The awareness of environmental impacts lead to that organizations are starting to work towards UN's global sustainability goals. To influence customers into a more sustainable behaviour, organizations have the potential to look at nudging as a tool. A nudge is a way to alter peoples behaviour into taking a certain decision. However, since many organizations offer their service or product in the digital environment, such as websites or apps, increased knowledge of digital nudging is required. This thesis aims to establish a framework for how nudges should be designed and used on digital platforms to encourage sustainable decisions. The purpose is to enlighten designers of digital environment of the potential of nudges, pitfalls to avoid, and a general design process to follow. The framework is based on a literature study and interviews with people familiar with the concept of nudging. To examine how the framework works a case study is performed, this includes a workshop, performing a user research, developing prototypes and finally, conduct user tests. By testing the framework further methods could be found, this meant that more practical steps could be included in the framework. The result of this thesis shows that the framework proved to be useful and functional to use when designing digital nudges to encourage sustainable decisions.

Bakgrunden till denna uppsats är det ökande intresset av olika designtekniker inom webbdesign. Ämnet som studeras växer och är något som de flesta individer i dagens samhälle kommer i kontakt med. Problemet ligger i att det potentiellt sett finns en baksida med att använda sig av denna typ av designelement. Med tanke på att tidigare forskning inte studerat de potentiella negativa konsekvenserna som finns med detta så väljer vi i vår studie att utforska existensen av dessa potentiella negativa påverkan genom att undersöka hur dark patterns påverkar varumärkeslojaliteten. Syftet med denna studie är därmed att förklara hur dark patterns påverkar konsumenternas varumärkeslojalitet. För att besvara vårt framtagna syfte utformas fyra stycken hypoteser som baseras på tidigare forskning, där dark patterns, oetiskt beteende, attityd och varumärkeslojalitet är våra variabler. Med utgångspunkt i en kvantitativ studie i form av en enkätundersökning testas sedan hypoteserna. Datainsamlingen sker i form av en enkätundersökning där informationen sedan analyseras genom en regressionsanalys. I denna analys undersöks sambandet mellan dark patterns och varumärkeslojalitet genom två medierande variabler; oetiskt beteende samt konsument-attityder. Slutsatsen i denna studie är att de hypoteser som presenteras och är framtagna från den tidigare teorin visar sig vara signifikanta. Data och analysen tillstyrker därav våra hypoteser om att dark patterns resulterar i en minskad varumärkeslojalitet.

Allt fler beslut tas i samband med skärmar, bland annat på grund av den ständigt växande e-handeln. När människor tar beslut påverkas de av hur valmiljön är utformad samt av heuristikeroch fördomar, vilka är mentala genvägar. Människor influeras av heuristiker och fördomar dådet ofta är svårt för dem att ta beslut som grundas på all information som presenteras. Knuffarär ett sätt att vägleda människor till att göra specifika val utan att sätta begränsningar för derasfrihet och har företrädesvis använts i icke-digitala kontexter, men har nu även introduceratsinom informatik. För att knuffar ska kunna utvecklas och användas digitalt är det dock viktigtmed kunskap om hur människor gör val samt om den påverkan knuffar har. Även tidigareforskning om digitala knuffar efterfrågar studier om hur digitala knuffar kan designas och omderas påverkan på människors val online. Då knuffar är ett relativt nytt begrepp inom informatik, och att fler studier om ämnetefterfrågas, undersöker denna studie hur digitala knuffar kan designas för att vägledamänniskor till hållbara val på nätet. Studien utfördes med en designorienterad forskningsansatsdär digitala knuffar designades utifrån fyra olika heuristiker och fördomar. Knuffarnaapplicerades sedan på en e-handelssida och testades med hjälp av en prototyp. Processen fördesign och utvärdering av de digitala knuffarna itererades fyra eller fem gånger för attexplorativt testa olika sätt att designa knuffarna på relaterat till forskningsfrågan. Studien bidrarmed ett antal förslag för hur digitala knuffar kan designas utifrån heuristiker och fördomar medfokus på vägledning och hållbarhet. / Decisions are increasingly made in connection with screens, amongst other things due to thecontinuous growth of e-commerce. When people make decisions they are influenced by thechoice environment as well as heuristics and biases, which are mental shortcuts. People areinfluenced by heuristics and biases as it is often difficult for them to make decisions based onall of the information presented. Nudges are a way to guide people to make specific choiceswithout limiting their freedom and have primarily been used in non-digital contexts, but havenow also been introduced in informatics. However, in order for nudges to be able to bedeveloped and used digitally it is important to have knowledge about how people make choicesand the effect nudges have. Previous research on digital nudges also asks for studies on howdigital nudges can be designed and their impact on people's choices online.As nudging is a relatively new term in informatics, as well as research regarding the topic isinquired, this study investigate how digital nudges can be designed to guide people tosustainable choices online. The study was conducted with a design research approach wheredigital nudges were designed based on four different heuristics and biases. The nudges wereapplied on an e-commerce website and tested by means of a prototype. The process fordesigning and evaluating the digital nudges was iterated four or five times to in an exploratoryway test different ways to design the nudges in relation to the research question. The studycontribute with a number of suggestions on how digital nudges can be designed based onheuristics and biases, with guidance and sustainability as focal points.

<p> The proliferation of digital educational applications (apps) has revolutionized the pedagogical landscape for students and instructors, both within and beyond the confines of traditional classrooms. Educational apps offer a variety of features that can help students learn more effectively, including personalized instruction and real-time feedback. However, some studies have found that students may not be engaging with the apps regularly or for extended periods of time. This lack of engagement can limit the apps’ potential to improve student learning. Consequently, researchers have investigated methods to enhance students’ app engagement, including the use of digital nudges. Digital nudging is a strategy that proposes utilizing small, non-intrusive cues that capitalize on individuals’ cognitive biases to influence their behavior.</p> <p><br></p> <p>This dissertation makes a significant contribution to ongoing efforts by examining the effectiveness of nudge-based digital interventions in improving students’ engagement with the CourseMIRROR educational app. CourseMIRROR is an educational mobile app that prompts students to reflect on the interesting and confusing aspects of lectures throughout a semester. The CourseMIRROR app uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms to 1) scaffold the students while generating reflections and 2) summarize the students’ submitted reflections. This study focuses on designing digital nudges to improve students’ cognitive and behavioral engagement with specific features of the app that are crucial to achieving its primary purposes. These primary purposes include 1) facilitating students to submit reflections, 2) enabling students to view the reflection summary interface, and 3) scaffolding students to write in-depth and comprehensive reflections. The study consists of three experiments investigating the effectiveness of these digital nudges for improving student engagement with the CourseMIRROR app. </p> <p><br></p> <p>For this dissertation, I conducted three experiments by implementing the CourseMIRROR app in multiple sections of a first-year engineering course at Purdue University over a semester. <em><strong>Experiment 1</strong></em> investigated the impact of social comparison nudge and neutral reminder nudge to increase students’ reflection submissions by using the app. Students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: social comparison nudge, neutral reminder nudge, or baseline (no nudge). The social comparison nudge involved reminding and showing peers’ behavior through their reflection submissions, and the neutral reminder nudge involved sending automated reminders to students to submit their reflections. The results indicated that social comparison and neutral reminder nudges were effective in increasing reflection submissions compared to the baseline condition. However, the social comparison nudge was slightly more effective in improving the number of reflection submissions than the neutral reminder nudge. Also, the nudge interventions became effective in increasing the reflection submissions by refocusing the students’ attention as time progressed in the semester. </p> <p><br></p> <p><em><strong>Experiment 2</strong></em> explored the impact of summary reminder nudges and interface nudges to increase students’ visits to the reflection summary interface in the app. Students were randomly assigned to summary reminder nudge, interface nudge, or baseline conditions. The summary reminder nudge involved reminding students to visit the reflection summary interface in the app. The interface nudge involved making the summary available lecture more prominent to draw students’ attention to the reflection summary interface. The result revealed that summary reminder and interface nudges did not significantly improve the number of students’ visits to the reflection summary interface. Also, for all conditions, students’ visits to reflection summary interface decreased over time as time progressed. </p> <p><br></p> <p><em><strong>Experiment 3</strong></em> examined the impact of scaffolding and throttling mindless nudges on promoting more comprehensive and lengthier reflection submissions. Students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: scaffolding nudge, throttling mindless nudge, or baseline. The scaffolding nudge involved providing students with real-time feedback to guide their reflection writing, while the throttling mindless nudge involved giving a pause to re-think if they want to move forward to the next question or revise their reflection in the application. Overall, the results showed that scaffolding and throttling mindless nudges effectively promoted more comprehensive and lengthier reflection submissions over the semester and within each time. However, students’ reflections in all conditions remained either consistent or decreased in reflection text length and specificity score over time in a semester.  </p> <p><br></p> <p>The study’s results indicate that digital nudges can effectively enhance students’ engagement with educational applications, especially in reflection activities using CourseMIRROR. These findings provide valuable insights into designing and implementing digital nudges in educational apps and evaluating their impact on student engagement. Future research should build on these results to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the potential of digital nudges to support student engagement in educational technology settings.</p>

I hänsyn till att Internet of Things (IoT) fortsätter implementeras i privata hem blir säkerhets- och integritetsfrågor allt viktigare. Tidigare studier har visat att det finns flera olika säkerhetsrisker med IoT och smarta hem. Dessa är däremot ofta mycket tekniska och inte lätta att förstå för användare vilket lämnar användare omedvetna om potentiella säkerhetsrisker. Studien har undersökt användares medvetenhet om de säkerhetsrisker som ingår vid användning av IoT i smarta hem. Under studien har en narrativ litteraturstudie genomförts för att utforska tidigare forskning. En prototyp bestående av fyra olika designelement har skapats baserat på heuristiker och designprinciper. Prototypen har därefter använt för att undersöka hur digitala knuffar kan designas för att stödja användares medvetenhet kring IoT-säkerhetsrisker i smarta hem. Utvärderingstester genomfördes med totalt tio användare för att studera hur digitala knuffar kan designas för att stödja användarnas medvetenhet om potentiella säkerhetsrisker i smarta hem. Studien resulterar i fyra designförslag för hur digitala knuffar kan designas för att stödja användarnas medvetenhet kring IoT-säkerhetsrisker i det smarta hemmet. / With the increasing use of Internet of Things (IoT) in private homes the security and privacy issues become increasingly important. Previous studies have highlighted that there are several different security risks with IoT and smart homes. However, these are often very technical and not easily understood for users which leaves the users unaware of potential security risks. This study has investigated users' awareness about the security risks that are included when using IoT in the smart home environment. During the study a narrative literature study has been conducted to explore previous research. A prototype consisting of four different design elements has been created based on heuristics and design principles. The prototype has then been used to study how digital nudges can be designed to support users' awareness in regard to IoT security risks in smart homes. Evaluation tests were performed with a total of ten users to study how digital nudges can be designed to support users' awareness of potential security risks in smart homes. The study results in four design proposals for how digital nudges can be designed to support users' awareness of IoT-security issues in the smart home environment.