Table 5.

Persuasive design techniques: definitions and implementation examples for developing a health workforce capability app in the social support domain.

Persuasive design technique	Persuasive design technique definitiona	Implementation examples
Social learning	A person will be more motivated to perform a target behavior if they can use a system to observe others performing the behavior.	The app includes stories of other rural health professionals who have improved their workforce capability.
Social comparison	System users will have a greater motivation to perform the target behavior if they can compare their performance with the performance of others.	Users can share information real time on how to do something more efficient.
Normative influence	A system can leverage normative influence or peer pressure to increase the likelihood that a person will adopt a target behavior.	The app shows that self-care is key to long-term employability by using examples of other professionals.
Social facilitation	System users are more likely to perform a target behavior if they discern via the system that others are performing the behavior along with them.	Health professionals know that many other people are also participating in the app and can choose to discuss with other users.
Cooperation	A system can motivate users to adopt a target attitude or behavior by leveraging human beings’ natural drive to cooperate.	The app demonstrates that working in a team leads to better patient health outcomes.
Competition	A system can motivate users to adopt a target attitude or behavior by leveraging human beings’ natural drive to compete.	Health workforce capability scores can be used to determine the personal best in a specific area they wish to work on.
Recognition	By offering public recognition for an individual or group, a system can increase the likelihood that a person/group will adopt a target behavior.	The app demonstrates the “Rural health professional of the month” and how they benefited from improving their health workforce capability.

^aSource: Oinas-Kukkonen and Harjumaa [6].