Using gamification in a mobile application to treat children with obesity : Increasing the motivation to select healthy food

• Main Author: Grundberg, Erik
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för datavetenskap 2020
• Subjects: gamification; user engagement; UES; overweight treatment; Computer Sciences; Datavetenskap (datalogi)
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-167170

In a time where child obesity is reaching an alarming level it is important to provide tools for weight loss that are accessible to many children. Furthermore, it is important for these tools to be easy and fun to use to keep the users engaged in the tool over a long period of time, since losing weight is nothing that can be done in a day. By designing and implementing a mobile application for logging food intake and the incorporation of gamification elements, this study seeks to address the problem of users losing interest in the tool and rebounding to unhealthy eating. Gamification is a concept of making applications that traditionally has nothing to do with games into a more game-like experience to enhance user engagement. After the development of the application was complete, the participants of the study used the application as a part of their daily routine to log all the food they consumed. When interviewing the participants after testing the application the overall response for the gamification elements was positive. However, the general design and implementation of the application seemed to affect the user engagement more than the additional gamification elements.