ABSTRACT
Sedentary time is considered a health risk factor, even when it is compensated with some exercise. Frequent activities of minimal physical exertion throughout the day like walking or climbing stairs are therefore recommended. To promote these activities through social play and collective awareness, we designed a semi-public display that shows the step count of a group of players in near real-time, using a wearable self-monitoring device that senses their physical activity. We included a fictional player that walked at constant speed during the whole day to promote a shared goal. Our preliminary findings suggest that the display motivated players to use a self-monitoring device everyday and enabled new conversations among players without producing privacy issues. Emotional connections with non-collocated participants and creative ways of cheating were also observed. We believe our work highlights the opportunities to extend the potential of self-monitoring devices, which require little effort and resources to be implemented.
- Bandura, A. 1997. Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. Worth Publishers.Google Scholar
- Consolvo, S., McDonald, D. W., Toscos, T., Chen, M. Y., Froehlich, J., Harrison, B., Klasnja, P., LaMarca, A., LeGrand, L., Libby, R., Smith, I., and Landay, J. A. 2008. Activity sensing in the wild: a field trial of ubifit garden. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Florence, Italy, 2008), ACM, 1797--1806. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Duvivier, B. M., Schaper, N. C., Bremers, M. A., van Crombrugge, G., Menheere, P. P., Kars, M., and Savelberg, H. H. 2013. Minimal Intensity Physical Activity (Standing and Walking) of Longer Duration Improves Insulin Action and Plasma Lipids More than Shorter Periods of Moderate to Vigorous Exercise (Cycling) in Sedentary Subjects When Energy Expenditure Is Comparable. PloS one. 8(2), e55542.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Foster, D., Linehan, C., Kirman, B., Lawson, S., and James, G. 2010. Motivating physical activity at work: using persuasive social media for competitive step counting. In Proceedings of the 14th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments (Tampere, Finland, 2010), ACM, 111--116. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Hekler, E. B., Klasnja, P., Froehlich, J. E., and Buman, M. P. 2013. Mind the Theoretical Gap: Interpreting, Using, and Developing Behavioral Theory in HCI Research. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Paris, France, 2013), ACM, 3307--3316. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Huang, E. M. and Mynatt, E. D. 2003. Semi-public displays for small, co-located groups. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (Ft. Lauderdale, USA, 2003), 49--56. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lin, J. J., Mamykina, L., Lindtner, S., Delajoux, G., and Strub, H. B. 2006. Fish "n" Steps: Encouraging physical activity with an interactive computer game. In Proceedings of UbiComp (California, USA, 2006), Springer, 261--278. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Mueller, F. F., Gibbs, M. R., and Vetere, F. 2008. Taxonomy of exertion games. In Proceedings of the 20th Australasian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction: Designing for Habitus and Habitat (Cairns, Australia, 2008), ACM, 263--266. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Prochaska, J. O. and DiClemente, C. C. 1983. Stages and processes of self-change of smoking: Toward an integrative model of change. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 51, 3 (Jun. 1983), 390--395.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Proper, K. I., Singh, A. S., Van Mechelen, W., and Chinapaw, M. J. 2011. Sedentary Behaviors and Health Outcomes Among Adults: A Systematic Review of Prospective Studies. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 40, 2 (Feb. 2011), 174--182.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Ryan, R. M. and Deci, E. L. 2000. Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American psychologist. 55(1), (2000), 68--78.Google Scholar
- Salen, K. and Zimmerman, E. 2004. Rules of play: Game design fundamentals. MIT press. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Vorderer, P., Hartmann, T., and Klimmt, C. 2003. Explaining the enjoyment of playing video games: the role of competition. In Proceedings of the second international conference on Entertainment computing (Pittsburgh, USA, 2003), 1--9 Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Watch your steps: designing a semi-public display to promote physical activity
Recommendations
Persuasive technology in the real world: a study of long-term use of activity sensing devices for fitness
CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsPersuasive technology to motivate healthy behavior is a growing area of research within HCI and ubiquitous computing. The emergence of commercial wearable devices for tracking health- and fitness-related activities arguably represents the first ...
Theory-driven design strategies for technologies that support behavior change in everyday life
CHI '09: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing SystemsIn this paper, we propose design strategies for persuasive technologies that help people who want to change their everyday behaviors. Our strategies use theory and prior work to substantially extend a set of existing design goals. Our extensions ...
Kindness is Contagious: Study into Exploring Engagement and Adapting Persuasive Games for Wellbeing
UMAP '18: Proceedings of the 26th Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and PersonalizationIntentional engagement in positive activities, such as practicing kindness, showing generosity or expressing gratitude, can help people increase their happiness levels and improve their wellbeing. In this paper we explore how a gamified digital ...
Comments