More Enjoyable Less Arduous
Redesigning Experience of Weight Loss through Gamified Trackers
OVERVIEW
The research project focuses on a worldwide issue - obesity which poses serious threats to human health. Despite its severity, weight loss turns out to be tough for the majority due to the arduous process. Although various approaches have been applied, very few take into account the weight-loss experience.
Thus this inquiry is dedicated to investigating from this perspective and in turn generating design solutions for the community to reach weight-loss goals with less pain. Using interdisciplinary design research approach, I conducted the individual research project and ended up with the Research Report documenting theoretical exploration, workflow and methodology as well as the design artefact.
INSTITUTION
The University of Sydney
School of Architecture, Design and Planning
RESPONSIBILITIES
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User research
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UI design
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Prototyping
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User testing
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Academic research
INITIAL LITERATURE REVIEW
To contextualise the research topic, I went through peer-reviewed publications extensively and selectively, with a critical analysis of existing works. I distilled and reframed the section of background research as follows:
The rising prevalence of obesity
The growing prevalence of obesity over the last decade has turned out to be a severe social issue throughout the world. The statistics could exemplify this global trend:
Obese/Overweight Adults (% of Total Population) by Region
Region Percentage Year Data Source
World 37% 2014 Global Burden of Disease Study
USA 40% 2016 A Study by Flegal et al.
England 62% 2013 National Statistics
Australia 63.4% 2015 2014/15 National Health Survey
The threat to human health
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Physiological diseases: diabetes, cardiovascular, hypertension, cancers
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Psychological issues: depression, anxiety, body image dissatisfaction and low self‐esteem
Attempts by health organisations and individuals
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In a US survey (2012), 60% of obese adults reported having tried to lose weight in the previous year
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A UK survey (2013) found that 60% of overweight and obese adults were ‘trying to lose weight’
Existing weight loss methods
Standard Care for Losing Weight: e.g. educational methods, behavioural interventions, drug treatments and bariatric surgery
Downsides:
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Bariatric surgery, drug treatments and very low-calorie diets pose the risk of side effects; People typically fail to reach their desired weight with these methods
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Clinical and commercial weight loss programs are much likely to end up with weight regain of about 40%
Technology-based interventions
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Weight management apps and online platforms offer step counting, limited amounts of self-monitoring and goal-setting
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Wearable self tracking devices can perform the core tasks of mobile apps and webs, also provide sensory, monitoring, and scanning features of health-related data
Argument
A study revealed that consistent self-monitoring of exercise could contribute to fewer difficulties in exercise and the resulting weight loss (Carels, Darby, Rydin, Douglass, Cacciapaglia & O’Brien, 2005).
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
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How does weight loss experience influence achieving target weight?
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How does the use of activity trackers contribute to weight loss?
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How does a gamified system create the desired experience?
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How to enhance weight loss experience through gamified trackers?
INTERVIEW
Interview is recognised as an effective way to collect insightful user data about user needs, behaviour patterns. Thus I did good preparation by defining a set of thought-provoking questions, recruiting participants from diverse backgrounds, in the way of both lab study (interview in a usual environment, e.g. school, workplace) and field study (on-site interview, e.g. at a gym).
Target user group:
Target user group are people who need to lose weight. Accordingly, the criteria for this user study's participants are people who have experience in weight loss and are activity tracker users.
Table of Participant Information (Interview)
Participant | Gender | Age | Nationality | Occupation | Duration of weight loss | Tracker type | Frequency of using tracker | Tracker as weight loss tool |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Participant 1 | Male | 19 | Chinese | Undergraduate | 2 months | Apple Watch | Daily | Yes |
Participant 2 | Male | 29 | Australian | Software developer | 2 weeks | Apple Watch | Occasionally | No |
Participant 3 | Female | 28 | Australian | N/A | 1 year | Fitbit | Frequently | Yes |
Participant 4 | Female | 27 | Iranian | N/A | 1 month | Apple Watch | Frequently | No |
Participant 5 | Male | 24 | Chinese | Postgraduate | 6 months | Apple Watch | Daily | Yes |
Participant 6 | Female | 23 | Chinese | Postgraduate | Non-continuously | Fitbit | Not any more | No |
Participant 7 | Male | 23 | Chinese | Postgraduate | 3-4 months | Apple Watch | Daily | Yes |
Participant 8 | Male | 31 | Australian | Software developer | 1 year | Fitbit | Frequently | Yes |
ONLINE SURVEY
Online survey is a great way to gather user data from a larger user population nationwide or even worldwide. This strength enables the research to augment its validity due to the massive database. Therefore, I used this method to collect more data from user feedback in details.
Questionnaire:
I designed the questionnaire to cover more aspects of user experience in 'weight loss' and self tracking in the form of personalised answer-based sections. Question types include multi-choice, rating, scaling, short answer.
Platform:
I crafted the survey with Google Forms and shared the survey link on the community-based online forum Reddit. To target specific communities who are target users, I posted the survey link exclusively in any relevant themed subreddits such as “r/losingweight”, “r/bodybuilding”, “r/Fitness”.
Participants:
Up to 90 people from 17 countries, working in more than 50 types of jobs (incl. retired, unemployed).
Online Survey Participant Responses
Demographics
PARTICIPANT BY COUNTRY
Country | Number of Participants |
|---|---|
United States | 44 |
Canada | 9 |
United Kingdom | 7 |
Australia | 6 |
Germany | 5 |
New Zealand | 4 |
China | 4 |
India | 2 |
Spain | 1 |
Italy | 1 |
Switzerland | 1 |
Mexico | 1 |
Philippines | 1 |
South Africa | 1 |
Argentina | 1 |
Ecuador | 1 |
Mauritius | 1 |
(Scrollable)
PARTICIPANT BY OCCUPATION
Occupation | Number of Participants |
|---|---|
Student | 13 |
Teacher | 7 |
Software developer | 6 |
Homemaker | 3 |
Graduate | 2 |
Graphic designer | 2 |
Manager | 2 |
Scientist | 2 |
Personal banker | 2 |
Nurse | 2 |
IT analyst | 2 |
Government | 2 |
Customer service | 2 |
Financial planner | 1 |
Analyst | 1 |
Security guard | 1 |
Project manager | 1 |
Management | 1 |
Physiotherapy assistant | 1 |
Line cook | 1 |
Psychometrist | 1 |
Veterinary nurse | 1 |
Technical sales consultant | 1 |
Freelancer | 1 |
Disabled | 1 |
Programmer | 1 |
Underwriter | 1 |
Legal assistant | 1 |
Marketing | 1 |
Software engineer | 1 |
Clinical informatics pharmacist | 1 |
Geographic information systems analyst | 1 |
Electrical engineer | 1 |
Registered nurse | 1 |
Tutor | 1 |
Entertainment executive | 1 |
Enterprise IT consultant | 1 |
Retired | 1 |
Validation technician | 1 |
Stay at home mom | 1 |
Patient care technician | 1 |
Office worker | 1 |
Consumer technical support | 1 |
Community support worker | 1 |
Database administrator | 1 |
Social worker | 1 |
Unemployed (disabled) | 1 |
Warehouse worker | 1 |
Professor | 1 |
Law enforcement dispatcher | 1 |
Engineer | 1 |
Sales | 1 |
Client admin in commercial insurance | 1 |
Compliance manager | 1 |
Military | 1 |
(Scrollable)
Weight loss
Experience of weight loss
Exercise
Journey of self tracking
Tracker as a weight loss tool
REASONS FOR NOT USING TRACKER AS WEIGHT LOSS TOOL
I never exercised to lose weight as I deem it inappropriate historically to keep on monitoring the gains or losses. |
I have lost 75lb so far but my weight loss has slowed since incorporating exercise (makes me hungrier!). |
In my experience and according to the advice of my dietician, weight loss is achieved through diet. |
I am mostly concerned about getting enough sleep which the tracking helps to record. |
I count calories and the ‘calories burned’ option on the activity tracker is inaccurate. |
I use it for steps and activity, but calories burnt count are unreliable. |
It’s just good tool for statistics. You can always live without it. |
Exercise does not drive weight loss. It will benefit fitness. |
Diet is more important, can't wear tracker while playing hockey. |
I exercise to become fitter and healthier, not to lose weight. |
I generally don't wear accessories during activity. |
Rather measure by how clothes fit. |
I don't care about this feature. |
Diet is more important. |
(Scrollable)
AFFINITY DIAGRAM
Affinity diagram is not only a powerful tool to organise disordered data but also an active research method that reflects key findings and inspires design ideas. Following this approach, I categorised all the user feedback into theme-based clusters in a bottom-up manner. To correspond with the two themes of user research, all user feedback were also grouped into the same themes - experience of weight loss and experience of self tracking.
Theme 1 - Experience of weight loss
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Duration
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Way of weight loss
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Feeling about weight loss
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Motivation for exercise
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Feeling about exercise
Theme 2 - Experience of self tracking
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Motivation for self tracking
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How tracker works
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Reasons for not use tracker
Digitised Affinity Diagram
KEY FINDINGS
I categorised these user feedback into four aspects: findings, issues, frustrations and user needs. I then did further analysis to conclude the key findings of users' current experience of weight loss and self tracking.
SUMMARY OF USER NEEDS
Based on further analysis of key findings, I concluded and summarised the user needs underlying their current experience as follows:
LITERATURE REVIEW
The complex user needs entail an effective design strategy to resolve the issues and I assumed gamification might be an appropriate option. So it is essential to research its theories and practice to discuss if it is advisable and applicable. I did the literature review on gamification and distilled a few points below:
(full text is in Research Report)
Definition
Gamification refers to designs that attempt to give rise to similar experiences as games do (Deterding et al. 2011).
Implementation
Gamification implementations most commonly have focused on easily transferable mechanics such as points, badges or higher placement in a game hierarchy, e.g. beating others on a leaderboard (Christy & Fox 2014) that easily fit into a variety of services across the information systems (Morschheuser et al. 2017).
Effects
In addition to effects gamification has on motivation and goal attainment (Zuckerman & Gal-Oz 2014), it also intends to create a gameful, enjoyable experience (Deterding et al. 2011)
Motivational Affordance
The main motivational effects of gamification lies in its ability to make goals smarter (Burke 2014), that is more specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. Such smart goals could assist individuals towards the achievement of their goals (Mann et al. 2013).
Engagement
To ensure the engagement with the game, by matching the challenge level to user skills, players can be put in an enjoyable state of ‘flow’ to be immersed in the task (Csíkszentmihályi 1975).
Gamification attempts to mimic this experience (Hamari and Koivisto 2014a) that may facilitate user engagement with their goals long enough to attain them.
Leaderboards for Motivation
Gamification via leaderboard facilitates social proof theory which predicts that individuals are more likely to engage in behaviours which they perceive others are also engaged in (Cialdini, 2001).
Badges for Motivation
A rationale behind gamification is to harness the persuasive power that emerges when people compare their badges amongst each other, effectively benchmarking themselves (Festinger, 1954).
PRECEDENT RESEARCH
To redesign a gamified system, it is not enough to merely learn the relevant theory and rationale. It is also necessary to review existing mass-market products across the industry, including wearable activity trackers and health apps.
The review on these products focused on the properties of motivational factors, e.g. how the motivational factors are embedded in the system; how effectively the factors motivate user engagement; what user experience is like with these factors.
Motivational Factors of Activity Trackers
Motivational Factors of Health Apps
Insights of Precedent Research
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The current health product market exists huge space for exploring more effective motivational factors or upgrading existing systems into a more sophisticated level.
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Gamification as the leading role across the motivational system presents a growing trend. However, it needs to be further systematised and popularised.
IDEATION: GROUNDED IN USER NEEDS
I defined the design strategy mainly to match user needs extracted from user research. The other inspiration came from the literature review about gamification which helped to create a theory-ingrained design concept.
I. Intrinsic Value
“Intrinsic value” here is used to emphasise the utility and functionality of a system - a reason for users to engage with it.
Based on user needs, 5 metrics users need to track the most which also contribute to weight loss are exercise, diet, calorie, weight, heart rate. Thus in the design, these 5 metrics are represented as 5 paths - activity, food, calorie, weight and heart rate, forming the skeleton of the weight loss tracker.
5 Metrics/Paths (Selection of pages)
More User Needs Design Solutions
Game design principles
Data-recording, goal-setting, progress reference, performance comparison
Behaviour change reminder
Need more motivation
Overcome poor self-discipline
Keep on losing weight (as a habit) without a lapse
Set realistic goals
Get used to losing weight easily in the early stage
Playful factors such as competing, sharing, collecting badge are in need
Basic design strategy
Features of updating ongoing progress, storing history data, quickly target previous dates
Reminder of standing or moving
Remind user to keep on weight loss if they disengage in the tracker for long
Smart goal - goals are automatically set by system from easy to hard
Match the challenge level to user skills - goal level from easy to hard
Upgradable award system encourages users to keep on losing weight
Immerse user in gameful challenges with enjoyable state flow
Mechanics of leaderboard, badge are adopted
Reminder
Progress Reference
Periodic Performance Comparison
Trend Prediction
Alerts and Action Sheets
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Alerts and action sheets are full-screen system interfaces
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Keep titles short enough to display on a single line
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Always include a Cancel button
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Avoid action sheets with more than four buttons
Buttons
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Prefer buttons that span the width of the screen
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Make sure buttons that aren't full-width are large enough to be tapped easily
Pickers
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One of picker styles is displaying text and images in a scrolling list
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Use captions to clarify the meaning of items or of the picker itself
II. Gamification Intervention
Some users mentioned that they were motivated by playful factors such as collecting badges, competing with others. So I applied gamification mechanics to the design to provide more motivation.
Leaderboard mechanic:
Leaderboard as one of the dominant gamification mechanics has demonstrated that it tends to enhance user performance and provide more motivation. Leaderboard is designed as a move ranking of daily activity performance of peers.
Badge mechanic:
Badge mechanic is designed as the process of collecting Pokemon badges, which helps users to persist in losing weight without lapses. Users are encouraged to carry on with it by rewarding them with evolved Pokemons. (At the early stage users can collect initial Pokemons only, they can unlock evolved ones only after their frequent use of the tracker i.e. consistent weight loss for a period of time.)
PILOT PROTOTYPING: PROTOTYPE ALPHA
Informed by literature review, I followed an effective gamification design method - iterative experimental prototyping (prototype in an iterative loop, driven by the optimal user experience) and ended up with the pilot prototype of the gamified weight loss tracker.
Tools:
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Sketching: pencil and paper
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Mocking-up: Sketch
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Prototyping: inVision
Video Walk-through of Prototype Alpha
The design method of iterative experimental prototyping requires follow-up user testings to inform iteration. Thus after crafting the pilot prototype, I conducted think-aloud evaluation and post-study interview to test this version based on user feedback.
USER TESTING
I. Think-aloud Protocol
The think-aloud study is mainly for testing the intrinsic value of the prototype, i.e. the functionality and usability because the gamified features can not really function on the prototype which disabled the evaluation on its experiential value about motivation and enjoyment.
Participants:
I recruited 4 of the previous interview participants because I already learnt their issues, concerns and needs so I can compare their weight loss experience before and after their use of the tracker.
User tasks:
I created the task set comprising of 5 abstract tasks (corresponding with the gamified tracker’s 5 metrics) and 18 concrete tasks (the breakdown of each abstract task). Participants were asked to fulfil each task by interacting with the pilot prototype.
Recording:
Apart from qualitative observation, I also used the method of retrospective probing to record and reflect on user performance. So I recorded the think-aloud process in both ways - screen recording to track participants' non-verbal performance; movie recording to record their verbals, facial expression.
II. Post-study Interview
Due to the technical constraints of the prototype (gamified features can not really function on inVision), I then made the post-study interview focus on the prototype's experiential value, i.e. user experience with the gamified features (which can not be tested through think-aloud), especially on the hedonic level. Although I asked open-ended questions about participants' experience with the gamified features, their responses still relied on their assumed interaction, which is the limitation of the post-study evaluation.
III. Insights of User Testing
I analysed the qualitative and quantitative data (e.g. time consumed to complete tasks) from user testing to gain insights into user experience with the prototype, which are translated into strengths, weaknesses and suggestions from participants.
Strengths:
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The basic functions of the prototype work well with participants (e.g. the automatical preset goal system is helpful for them to keep on losing weight).
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SEQ score indicated that the prototype is easy to use for participants.
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Their weight loss experience is improved by the gamified tracker (previous experience is scored avg 2 while current experience with the tracker is scored avg 4.8).
Weaknesses:
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Most participants feel somewhat more motivated than before but not motivated enough by the gamified features.
Suggestions:
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Making the gamified tracker more motivational, e.g. refining the badge system by combining it with ranking to allow contest among users.
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Pokemon badges can be collected in more than one way with a more vivid look and feel.
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Setting the achievement system to be upgradable which is more motivational.
ITERATION: PROTOTYPE BETA
Informed by the testing feedback, I iterated the prototype into version beta which highlights the change of gamified features:
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The upgradeable badge system is represented as the self-evolvement of Pokemons, which is a more vivid way to display Pokemons.
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Pokemon can express its feeling, mood to the user, which will make the user feel emotionally closer.
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Users’ badge collection is ranked on a leaderboard which motivates them to collect more to win.
