Moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity has an established
preventative role in obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. However
recent evidence suggests that sitting time affects health negatively
independent of whether adults meet prescribed physical activity guidelines.
Since many of us spend long hours daily sitting in front of a host of
electronic screens, this is cause for concern. In this paper, we describe a set
of three prototype digital games created for encouraging light-intensity
physical activity during short breaks at work. The design of these kinds of
games is a complex process that must consider motivation strategies,
interaction methodology, usability and ludic aspects. We present design
guidelines for technologies that encourage physical activity in the workplace
that we derived from a user evaluation using the prototypes. Although the
design guidelines can be seen as general principles, we conclude that they have
to be considered differently for different workplace cultures and workspaces.
Our study was conducted with users who have some experience playing casual
games on their mobile devices and were able and willing to increase their
physical activity.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Video:
http://living.media.mit.edu/projects/see-saw
