Table 8.

Heuristic principles for inspecting online peer groups design to combat addictive behaviours.

Principles
Principle 1: Social equality rather than hierarchy Members of peer groups enjoy more democratic atmosphere where privileged positions are not explicit in group interactions. The system should boost the equity principle and give users the freedom to interact without pressure from higher-status peers. Avoid implementing features for earning social status, e.g., number of “followers” or useful comments which leads to social hierarchy.
Principle 2: Instinct to survive Confrontational communication is an inherent feature of any addiction rehab modality. However, the system should minimise triggering justification, defensiveness and denial attitude which are universal traits among addicts. Take objective stance by providing fact-based messages (e.g., usage frequency) to break through denial. Use plural pronouns “We” in messages that have negative connotations to reduce fear and to give a sense of belonging, support and empathy. The singular pronoun “I” may be used for self-judgment. Avoid sharp loss of points may trigger the feeling of “nothing is working!” or “this is not for me!”.
Principle 3: Encourage collaborative decision making Users might experience unconscious bias in selecting among alternatives that require willpower. The system should facilitate group’s collaborative decision to balance ownership and productivity. Enable users to choose visualisation format of their performance. However, goals setting is better to be selected collectively by group members.
Principle 4: Focus on the self The system should help users to focus on the self rather than walking others’ programme. Also, avoid interactions that change priorities and shift the focus away from self-improvement. The system should be a mechanism to focus on the self rather than to socialise with others. Economise surveillance. Do not emphasise peers’ evaluation to reduce self-avoidance as users more reluctant to discuss personal issues. Allow users to comment on others’ tasks if they are relevant to their group work only.
Principle 5: Prevent selective and optimised self-presentation In social situations, users often try to showcase themselves to influence others perception and to aim a specific impression. The system should discourage the motive of self-presentation and use the true-self. Profile feature in some classical social platforms (e.g., Twitter) has less emphasis on self-presentation, while others (e.g., Facebook) enable associating pictures and attitude statements to the personal profile. While groups can be provided with more freedom to feature their positive ideology, individuals should not be encouraged to do so. Avoid enabling users to keep updating their profile pictures.
Principle 6: Eliminate private relationships and subgroups Users worry about others more than the self to escape personal feeling and thoughts. The system should avoid interactions that facilitate one-to-one relationships. The system should detect users who intentionally like posts of a specific person when it is a tactic to get attention. Such interaction may lead to romance as a way of easing the pain. Avoid private communication which may lead to one-to-one relationships (e.g., add friend and poke). Users should not be enabled to self-select who they would like to see their progress, goals, badges, etc.
Principle 7: Learning before doing Users require tasks and reasonable time that match their current treatment level. The system should always start with learning-oriented tasks, goals, and actions. The system may add competition elements only in the later stages of treatment. This is to allow time for individual stabilisation, and group development, norms and cohesion. In the early stages, users may also lack adequate coping skills.
Principle 8: Encourage user self-labelling and personalisation The system should use self-labelling for behaviours that their effect remains at the individual level to increase relevance and memorability. Offer options for users to re-phrase messages in the way that describe their behaviours. For behaviours that will be seen by others, self-labelling may be manipulated to maintain reputation and self-image.
Principle 9: Emphasis dispositional attribution The system should persuade users to always relate the responsibility to individual factors rather than external factors. “Consequences” as a term stresses personal choices, while “punishment” diverts the attention away from self-responsibility. Assessment of an individual’s low-quality performance should start with addressing personal causes, while user relocation can be the last remedy. Evaluating what members add to a group rather than what the group adds to them. For example, the system may reduce the features users can use to judge qualities of the activity (e.g., suitability and difficulty) and focus on evaluating members’ performance in that activity.