Exploring user preferences: customisation and attitudes towards notifications in mobile health and well-being applications

Daniele Pretolesi, Lenart Motnikar, Till Bieg, Michael Gafert and Jakob Uhl

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2025, vol. 44, issue 1, 2-18

Abstract: In mobile technologies for health and well-being (mHealth), push notifications are a widely used tool to implement persuasive strategies. However, little research has been carried out to investigate the impact of notifications in such technologies and users' attitudes towards them. In this study, we address this gap by exploring the role of notifications and their customisation in the context of mobile applications that promote social, mental, or physical well-being. Based on observational data collected from 152 participants, we investigate users' attitudes and preferences towards notifications and explore how they differ along demographic dimensions. In addition, we then verified these results with behavioural measures and attitude ratings through a user study (N = 31), which saw participants interacting with a prototype of a mHealth application. Our findings show that customisation of notifications is a desired feature that can be used to improve the persuasive aspect of mHealth applications. Implications derived from our study can provide guidance for researchers and practitioners alike when designing app notifications to create better motivating, meaningful, and persuasive experiences.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0144929X.2024.2434892 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:44:y:2025:i:1:p:2-18

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tbit20

DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2024.2434892

Access Statistics for this article

Behaviour and Information Technology is currently edited by Dr Panos P Markopoulos

More articles in Behaviour and Information Technology from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().