Virtual avatars, gaming, and social media: Designing a mobile health app to help children choose healthier food options

Abstract

Background Rapid growth in Smartphone use among children affords potential opportunities to target health behaviors such as dietary habits; however, few mobile health applications are specifically designed with these individuals in mind. This brief report describes our step-by-step approach towards developing a mobile health application for targeting nutrition behaviors among children. Methods Descriptions of the 10 most popular paid and 10 most popular free Smartphone applications available on the Apple iTunes store for ages 4 and up as of March 2012 were qualitatively analyzed. The relevance of key characteristics found in these applications was then further explored for their potential to improve dietary behaviours amongst children, and a mobile application was developed. Results Three prominent characteristics of the most popular applications emerged: 1) virtual avatars or characters (observed in 50% of the applications); 2) gaming (observed in 75% of the applications); and 3) social media (observed in 45% of the applications). These features were then incorporated into the design of a mobile health application called Avafeed, which uses a virtual avatar and gaming to help make choosing healthier food options easier among children. The application was successfully released onto the Apple iTunes Store in September 2012. Conclusions In this unconventional approach, evidence-based research was combined with information procured from a qualitative review of popular applications available on the Apple iTunes Store in order to design a potentially relevant and popular mobile health application for use among children.

Using a gamified mobile app to increase student engagement, retention and academic achievement

“…Compared to the fast-growing body of scholarship concerned with educational mobile apps for children (Hirsh-Pasek et al, 2015;Hswen, Murti, Vormawor, Bhattacharjee, & Naslund, 2013;Judge, Floyd, & Jeffs, 2015), more evidence-based research into the impact of HE mobile learning apps is urgently needed. Where a mobile learning app's effectiveness is concerned, some factors remain constant regardless of a student's age: such as, learning is most effective when learners are engaged, cognitively active and guided by a goal, and when learning activities are scaffolded and interactive (HirshPasek et al, 2015).…”

Adolescent Preferences and Design Recommendations for an Asthma Self-Management App: Mixed-Methods Study (Preprint)

“…one adolescent responded by mentioning adding puzzle games because she plays those on other apps, and many adolescents suggested the addition of asthma games and/or turning existing features into gaming components since "kids love games" (Female,13 (Male,14). Similarly, one adolescent stated that he would add Cam Newton, or his favorite sports character and incorporate him into the app, possibly as an avatar or include an image of him on a page of the app.…”

“…In the United States, one in ten adolescents have asthma, [1] and poorly controlled asthma among children and adolescents (aged [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] can lead to greater health resource utilization and healthcare expenditures estimated at $5.35 billion per year. [2] Adolescents with asthma who have symptoms report significantly worse self-rated health and both significantly impaired physical and mental health than those without asthma.…”

“…[12] A challenge for health apps when compared to popular mainstream apps is their lack of use over time in which many health-related apps are cumbersome and uninteresting to the app user. [13] Research has found that although 21% of teens have downloaded a health-related app, only 8% of these teens often used the app and 47% hardly ever or never used them. [14] Usability.gov highlights the benefits of user-centered designs, which for mobile apps include increased app credibility (e.g.…”

Algorithmic skin: health-tracking technologies, personal analytics and the biopedagogies of digitized health and physical education

“…A key emerging area is health-tracking devices and apps for students that are designed to encourage healthy lifestyles, aid dietary planning and encourage physical activity. Popular features of health-related apps for children include the concept of caring for virtual creatures by fulfilling their dietary and fitness needs, often combined with various gaming and competition elements and online social media environments (Hswen et al, 2013). For example, Zamzee consists of a wearable physical activity meter twinned with a social media experience and personalizable avatar, as well as online leaderboards and facilities for accessing individual activity graphs, sending status updates and earning virtual currencies.…”