Beyond user experience and technology acceptance: Criteria to select a technology for a road safety behavioural change intervention

Novel technologies, such as smartphones or virtual reality, are seen as attractive tools with high potential to trigger behavioral change. Therefore, they are embraced enthusiastically by both business and academia. Interventions using technology as tools can be expected to further increase their popularity in the near future. A large amount of contemporary research seems to focus on examining user experience and technology acceptance. Such a focus is a natural first step in understanding a novel technology. At the same time, much less is known about the actual effectiveness of novel technologies in interventions. This limited knowledge represents a potential challenge to researchers when deciding which particular technology example to choose for their work. This theoretical study proposes an informed approach to making that choice, particularly for road safety interventions. The approach is grounded in the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Criteria are suggested for initial technology impact evaluation, which should help researchers and practitioners compare different technology examples. Further criteria are touched upon in relation to practicalities around using technologies in interventions. The proposed framework may help future research of technology effectiveness by saving stakeholders’ time to decide which technology they should adopt and test.