Designing for Different Stages in Behavior Change

The behavior change process is a dynamic journey with different informational and motivational needs across its different stages; yet current technologies for behavior change are static. In our recent deployment of Habito, an activity tracking mobile app, we found individuals "readiness" to behavior change (or the stage of behavior change they were in) to be a strong predictor of adoption. Individuals in the contemplation and preparation stages had an adoption rate of 56%, whereas individuals in precontemplation, action or maintenance stages had an adoption rate of only 20%. In this position paper we argue for behavior change technologies that are tailored to the different stages of behavior change.