Jesse Zhang and John Sullivan and Vasudev Venkatesh P. B. and Kyle Tse and Andy Yan and John Leyden and Kalyanaraman Shankari and Randy H. Katz

EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2019-2

January 11, 2019

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2019/EECS-2019-2.pdf

This exploratory study investigates how mobile applications assist commuters with sustainable transportation choices. Our goal is to determine persuasiveness of two broad categories of features: emotional or informational. A controlled trial randomly assigned 41 users to three mobile applications: Emotion, Information, and Control. During the ten week study, we recorded user interactions and changes in transportation habits.

Several features distinguish this study from prior work, the most salient of which are: (1) automatic trip recording, segmentation, and classification; (2) statistical assessment of metrics that reflect a user's interactions and behaviors; (3) larger and more diverse samples.

Using hypothesis testing, we found that Emotion resulted in greater engagement with the application (p=0.006, 0.035, 0.031, 0.040) while Information improved the sustainability of travel behavior (p = 0.043). This suggests a combination of both approaches is required in order to both maintain user engagement and have an effect on carbon emissions.

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BibTeX citation:

@techreport{Zhang:EECS-2019-2,
    Author= {Zhang, Jesse and Sullivan, John and Venkatesh P. B., Vasudev and Tse, Kyle and Yan, Andy and Leyden, John and Shankari, Kalyanaraman and Katz, Randy H.},
    Title= {TripAware: Emotional and Informational Approaches to Encourage Sustainable Transportation via Mobile Applications},
    Year= {2019},
    Month= {Jan},
    Url= {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2019/EECS-2019-2.html},
    Number= {UCB/EECS-2019-2},
    Abstract= {This exploratory study investigates how mobile applications assist commuters with sustainable transportation choices. Our goal is to determine persuasiveness of two broad categories of features: emotional or informational. A controlled trial randomly assigned 41 users to three mobile applications: Emotion, Information, and Control. During the ten week study, we recorded user interactions and changes in transportation habits.

Several features distinguish this study from prior work, the most salient of which are: (1) automatic trip recording, segmentation, and classification; (2) statistical assessment of metrics that reflect a user's interactions and behaviors; (3) larger and more diverse samples. 

Using hypothesis testing, we found that Emotion resulted in greater engagement with the application (p=0.006, 0.035, 0.031, 0.040) while Information improved the sustainability of travel behavior (p = 0.043). This suggests a combination of both approaches is required in order to both maintain user engagement and have an effect on carbon emissions.},
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Report
%A Zhang, Jesse 
%A Sullivan, John 
%A Venkatesh P. B., Vasudev 
%A Tse, Kyle 
%A Yan, Andy 
%A Leyden, John 
%A Shankari, Kalyanaraman 
%A Katz, Randy H. 
%T TripAware: Emotional and Informational Approaches to Encourage Sustainable Transportation via Mobile Applications
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2019
%8 January 11
%@ UCB/EECS-2019-2
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2019/EECS-2019-2.html
%F Zhang:EECS-2019-2