Week 2-3 Research
GAMIFICATION:
Pokémon Go: Games such as Pokémon Go make users exercise by engaging them in capturing Pokémon by walking to locations in real life. This inspired people to walk/cycle to locations rather than drive which had multiple health benefits.
Zombies, Run!: This game engages you in exercise by telling you a compelling story through audio where you must run to certain areas to "collect" items to survive the zombie apocalypse. It is a fitness app that uses the storyline of a post-apocalyptic world where zombies are everywhere. It's another example of gamification that makes exercise fun, and more appealing than driving or taking public transport.
https://blog.healthadvocate.com/2016/05/wellness-app-review-zombies-run/
CLIMATE APPS:
NASA's Earth Now: NASA's app Earth Now shows the earth's vital signs such as air temperature, carbon monoxide & carbon dioxide levels, sea levels, soil moisture, ozone, and water vapour in real time. I think this app is a good example of an app that would make people cut down on fossil fuel use and driving out of pure guilt. Seeing climate change visualised in real time is a good way for people to consider walking or cycling short distances.
Week 4-5 Research
This week I researched the benefits of smartwatches for health and fitness and how the layout keeps users engaged.
Why Are Smartwatches Beneficial?
Smartwatches encourage active lifestyles by tracking steps per day, heart rate, calories burned, sleep tracking and much more. They allow you to track your diet and calorie intake, and they offer personal healthcare data. I think considering health and fitness is such a big part of the solution, making it compatible with a smartwatch is essential. This way users can more accurately track their progress and can also leave their phone at home in the process.
"57% of smartwatch owners start exercising more after purchasing a wearable device like the Apple Watch or the Fitbit".
https://www.nwpc.com/how-smartwatches-could-improve-your-health/
How Accurate Are Smartwatches Compared To Phones?
A smartwatch is a good investment if it's being used for physical fitness. Smart watches that are tailored for fitness (which most are nowadays) can monitor your heart rate, steps, pace, timing and advanced performance tracking features that cover a wide range of sports way more than an app on a phone. Due to the fact that we now know watches are significantly more accurate than phone's for step counting and more, I think this backs up my previous research in the fact that a watch will definitely be used as part as our final solution
https://bestgpstech.com/gps-running-watch-vs-phone-which-is-better-and-why/#:~:text=A%20strong%20and%20dedicated%20GPS,a%20variety%20of%20different%20reasons.How To Increase User Engagement In Wearables (watches)
Use of gamification:
In 2019, a study was conducted about how to increase user engagement with Play4fit, a health and fitness app, using the gamification concept. The study concluded that the use of gamification positively impacted the user engagement metrics in the health and fitness wearable app niche. The use of gamification can certainly assist in increasing engagement in wearable watches, trackers, and health monitors. This is great information to be aware of due to the fact that our final product will include gamification, and now we know it can keep users engaged even on wearable devices.
https://www.storyly.io/post/how-to-increase-user-engagement-in-wearables
Week 6 Research
This week I've researched different other methods of user engagement besides gamification.
Although gamification will be the main source of our user engagement, there are also multiple other ways to keep users engaged. These include clarity, adopting a personal tone. relevance, considering cultural differences, and welcome messages. Including these features along with a feature of gamification will keep our app interesting, fresh, and most importantly, engaging. Feature announcements after updates is also another example of this.
https://www.intercom.com/blog/customer-engagement/
Another way to keep users engaged is to use visual engagement tools.
For example, this could include using a video chat instead of a standard chat box. 'Video chat can make up for the lack of personable connection on the internet, where most interactions are chat based'. Although this would be a bit more difficult to maintain and manage than a standard bot-ran chat box, it's definitely worth looking in to as a way to add a more personal feel of engagement.
Mind map software helps visualising ideas by creating structure and visibility. It lets you create a visual diagram for your ideas and easily illustrates the relationship and hierarchy between different concepts. For example, in our case, we could use a mind map to show the costumer's certain goals for health and fitness or tracking certain route times.
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