Partner search: Rural and sparsely populated regions in Northern Europe continue to face digital exclusion despite high levels of infrastructure and service availability. This project addresses the often-overlooked psychological barriers to digital inclusion—particularly trust, perceived control, and autonomy—by examining how the design of digital public services influences citizens’ willingness to engage. Through cross-border collaboration between Finland, Sweden, and Norway, the project will analyze trust-related challenges in rural digital service use, audit persuasive design features in public-sector digital systems, and co-create ethical, trust-supporting design guidelines with citizens and public authorities. By piloting and evaluating these guidelines in rural contexts, the project aims to improve uptake and trust in digital public services while contributing practical tools and policy-relevant recommendations to support inclusive and sustainable digitalization across the Aurora program area.
Priority: A more social and inclusive Europe
Specific Objective: Enhancing digital inclusion, accessibility, and trust in public services in rural and sparsely populated areas
Background & Problem
Despite high levels of digital infrastructure in Northern Europe, rural and sparsely populated regions continue to experience digital exclusion. This exclusion is not primarily caused by lack of access, but by:
- Low trust in digital public services
- Poor psychological fit between system design and user needs
- Persuasive or coercive digital features that undermine autonomy, particularly among older adults and vulnerable populations
Across Finland, Sweden, and Norway, public digital services increasingly rely on implicit persuasion (defaults, reminders, nudges, automation). When poorly designed, these features reduce trust, discourage use, and widen the rural digital divide.
Project Objective
The project aims to improve digital inclusion in rural Northern Europe by developing and validating a Trust-Centered Persuasive Design Framework for public digital services.
The project will:
- Identify psychological trust barriers in rural digital service use
- Analyse how persuasive design features affect trust, autonomy, and adoption
- Co-create ethical, trust-supporting design guidelines with citizens and public-sector actors
- Pilot and evaluate these guidelines across cross-border rural contexts
Why Cross-Border Cooperation Is Essential
Rural regions in Northern Finland, Northern Sweden, and Northern Norway share:
- Similar geographic challenges (distance, climate, service centralisation)
- Comparable public digitalisation strategies
- Overlapping vulnerable groups (elderly, migrants, indigenous populations, low-digital-confidence users)
Cross-border cooperation enables:
- Comparative analysis of national digital service approaches
- Shared solutions scalable across borders
- Stronger policy impact than isolated national pilots
Target Groups
- Rural citizens (especially older adults and digitally hesitant users)
- Municipal and regional public-sector organisations
- Designers and developers of public digital services
- Policy makers working on digital inclusion and rural development
Expected Results
- Improved trust and uptake of digital public services in rural regions
- A validated Trust-Centered Persuasive Design Framework
- Practical guidelines for public-sector digitalisation
- Strong contribution to social sustainability and inclusion
Indicative Partnership Structure
Lead Partner: Oulu University (Finland)
Project Partners: TBC
Contact:
PI: Rosanna E. Guadagno
Rosanna E. Guadagno, Ph.D.
Rosanna.Guadagno@oulu.fi
Associate Professor, Persuasive Information Systems
Software Engineering and Information Systems
University of Oulu
Google Scholar Profile
Collaborators: Pasi Karppinen
