A recommender for persuasive messages in route planning applications

We implemented a recommendation system that presents persuasive messages to commuters using a route planning application. Our aim is to nudge users towards following routes that are environmentally friendly with lower CO2 emissions than those they usually take. Our implementation leverages contextual information and transportation user profiles while the messages are defined based on a set of persuasive strategies. The recommender is integrated in a route planning application for android based smartphones and was used in a trial in the cities of Vienna and Dublin. Users' qualitative feedback showed that the feature was found interesting and provided insights for future improvements.