34,700 research outputs found

    Exploring Goal-setting, Rewards, Self-monitoring, and Sharing to Motivate Physical Activity

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    Wearable Computing for Health and Fitness: Exploring the Relationship between Data and Human Behaviour

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    Health and fitness wearable technology has recently advanced, making it easier for an individual to monitor their behaviours. Previously self generated data interacts with the user to motivate positive behaviour change, but issues arise when relating this to long term mention of wearable devices. Previous studies within this area are discussed. We also consider a new approach where data is used to support instead of motivate, through monitoring and logging to encourage reflection. Based on issues highlighted, we then make recommendations on the direction in which future work could be most beneficial

    Exploring goal-setting, rewards, selfmonitoring, and sharing to motivate physical activity

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    Abstract—Many people have turned to technological tools to help them be physically active. To better understand how goal-setting, rewards, self-monitoring, and sharing can encourage physical activity, we designed a mobile phone application and deployed it in a four-week field study (n=23). Participants found it beneficial to have secondary and primary weekly goals and to receive nonjudgmental reminders. However, participants had problems with some features that are commonly used in practice and suggested in the literature. For example, trophies and ribbons failed to motivate most participants, which raises questions about how such rewards should be designed. A feature to post updates to a subset of their Facebook NewsFeed created some benefits, but barriers remained for most participants. Keywords-Exercise; mobile applications; goal-setting; reminders; rewards; sharing; social networks; persuasive technology I

    Children's Health: Evaluating the Impact of Digital Technology. Final Report for Sunderland City Council.

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    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Children’s Health project sponsored by the City of Sunderland Digital Challenge project examined the impact of providing health-focused digital technologies to children aged 11-15 years, in terms of their usage and requirements of such technologies, and their subsequent behavioural changes. The empirical study ran with three groups of six children over a period of seven weeks for each group. A console-based exercise game and an exercise-focused social website were used in the study and the focus was on opportunistic (unstructured/unplanned) exercise. The emergent findings are: ‱ Data collected about physical activity must be more extensive than simple step counts. ‱ Data collection technologies for activities must be ubiquitous but invisible. ‱ Social interaction via technology is expected; positive messages reinforcing attainments of goals are valued; negative feedback is seen as demotivating. ‱ participants were very open to sharing information (privacy was not a concern). ‱ Authority figures have a significant impact on restricting adolescents’ use of technologies. This document reports the how the study was conducted, analyses the findings and draws conclusions from these regarding how to use digital technologies to improve and/or maintain the physical activity levels of children throughout their adolescence and on into adulthood. The appendices provide the detailed (anonymised) data collected during the study and the background literature review

    In the Quest for the Motivation App: Designing Effective Behavior Change Apps Through the Lens of the Self-Determination Theory

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    Mobile apps are used to support behavior change goals (e.g., stopping a lousy habit, increasing the physical activity frequency, or learning a new skill). Because these apps are pervasive, they are great tools to reach and help people in their self-improvement path towards better habits and well-being. However, users of these apps fail to reach their objectives because they lack the motivation to attain their goals. App creators might help to support motivation by integrating human motivation theories into their designs. Still, not many apps are theory- grounded. To address this issue, we organized our research around a comprehensive human motivation theory: The Self-Determination Theory (SDT). We explored three research streams: (1) developing an artifact that maps market app features to support the SDT Basic Psychological Needs (BPNs); (2) creating an SDT inspired physical activity app that provided empirical evidence that its design supported the BPNs; (3) providing empirical evidence of an SDT inspired app design that contributes to increasing the physical activity and motivation of individuals. The results of our studies show that the SDT can inform the design of behavior change app features. Moreover, these SDT inspired features can be used to create a physical activity app that improves individuals’ intrinsic motivation and physical activity level. This thesis results have practical implications for app designers, policymakers, and health practitioners whose interest lies in creating theory-informed and effective behavior change apps. -- Les applications mobiles sont utilisĂ©es pour les objectifs de changement de comportements (par exemple, arrĂȘter une mauvaise habitude, augmenter la frĂ©quence d’activitĂ©s physiques ou apprendre une nouvelle compĂ©tence). Comme ces applications sont omniprĂ©sentes, elles constituent d’excellents outils pour atteindre et aider les gens dans leur chemin vers de meilleures habitudes et bien-ĂȘtre. Cependant, les utilisateurs de ces applications ne parviennent pas Ă  atteindre leurs objectifs car ils manquent de motivation pour y parvenir. Les crĂ©ateurs d’applications pourraient contribuer Ă  soutenir leur mo- tivation en intĂ©grant les thĂ©ories basĂ©es sur la motivation humaine dans leurs conceptions. Pourtant, peu d’applications sont fondĂ©es sur ces thĂ©ories. Pour rĂ©soudre ce problĂšme, nous avons organisĂ© notre recherche autour d’une thĂ©orie globale de la motivation humaine : La thĂ©orie de l’autodĂ©termination (SDT). Nous avons explorĂ© trois axes de recherche : (1) le dĂ©veloppement d’un artefact qui met en correspondance les caractĂ©ristiques des applications du marchĂ© avec les besoins psychologiques fondamentaux (BPN) de SDT ; (2) la crĂ©ation d’une application d’activitĂ© physique basĂ©e sur SDT qui fournit des preuves empiriques que sa conception soutient les BPN ; (3) donner des preuves empiriques d’une conception d’application inspirĂ©e de SDT qui contribue Ă  augmenter l’activitĂ© physique et la motivation des individus. Les rĂ©sultats de nos Ă©tudes montrent que SDT peut servir de base Ă  la conception de fonctionnalitĂ©s d’application pour les changements comportementaux. De plus, ces caractĂ©ristiques inspirĂ©es de SDT peuvent ĂȘtre utilisĂ©es pour crĂ©er une application d’activitĂ© physique qui amĂ©liore la motivation personnelle et le niveau d’activitĂ© physique des individus. Les rĂ©sultats de cette thĂšse ont des implications pratiques pour les crĂ©ateurs d’applications, les responables politiques et les mĂ©decins de la santĂ© qui s’intĂ©ressent Ă  la crĂ©ation d’applications efficaces et fondĂ©es sur cette thĂ©orie de la modification du comportement

    ProHealth eCoach: user-centered design and development of an eCoach app to promote healthy lifestyle with personalized activity recommendations

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    Background: Regular physical activity (PA), healthy habits, and an appropriate diet are recommended guidelines to maintain a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle can help to avoid chronic diseases and long-term illnesses. A monitoring and automatic personalized lifestyle recommendation system (i.e., automatic electronic coach or eCoach) with considering clinical and ethical guidelines, individual health status, condition, and preferences may successfully help participants to follow recommendations to maintain a healthy lifestyle. As a prerequisite for the prototype design of such a helpful eCoach system, it is essential to involve the end-users and subject-matter experts throughout the iterative design process. Methods: We used an iterative user-centered design (UCD) approach to understend context of use and to collect qualitative data to develop a roadmap for self-management with eCoaching. We involved researchers, non-technical and technical, health professionals, subject-matter experts, and potential end-users in design process. We designed and developed the eCoach prototype in two stages, adopting diferent phases of the iterative design process. In design workshop 1, we focused on identifying end-users, understanding the user’s context, specifying user requirements, designing and developing an initial low-fdelity eCoach prototype. In design workshop 2, we focused on maturing the low-fdelity solution design and development for the visualization of continuous and discrete data, artifcial intelligence (AI)-based interval forecasting, personalized recommendations, and activity goals. Results: The iterative design process helped to develop a working prototype of eCoach system that meets end-user’s requirements and expectations towards an efective recommendation visualization, considering diversity in culture, quality of life, and human values. The design provides an early version of the solution, consisting of wearable technology, a mobile app following the “Google Material Design” guidelines, and web content for self-monitoring, goal setting, and lifestyle recommendations in an engaging manner between the eCoach app and end-users. Conclusions: The adopted iterative design process brings in a design focus on the user and their needs at each phase. Throughout the design process, users have been involved at the heart of the design to create a working.publishedVersio

    Incentivizing the Use of Quantified Self Devices: The Cases of Digital Occupational Health Programs and Data-Driven Health Insurance Plans

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    Initially designed for a use in private settings, smartwatches, activity trackers and other quantified self devices are receiving a growing attention from the organizational environment. Firms and health insurance companies, in particular, are developing digital occupational health programs and data-driven health insurance plans centered around these systems, in the hope of exploiting their potential to improve individual health management, but also to gather large quantities of data. As individual participation in such organizational programs is voluntary, organizations often rely on motivational incentives to prompt engagement. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms employed in organizational settings to incentivize the use of quantified self devices. We therefore seek, in this exploratory paper, to offer a first structured overview of this topic and identify the main motivational incentives in two emblematical cases: digital occupational health programs and data-driven health insurance plans. By doing so, we aim to specify the nature of this new dynamic around the use of quantified self devices and define some of the key lines for further investigation
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