Investigating mobile persuasive design for mental wellness: A cross-domain analysis

Background: Global mental health issues have increased the demand for digital mental health support. Mobile apps with persuasive technology play a vital role in enhancing mental well-being. Objective: Analysing and Comparing persuasive intervention design across various app categories, this study aims to inspire innovative design approaches for improving the persuasiveness of mental wellness apps during their development. Methods: We retrieved a total of 100 mobile apps from five distinct categories (20 for each): Mental wellness, Social media, Entertainment, Fitness & Physical health and News & Information from Apple Store and Google Play. Two researchers examined and coded the apps to identify the persuasive features employed within each category using the Persuasive Systems Design (PSD) Framework, while a third researcher participated in discussions to resolve discrepancies. Kendall's Rank Correlation Coefficient was performed to determine the relationship between persuasive features and effectiveness. Results: Trustworthiness (n = 81), Liking (n = 78), Surface credibility (n = 71), Reminders (n = 63), and Reduction (n = 57) were the most widely implemented persuasive features. Dialogue support and system credibility support features were heavily used across different app types, while social support features were less commonly employed, particularly in mental health apps. A positive correlation was found between Surface credibility, Trustworthiness, Liking, Reminders, Self-monitoring, Expertise features and apps’ effectiveness. Conclusion: Through a cross-domain analysis using the PSD framework to investigate persuasive feature implementations, the findings from this study offer design suggestions to create innovative and effective mobile apps promoting mental well-being.