The evolving field of persuasive and behavior change technology is increasingly targeted at influencing behavior in the area of health and wellness. This paper provides an empirical review of 16 years (85 papers) of literature on persuasive technology for health and wellness to: (1.) answer important questions regarding the effectiveness of persuasive technology for health and wellness, (2.) summarize and highlight trends in the technology design, research methods, motivational strategies, theories, and health behaviors targeted by research to date, (3.) uncover pitfalls of existing persuasive technological interventions for health and wellness, and (4.) suggest directions for future research.

Aphasia is a cognitive disorder that impairs speech and language. From interviews with aphasic individuals, their caregivers, and speech-language pathologists, the need was identified for a daily planner that allows aphasic users to independently manage their appointments. We used a participatory design approach to develop ESI Planner (the Enhanced with Sound and Images Planner) for use on a PDA and subsequently evaluated it in a lab study. This methodology was used in order to achieve both usable and adoptable technology. In addition to describing our experience in designing ESI Planner, two main contributions are provided: general guidelines for working with special populations in the development of technology, and design guidelines for accessible handheld technology.

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Symbol-based dictionaries of text, images and sound can help individuals with aphasia find the words they need, but are often seen as a last resort because they tend to replace rather than augment the user's natural speech. Through two design investigations, we explore head-worn displays as a means of providing unobtrusive, always-available, and glanceable vocabulary support. The first study used narrative storyboards as a design probe to explore the potential benefits and challenges of a head-worn approach over traditional augmented alternative communication (AAC) tools. The second study then evaluated a proof-ofconcept prototype in both a lab setting with the researcher and in situ with unfamiliar conversation partners at a local market. Findings suggest that a head-worn approach could better allow wearers to maintain focus on the conversation, reduce reliance on the availability of external tools (e.g., paper and pen) or people, and minimize visibility of the support by others. These studies should motivate further investigation of head-worn conversational support.

Cooking is a daily activity for many people. However, traditional text recipes are often prohibitively difficult to follow for people with language disorders, such as aphasia. We have developed a multi-modal application that leverages the retained ability of aphasic individuals to recognize image-based representations of objects, providing a presentation format that can be more easily followed than a traditional text recipe. Through a systematic approach to developing a visual language for cooking, and the subsequent case study evaluation of a prototype developed according to this language, we show that a combination of visual instructions and navigational structure can help individuals with relatively large language deficits to cook more independently.