Designing for Sustained Motivation: A Review of Self-Determination Theory in Behaviour Change Technologies

TL;DR

This paper reviews how self-determination theory can inform the design of behaviour change technologies to promote sustained motivation, highlighting current limitations and opportunities for fostering long-term internalized motivation.

Contribution

It systematically analyzes existing research applying SDT to behaviour change tech, identifying gaps and proposing new directions for supporting internalized motivation.

Findings

SDT is often used to optimize engagement with technology, not the behaviour itself.

Current designs may fail to sustain long-term behaviour change due to waning motivation.

There is an opportunity to leverage SDT to help users internalize the value of behaviour changes.

Abstract

Recent years have seen a surge in applications and technologies aimed at motivating users to achieve personal goals and improve their wellbeing. However, these often fail to promote long-term behaviour change, and sometimes even backfire. We consider how self-determination theory (SDT), a metatheory of human motivation and wellbeing, can help explain why such technologies fail, and how they may better help users internalise the motivation behind their goals and make enduring changes in their behaviour. In this work, we systematically reviewed 15 papers in the ACM Digital Library that apply SDT to the design of behaviour change technologies (BCTs). We identified 50 suggestions for design features in BCTs, grounded in SDT, that researchers have applied to enhance user motivation. However, we find that SDT is often leveraged to optimise engagement with the technology itself rather than with the targeted behaviour change per se. When interpreted through the lens of SDT, the implication is that BCTs may fail to cultivate sustained changes in behaviour, as users' motivation depends on their enjoyment of the intervention, which may wane over time. An underexplored opportunity remains for designers to leverage SDT to support users to internalise the ultimate goals and value of certain behaviour changes, enhancing their motivation to sustain these changes in the long term.