FitPlay Games: Increasing Exercise Motivation Through Asynchronous Social
Gaming
Student Game Competition
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Skriloff, Sarah Justine Guy
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Gonzalez, Dario C.
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Christensen, Kurtis C.
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Bentley, Logan J.
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Mortensen, Cody V.
Extended Abstracts of the ACM CHI'16 Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems
2016-05-07
v.2
p.164-167
© Copyright 2016 ACM
Summary: Many factors contribute to people's physical inactivity, but among the
leading factors is a lack of motivation. Fitness trackers have been shown to
encourage an increase in exercise, but they are frequently abandoned within a
few short months. We developed our asynchronous-play social gaming platform,
FitPlay Games, to fill the gap in motivation left by current fitness trackers.
By providing users with a variety of asynchronous cooperative and competitive
gaming styles, we enable them to find a motivation technique that works best
for their lifestyle and fitness prowess. The platform encourages prolonged use
of fitness trackers, helping users to have more healthy lifestyles. Individual
games are designed to allow both the novice and the maven to have a chance at
winning, leveling the playing field, and increasing motivation to win. The
effectiveness, usability, and enjoyability of the social games will be
assessed, with an emphasis on understanding differences in play habits due to
gender and lifestyle.
