called MAD (Multiple-perspective Approach Design) for social comparison features in technology that supports health behavior change. MAD aims to support designers on their work related to designing social comparison features in wellbeing and health technological applications and presents the challenges and considerations one may need to think during the design.

Vasiliki Mylonopoulou will defend her dissertation on 7 of June at the University of Oulu Linnanmaa campus in room L2 at 12:00. The event is open for all.

Stream the defense online: https://connect.funet.fi/vimma3

More about Vasiliki Mylonopoulou: https://vassiliki.wixsite.com/vassiliki