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Ease of adoption of WD was confirmed in all
of the studies. About 90% of participants in Study
I and 76% of participants in Study II reported that
it was easy to learn to use WD. In Study III, ease
of adoption was expressed by the fact that 65%
of participants took WD into use at the beginning
of the study with very little guidance.
Perceived value of WD was tied to the value
of WD in self-management. In Study I, more than
70% of participants reported that WD was useful,
motivated them to observe their eating and be
more physically active, and helped them in weight
management. The weight management results
of Study I were also encouraging; about half of
participants lost weight and the rest approximately
maintained their baseline weight despite the fact
that the study period included Christmas, which
is a known risk period for weight gain. In Study
III, two-thirds of respondents reported that WD
contained appropriate functions for them and
more than half felt that WD motivated them to
maintain or enhance their well-being. WD was
perceived as useful by participants with different
types of goals, including weight management,
exercise, sleep, and stress, indicating that WD is
applicable for supporting many different health
management goals.
Although the fourth component of acceptance,
trust, was not formally studied, the participants
did not seem to have problems in trusting WD to
store their health-related data. Indications of this
are the high overall acceptance and usage rates of
the application as well as the very few negative
user comments related to privacy or trust issues.
On the other hand, many participants commented
that they did not perceive their self-observations,
e.g. weight, physical activity, or sleep, as particu-
larly sensitive information.
TAMM was a useful framework for the design
and evaluation of a wellness management applica-
tion. The design choices were proved successful by
the high adoption rates by different types of users.
However, for wellness management applications,
augmenting the model with factors that promote
long-term engagement would be useful.
CONCLUSION
According to the Technology Acceptance Model
for Mobile services, user acceptance of mobile
services is built on three factors: perceived value
of the service, perceived ease of use, and trust. A
fourth user acceptance factor: perceived ease of
adoption is required to get the users from intention-
to-use to actual usage. Based on the Technology
Acceptance Model for Mobile Services, design
implications for each user acceptance factor have
been proposed in this paper.
Instead of implementing collections of useful
features, the design of mobile services should be
focused on key values provided to the user. The
value of mobile services can be built on utility,
communication or fun. Successful service content
is comprehensive, topical and familiar, and it in-
cludes personal and user-generated content. The
users appreciate seamless service entities rather
than separate services. Ease of use requires a clear
overview of the service entity, fluent navigation
on a small display, and smooth user interaction
with the service. The users should get personally
and situationally relevant services and information
without needing to expend effort on personaliza-
tion. The services should be designed to be adap-
tive to a wide variety of devices and networks.
As the services increasingly support individual
users in their daily tasks and increasingly deal
with personal data, user trust in the services is
becoming more and more important. The user
should be able to assess whether (s)he can rely
on the service in the intended contexts of use. The
user needs to feel and really be in control, and the
privacy of the user must be protected.
Occasional usage and momentary usage ses-
sions on the move are typical of mobile services.
In addition, services are increasingly available
only locally or in certain contexts of use. This
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