ABSTRACT
Many countries developed and deployed contact tracing apps to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. However, to be effective, these apps must be widely adopted and appropriately used by the population. Motivated to improve the apps’ efficacy, we center on the users’ perspective, exploring their considerations and app-related behaviors throughout the app lifecycle (pre-installation through use). In this seminar, I will first discuss the results of a series of conjoint analyses (n = 1,521) conducted at the start of the pandemic. Through these analyses, we explore which considerations are most important to adoption, and investigate the impact of extrinsic incentives as a tool for ethically marketing these apps and encouraging adoption. Subsequently, I will discuss a qualitative interview study (n = 13), in which we explored the actual use of Belgium’s contact-tracing app, Coronalert. Through this exploration, we reveal how the design of the app influences users choices in critical decision points throughout the lifecycle of app use. Bringing together our results from this mixed methods research, we’ll discuss implications for encouraging the adoption of pro-social technologies and maintaining appropriate and long-term use of such tools.