The gamification of exercising: can a gamified service make use of game, quantified-self and social networking features to motivate exercise?
No Thumbnail Available
URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
Ask about the availability of the thesis by sending email to the Aalto University Learning Centre oppimiskeskus@aalto.fi
Authors
Date
2017
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Information and Service Management (ISM)
Language
en
Pages
88
Series
Abstract
In the last few decades the popularity of games, and particularly of video games, has exploded. Video games are able to hook players, sometimes for hours, in a state of excitement and immersion which most other so called productive activities can only dream of. That is partly due to the way these games are designed, many of the most successful games are the result of thousands of hours of deliberate consideration and designed specifically to engage. Their success raises the question, could video games be “reverse engineered” and their success recipe be used in other, supposedly less exciting domains to engage and motivate users? For centuries humans have played games with the intent of not only distracting themselves and forming social bonds but also to learn and, for example, to train armies. Gamification attempts to deploy game thinking and mechanisms in services to provide emotional feedback and motivate users. This thesis presents a study resulting from survey data (N=167) from users of a exercise encouragement service which, along with gamification features provides users with two other recent conceptual developments: quantified-self and social networking. The first attempts to provide cognitive feedback mostly through information and statistics, while social networking attempts to harness social reciprocity and social influence to provide social feedback. A model is hypothesised between the use and appreciation of gamification, quantified-self and social networking features, different types of feedback received and two outcomes: continued use and benefits to the user. Testing was performed with component-based PLS-SEM in SmartPLS 2.0. Results of the study show that emotional feedback from the service is the strongest predictor of continued use and derived benefits, whereas cognitive feedback is significantly associated only with continued use. Emotional feedback stems mostly from gamification and quantified-self features, cognitive feedback arises most from quantified-self.Description
Thesis advisor
Rossi, MattiHamari, Juho
Keywords
gamification, quantified-self, persuasive technology, service, design, motivation, game, game mechanisms, sports trackers, feedback, self-monitoring, goal setting