Understanding the wearable fitness tracker revolution

Exploring Virtual Rewards in Real Life

“…In terms of the psychological and behavioral benefits of virtual rewards in daily practices, most of previous findings were confirmed [10,40]. Our participants also reported that collecting virtual rewards motivated them to exercise more and helped them stay active while giving a sense of pleasure and achievement.…”

“…Fritz et al [10] showed that rewards systems like badges and points can have positive effects by promoting more physical activity, giving a sense of achievement, and serving as an alternative goal. Positive responses to virtual rewards were also given by Vooris et al's [40] examination of how gamification elements impact on users' usage patterns of activity trackers. They indicated that badges help people stay active, let them move more to earn them, and check the app more often.…”

“…As described above, the findings of the previous studies were mixed regarding the effectiveness of digital rewards provided by current activity trackers. In most cases, study findings were drawn from in-depth interviews or focus groups with a relatively small number of users, where there is a risk that participants recruited may not represent the entire user group [10,40], thus the need for research with a larger and broader population [17,40]. Moreover, many studies [19,44,29] only focused on motivational effects of virtual rewards, providing a limited understanding of how these have been incorporated into the real-life experiences of activity-tracker users.…”

“…Although these differences may yield different behavioral and motivational outcomes, the actual use and impact of the current designs have been underexplored. Existing studies report mixed views on the effectiveness of virtual rewards offered by activity trackers in the wild [10,17,19,40]. Some studies showed positive effects on users' everyday practices, whereas people were indifferent in other studies.…”

Older Adults’ Perceptions of ICT: Main Findings from the Technology In Later Life (TILL) Study

“…Participants living in rural communities in both the UK and Canada used this type of technology for safety (when travelling to the city), while urban participants in both countries were more concerned about their privacy of data. Social media/networking is also one area where there is room for growth in connecting friends and family; the use of personal fitness trackers to enhance leisure, competitive virtual gaming (e.g., collecting digital badges or competing against friends in distances walked), and continued group sharing of information/communication [75] can all reduce social isolation.…”