Designing Adaptive Digital Nudging Systems with LLM-Driven Reasoning

TL;DR

This paper proposes an architectural framework for digital nudging systems that integrates behavioral science, ethical considerations, and LLM-driven reasoning, validated through expert feedback and a user study.

Contribution

It introduces a novel architecture that explicitly incorporates behavioral theories and ethics into digital nudging system design, supported by validation and a proof-of-concept.

Findings

Validated requirements satisfaction with software architects.

Demonstrated feasibility of LLM-powered nudging in energy sustainability.

Achieved high perceived intervention quality and positive emotional impact.

Abstract

Digital nudging systems lack architectural guidance for translating behavioral science into software design. While research identifies nudge strategies and quality attributes, existing architectures fail to integrate multi-dimensional user modeling with ethical compliance as architectural concerns. We present an architecture that uses behavioral theory through explicit architectural decisions, treating ethics and fairness as structural guardrails rather than implementation details. A literature review synthesized 68 nudging strategies, 11 quality attributes, and 3 user profiling dimensions into architectural requirements. The architecture implements sequential processing layers with cross-cutting evaluation modules enforcing regulatory compliance. Validation with 13 software architects confirmed requirements satisfaction and domain transferability. An LLM-powered proof-of-concept in residential energy sustainability demonstrated feasibility through evaluation with 15 users, achieving high perceived intervention quality and measurable positive emotional impact. This work bridges behavioral science and software architecture by providing reusable patterns for adaptive systems that balance effectiveness with ethical constraints.