During my doctoral studies, I attended a few PhD defences. Sometimes I made notes of the important points/questions raised whenever I attended any defence. Some opponents concentrate on the methodological approach and the rationale for the overall study, whereas others focus on the definition of terms and the practical implications of the research or a bit of both. As our group’s research focuses on persuasive systems design and behaviour change, the opponent during one of my colleague’s defence, asked for an actual situation where an application could change behaviour. This was not about one particular system, rather …

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