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You Keep Me Hangin’ On: An Analysis of Motivational Mechanisms in Nutrition Apps

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

About 200 new apps are added to the “Health & Wellbeing” category in the app store every year. However, high dropout rates due to little long-term user motivation persist. Despite considerable research on motivation, especially in the context of games, there are only limited insights into existing theories and mechanics in the field of health apps. Thus, in this research paper, we investigated different motivational mechanisms combined in one nutrition app to determine whether Bartle Player Types, Temporal Motivation Theory, Arousal Theory, Operand Conditioning as well as Pinks Framework of intrinsic motivation can be applied in this context. A technical artifact was developed which imitated a nutrition app and was enhanced with various gamification elements. This enabled a detailed investigation of user behavior within a conducted user study with 42 participants from whom 20 filled out the follow-up questionnaire. We could show a strong influence of the Bartle Player Types on favorite motivation mechanisms as well as strong correlation between feature preference and measured usage, feature preference and perceived usage as well as measured usage and perceived usage.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHuman-Computer Interaction. Theoretical Approaches and Design Methods - Thematic Area, HCI 2022, Held as Part of the 24th HCI International Conference, HCII 2022, Proceedings
EditorsMasaaki Kurosu
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages462-477
Number of pages16
ISBN (Print)9783031053108
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022
EventHuman Computer Interaction thematic area of the 24th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2022 - Virtual, Online
Duration: 26 Jun 20221 Jul 2022

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume13302 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

ConferenceHuman Computer Interaction thematic area of the 24th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2022
CityVirtual, Online
Period26/06/221/07/22

Keywords

  • App
  • Gamification
  • Motivation
  • Nutrition
  • eHealth
  • mHealth

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