The use of mHealth solutions in active and healthy ageing promotion: an explorative scoping review

The global population aged 60 years and over is expected to almost double between 2015 and 2050 from 12.0% to 22.0%, which will directly impact countries' labor market composition and increase the economic pressure on their healthcare systems. One way to address these challenges is to promote Active and Healthy Ageing (AHA) using mobile Health (mHealth). This research aims to provide an initial overview of the width and the depth of contemporary preventive mHealth solutions that promote AHA among healthy, independent older adults (individuals aged 60 years and over). To do so, an explorative scoping review was applied to search online databases for recent studies (March 2015 - March 2020) addressing the promotion of mHealth solutions targeting healthy and independent older adults. We identified 31 publications that met the inclusion criteria. Most of them utilized either mobile (n=25) and/or wearable (n=11) devices. mHealth solutions mostly promoted AHA by targeting older adults’ active lifestyles or independence. Most of the studies (n=27) did not apply a theoretical framework on which the mHealth promotion was based. User-experience was positive (n=12) when the solution was easy to use but negative (n=11) when the participants were resistant or faced challenges using the device and/or technology. The review concludes that mHealth offers the opportunity to combat the issues faced by an unhealthy and dependent aging population by promoting AHA through focusing on older adults’ Lifestyle, Daily functioning, and Participation. Future research should use multidisciplinary integrated approaches and strong theoretical and methodological foundations to investigate mHealth solutions' impact on AHA behavioral change

Self-Control in Cyberspace: Applying Dual Systems Theory to a Review of Digital Self-Control Tools

Many people struggle to control their use of digital devices. However, our understanding of the design mechanisms that support user self-control remains limited. In this paper, we make two contributions to HCI research in this space: first, we analyse 367 apps and browser extensions from the Google Play, Chrome Web, and Apple App stores to identify common core design features and intervention strategies afforded by current tools for digital self-control. Second, we adapt and apply an integrative dual systems model of self-regulation as a framework for organising and evaluating the design features found. Our analysis aims to help the design of better tools in two ways: (i) by identifying how, through a well-established model of self-regulation, current tools overlap and differ in how they support self-control; and (ii) by using the model to reveal underexplored cognitive mechanisms that could aid the design of new tools.Comment: 11.5 pages (excl. references), 6 figures, 1 tabl

Smart Sensing Technologies for Personalised Coaching

People living in both developed and developing countries face serious health challenges related to sedentary lifestyles. It is therefore essential to find new ways to improve health so that people can live longer and can age well. With an ever-growing number of smart sensing systems developed and deployed across the globe, experts are primed to help coach people toward healthier behaviors. The increasing accountability associated with app- and device-based behavior tracking not only provides timely and personalized information and support but also gives us an incentive to set goals and to do more. This book presents some of the recent efforts made towards automatic and autonomous identification and coaching of troublesome behaviors to procure lasting, beneficial behavioral changes

The Industry and Policy Context for Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion:Market Analysis, Future Prospects and Key Challenges in Videogames, Serious Games and Gamification

The effective use of digital games for empowerment and social inclusion (DGEI) of people and communities at risk of exclusion will be shaped by, and may influence the development of a range of sectors that supply products, services, technology and research. The principal industries that would appear to be implicated are the 'videogames' industry, and an emerging 'serious games' industry. The videogames industry is an ecosystem of developers, publishers and other service providers drawn from the interactive media, software and broader ICT industry that services the mainstream leisure market in games, The 'serious games' industry is a rather fragmented and growing network of firms, users, research and policy makers from a variety of sectors. This emerging industry is are trying to develop knowledge, products, services and a market for the use of digital games, and products inspired by digital games, for a range of non-leisure applications. This report provides a summary of the state of play of these industries, their trajectories and the challenges they face. It also analyses the contribution they could make to exploiting digital games for empowerment and social inclusion. Finally, it explores existing policy towards activities in these industries and markets, and draws conclusions as to the future policy relevance of engaging with them to support innovation and uptake of effective digital game-based approaches to empowerment and social inclusion.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Mobile Application for Noise Pollution Monitoring through Gamification Techniques

Full data coverage of urban environments is crucial to monitor the status of the area to detect, for instance, trends and detrimental environmental changes. Collecting observations related to environmental factors such as noise pollution in urban environments through classical approaches implies the deployment of Sensor Networks. The cost of deployment and maintenance of such infrastructure might be relatively high for local and regional governments. On the other hand recent mass-market mobile devices such as smartphones are full of sensors. For instance, it is possible to perform measurements of noise through its microphone. Therefore they become low-cost measuring devices that many citizens have in their pocket. In this paper we present an approach for gathering noise pollution data by using mobile applications. The applications are designed following gamification techniques to encourage users to participate using their personal smartphones. In this way the users are involved in taking and sharing noise pollution measurements in their cities that other stakeholders can use in their analysis and decision making processes

Customer loyalty through gamification: MB Way case study

Gamification has been applied in various contexts, following evolving technology and innovation trends. This study aims to investigate gamification's impact on customer loyalty through an analysis of the MB WAY Challenge. Due to the current pandemic, the population has been adapting its behaviour towards payment methods, increasing financial transactions through their smartphones. As such, this case study of the MB WAY Challenge has been following this trend, providing game components to its side to reach new users. The literature review provides an overview of the main concepts to be addressed: gamification, enjoyment, engagement, behaviour intention, and customer loyalty. The framework was developed based on the literature review and other models developed by other authors. The empirical part of the present study was conducted through an online survey distributed through several channels to obtain as many respondents as possible. Partial Least Squares (PLS) were used to evaluate the research. The results revealed that gamification significantly impacts customer loyalty through user behaviour intention, while engagement intention does not influence consumer loyalty. Other conclusions were drawn, having specific implications that may contribute to future studies making conscious decisions when determining the antecedents for a more complex analysis of gamification's impact on customer loyalty.A gamificação tem vindo a ser aplicada em diversos contextos, acompanhando a tendência de evolução da tecnologia e inovação. O propósito deste estudo é investigar o impacto que a gamificação tem na fidelização dos clientes, através de uma análise ao MB WAY Challenge. Devido à atual pandemia com que nos deparamos, a população tem vindo a adaptar o seu comportamento face aos métodos de pagamento, aumentando as transações financeiras através dos seus smartphones. Como tal, o presente caso de estudo do MB WAY Challenge tem vindo a acompanhar esta tendência, proporcionando componentes de jogo à sua vertente, para alcançar novos utilizadores. A revisão de literatura serve para dar um overview dos principais conceitos a serem abordados, nomeadamente, gamificação, prazer, engajamento, intenção de comportamento, e fidelização de clientes. O enquadramento foi desenvolvido com base na revisão de literatura e noutros modelos desenvolvidos por outros autores. A parte empírica do presente estudo foi realizada através de um questionário online, que foi distribuído por diversos canais para obter o maior número de respondentes possíveis. O Partial Least Squares (PLS) foi utilizado para avaliar a investigação. Os resultados revelaram que a gamificação tem um impacto positivo significativo na fidelização de clientes, através da intenção de comportamento do utilizador, enquanto a intenção de engajamento não influencia a fidelização dos consumidores. Outras conclusões foram retiradas, tendo certas implicações que podem contribuir para que estudos futuros possam realizar decisões conscientes quando determinarem os antecedentes para uma análise mais complexa do impacto da gamificação na fidelização de clientes

Understanding hotel visitors’ motives to use hotel gamified applications

While hospitality has been one of the industries that have been keen to adopt and use various technologies, the proliferation of gamification application is still to materialise. It is therefore very interesting to investigate the potential benefits of gamified applications in the area of the hospitality industry by identifying the motives of individuals’ when they use a hotel-gamified application. Hospitality industry is becoming more and more competitive and surviving and marketing a destination has become a challenge, so in order to gain a competitive advantage, the use of modern technology is crucial for many destination-marketing organizations. Gamification can be applied in technology-mediated and non-technology-mediated contexts. Within technology-mediated contexts, gamification is more applicable due to the favourable environment that such context offers. Recent evolutions indicate that mobile devices are becoming travel buddies and their use is profoundly influencing the different phases of a travellers’ journey. Hence, it could be assumed, that a mobile hotel gamified application is now easier than ever to develop and succeed. Since fun has become the requirement to ensure continuous demands for many products or services, companies and organizations feel the need to involve fun in their offerings to secure continuity in consumption and use. Therefore, this study aims to understand the meaning of fun for individuals when they will use a hotel-gamified application, using visual material so the interviewees would have an idea of how a hotel-gamified application would look if it was in existence today based on the current definitions of gamification

Design elements of conflict : A design study of a gamified smartphone application for employee onboarding

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