Designing for Integration: Promoting Self-Congruence to Sustain Behavior Change

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People with osteoarthritis or other chronic conditions need to adopt and maintain healthy behaviors, such as physical exercises. Current behavior change technologies primarily seek to motivate this through goal setting, self-monitoring, and rewards. Based on Organismic Integration Theory (OIT), we designed Equi as a tangible alternative. Its aim is to “integrate” behavior rather than to externally control it. When behavior becomes integrated, its maintenance is based on self-congruence. Equi facilitates integration by situated reflection, symbolism, and appreciation of values. We conducted a two-week field exploration to gather osteoarthritis patients’ experiences with Equi. We identified specific features and general principles that are conducive to the pursuit of self-congruence, such as ambient visibility, reflection, insight and matching, as well as detrimental ones, such as performance orientation or controlling forces (e.g., reminders, rewards). From a theoretical perspective, OIT offers strategies for designing behavior change technologies that focus on the maintenance of newly acquired behavior.