"heh - keeps me off the smokes...": probing technology support for personal change

Abstract

The design and evaluation of computing technology supporting a process of personal change presents both opportunities and challenges for HCI. Here we describe an existing program of ongoing smoking cessation support delivered via the Internet, and present the case for augmenting this system using messaging and 'social' technologies. A key concern in this enterprise is reconciling a model of human behaviour with models of technology interaction. This involves utilizing a model describing the health behaviour change process to inform present support (an interactive, Web-based 'coaching' system -- the QuitCoach or QC) and future technologies augmenting this system. The two data sets we present (patterns of use of the QC and emails sent to the site) illustrate some broad requirements for interactive support programs, operating through several channels of communication, for smokers trying to quit.