HeartHealth - A Persuasive Mobile App for Mitigating the Risk of Ischemic Heart Disease.

Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD) is the leading cause of early deaths globally. It has been named as the leading cause of deaths in the United States and the second in Canada. The key risk factors of IHD include high blood cholesterol and high blood pressure, both of which can be prevented and managed through heart-healthy diets containing low saturated fats, trans fats, and sodium. Therefore, the goal of our work is to design a persuasive mobile app (called HeartHealth) that motivates people, especially adults, to keep their blood cholesterol and blood pressure at safe levels by eating heart-healthy diets. Our approach is in four stages. First, we create a low-fidelity prototype that implements ten persuasive strategies, and then assess the perceived persuasiveness of selected users towards the strategies through an online survey. Second, we analyze the responses collected and then select the most effective strategies which, in turn, are used to design the high-fidelity prototype. Third, we conduct another study on the high-fidelity prototype which requires participants to interact with the prototype and provide comments through an online survey. Fourth, we perform thematic analysis on the comments and then refine the prototype based on the results.