Gamification and Wearable Fitness Trackers

The term gamification is relatively new, with its “widespread adoption” not realised until the second half of 2010, according to Deterding et al (2011). They define gamification as “the use of game design elements in non-game contexts”. This blog will broadly discuss the two main types of motivation – intrinsic and extrinsic – and how gamification elements in the Garmin Vivoactive 4 sports watch seek to enhance user motivation and/or engagement in the context of physical activity. Will it ultimately motivate me to re-engage in my favourite physical activity, running? Well, that’s the question we’ll be examining here.

Just by thinking about how we interact with organisations and perform everyday tasks we can get a feel for just how widely used gamification is to motivate us to act, or more effectively engage us. And, to emphasise its broad nature, Sailer et al (2013) say the use of gamification is not limited to digital media, going on to discuss its various game elements such as points, badges, leaderboards progress bars, performance graphs, quests and challenges, avatars and related profiles — all fulfilling different functions.

Types of motivations

“To be motivated means to be moved to do something”, according to Ryan and Deci (2000). In recent times its fair to say my motivation levels to stay on top of my fitness have waned, leading to ‘unfitness’ and weight gain – a far cry from when exercise and fitness were a part of my weekly routine, culminating in my run in the 2006 Perth City to Surf. Back then my motivations were a hybrid of intrinsic – because I really enjoyed running, getting outdoors and challenging myself to keep improving my distances and times. But also because I was aware of the many health benefits associated with keeping fit, like lower blood pressure and reduced chances of chronic disease – in other words the extrinsic motivation in understanding the value of looking after myself by exercising and because I was doing it by choice. The action had a “separable outcome” and was self-determined (Ryan and Deci, 2000).

Gamified fitness – does it work?

By JOG Yacht racing can be exhausting and emotional CC BY-NC 2.0

So, to give me an initial push to help me change my exercise behaviours and break old habits, I recently invested in the Garmin wearable device with a built-in GPS, similar to the one pictured below. It wasn’t to give me back an innate sense of enjoyment of running. Or would it? It was more a prod to help me make time each week to run or walk or step, and to keep track of my activity and performance.

The Vivoactive 4 is a great all-round activity watch for a variety of activities, including running, walking, gym workouts, swimming and golf, among others, incorporating ‘gamified’ features such as:

  • Challenges: The user can Join a Badge Challenge to earn badges for steps, running, cycling, etc.  Activities are broken down to monthly or quarterly goals like the 300,000 steps for May Step Month; or 2021 Running Stage 2 challenge with the goal of 505km from April 1-June 30. For me the badges are a gimmick and I doubt they will motivate me to exercise. The stats, however, are very useful to measure distances, time, pace, steps etc of various activities and I like the option to choose my own challenge, or autonomy, over my exercise regime. (For the record I’m in 11th spot on the steps leaderboard!)
  • Garmin Coach 5K: My running coach (a real person, not an avatar), sets me a Benchmark Run depending on my current level, a weekly Workout Schedule and a 5km time goal (my goal is 26min). He aims to reignite, or start, a passion for running and his drills aim to boost performance in speed and distance – I can’t wait for the hill training coming up! Videos and articles on diet and running form  part of his plan, to educate and inspire. I really like this feature because it feels more personal and I am accountable for my behaviour (my individual exercise plan changes depending on previous runs/stats).
  • Statistical displays: My favourite aspect of the Garmin device is the Calendar: Daily Details section – it displays key indicators at a glance and uses high-end graphics, including steps and percentage reached of daily goal, calories burnt, high and low heart rate, and stress levels throughout the day. The readings therefore allow the user to track progress towards goals and shows actual performance against previous activity. I can’t remember the last time my heart rate reached 168bpm! Whilst poor stats can have a negative impact on motivation, I take the positive view that it can inspire you to strive to do better, and gives a real sense of achievement when you reach small milestones.
Gamification &Wearable Fitness Trackers.

The verdict

In summary, I am happy with the Vivoactive 4 – as Brown says, gamifying healthy habits can be the first step to behavioural change and this has been my experience so far on my fitness journey. It has helped me set goals for running, to track progress at a tap or a swipe, and stay focused on the overarching goal — to keep my weight in check and stay healthy. Accomplishment ‘rewards’ along the way help motivate me to a certain extent, too. Most importantly I’ve started exercising regularly again and want to have a crack at running the 5km soon!

Garmin sports watch. Picture: Mael Balland courtesy Unsplash

Other, gimmicky elements of the Garmin — the badges – don’t serve any motivational purpose, personally.

My experience is not unique — Nuss and Kaigang (2021) found current users of wearable fitness trackers were not particularly motivated by their devices but liked to visualise their physical activity data. But, they say this device-based self-monitoring is linked to “increased competence and autonomous motivation” for exercise. Likewise, Mitchell et al (2017) found there was initial behaviour change but no real impact on intrinsic motivation in a study about wearable fitness trackers in walking.

*Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

References

Deterding S, Dixon D, Khaled R and Nacke L (2011), ‘From game design elements to gamefulness: defining gamification’, MindTrek ’11 Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, pp.9-15

Mitchell R, Schuster L and Drennan J (2017) ‘Understanding how gamification influences behaviour in social marketing’, Australasian Marketing Journal, 25(1):12-19, DOI:10.1016/j.ausmj.2016.12.001

 Nuss K, Kaigang L (2021) ‘Motivation for physical activity and physical activity engagement in current and former wearable fitness tracker users: A mixed-methods examination’, Computers in Human Behavior, 121, DOI:10.1016/j.chb.2021.106798

Ryan, R and Deci, E (2000) ‘Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions’, Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1):54–67, DOI:10.1006/ceps.1999.1020

Sailer M, Hense J, Mandl H and Klevers M (2014), ‘Psychological perspectives on motivation through gamification’, Interaction Design and Architecture(s) Journal, 19:28-37,
https://doaj.org/article/35d52233cd05402e8f15cbfa3553fe0a 

AIHW: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/insufficient-physical-activity

Gamifying Health and Fitness – Our Gamified World: Level 1, Episode 4

MUSIC

Track: Upbeat Positive Motivational

Background Music for Videos: https:/www.bluetreeaudio.com

https://www.bluetreeaudio.com/corporate-business-background/upbeat-positive-motivational

FOOTAGE

Foysal Ahmed: Mobile Games
https://www.pexels.com/video/mobile-gaming-pubg-mobile-games-4291570/
Licence: CC0

Cottonbro: House Sitting
https://www.pexels.com/video/man-house-sitting-apartment-4115331/
Licence: CC0

Zlatin Georgiev: Weighing Scale

https://www.pexels.com/video/person-using-a-weighing-scale-6719385/

Licence: CC0

DIGITAL INNOVATION and CULTURAL HERITAGE

New media and our bastions of heritage

Digital media has come a long way in a relatively short period of time. In fact, its pervasiveness in all aspects of our lives – social, recreational, career, study, entertainment — for most of us at least, means we cannot function fully without it.

So, does the nature of digital innovation put the future of our cultural heritage institutions such as museums and galleries at risk of becoming redundant?

Well, in short the answer is no. I argue that new means of engaging audiences in these cultural institutions, driven by technology, not only complement but enhance their physical offerings.

The specific case example in this blog centres on Perth’s new state-of-the-art museum – Boola Bardip – which integrates many digital features to showcase and educate about Western Australia’s past, present and future. It captivated my interest, so I went and checked it out to see how effective these digital tools were in achieving these goals.

Backed by research

Key to developing my argument though was looking more broadly at evidence across the globe at how the transformation of museum and gallery experiences using digital technology was keeping cultural institutions relevant in the 21st century, amid the backdrop of rapid technological and social change. Would the ‘new digital world’ ultimately lead to their demise, was what I needed to know.

In summary, much is written of the need for institutions to ‘adapt or die’ and to ‘rethink’ their old delivery model. There is much evidence of this happening globally and in the case of WA Museum Boola Bardip, how integrating digital technology with traditional exhibits is attracting new, captive audiences.

The process

On my visit to WA Museum Boola Bardip I was able to experience firsthand the interactive screens and games that I discuss in the podcast above. This was a real advantage in being able to talk about the benefits and limitations of digital media in a museum, and how it interfaced with visitors. I was also able to take my own photographs (see photo gallery below) and sound bytes, keeping me in full control of my media.

However, the music used in the intro and outro, and interludes, were sourced from SoundCloud, with Creative Commons licences allowing me to share them publicly.

The challenges

The first challenge was narrowing the focus of this topic to museums, then to WA Museum Boola Bardip, then to specific exhibits, to be able to talk about them in enough depth in the allowable time – roughly six minutes. By taking on board this advice from a previous task, I was able to achieve this.

Also, being unfamiliar with using Audacity I needed guidance at every step of the process to create the podcast. I found seeking advice from my colleagues, reading the Audacity manual, googling troubleshooting questions and … most significantly — learning by doing it, got me through.

It was a tough initiation to podcasting, but I learnt that trying and perseverance, and not being shy to ask for help, really pays.

Picture Gallery

Digital screens and games, and how they interface with traditional-type exhibits at WA Museum Boola Bardip, in the Innovations and Wildlife sections. Pictures: Michael Ferrante

References

Black, G (2012) Transforming Museums in the Twenty-First Century, 2nd edn, Taylor & Francis Group, London and New York, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/deakin/detail.action?docID=957857

Brown A and Waterhouse-Watson D (2014) ‘The future of the past: digital media in Holocaust museums’, Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History, 20(3):1-32, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17504902.2014.11435374

De Angeli D; O’Neill E (2020) ‘Towards a gameful museum: empowering museum professionals via playing and making games’, International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 13(1):37-53, doi: 10.18848/1835-2014/CGP/v13i01/37-53

Giannini T and Bowen J (2019) Museums and Digital Culture, 1st edn, Springer, Cham,   https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-97457-6_8

Heath C and vom Lehn D (2010) ‘Interactivity and collaboration: new forms of participation in museums, galleries and science centres’, in Parry, R (ed) Museums in a Digital Age, Routledge, New York and London.

https://museum.wa.gov.au/online-collections/,  WA Museum Boola Bardip, accessed 1 May 2021.

Blogging Away: Making Media for a Competitive Advantage

More reasons to strat blogging, by Adam Brown.

Adam Brown

Daksh Parekh Mesg Many thanks to Daksh Parekh for letting me share this.

I recently received the above message from a Marketing student who’d just completed a Digital Media unit with me and proceeded to apply the practical media-making skills he’d learnt in an internship. Daksch’s offer to assist his peers not only reveals the enthusiastic collegiality that authentic eLearning can help spark; it also affirms the value of a teaching approach that many (most?) students find intimidating, but that sees all those who dive in find reward in the endeavour.

6 June 2007 by ccarlstead.jpg6 June 2007 by ccarlstead (CC BY 2.0)

I could assess student learning with essays if I wanted to, and can guarantee with near certainty that there would be few complaints. I could even use some form of test as part of formal assessment and, while there probably would be complaints, they most likely wouldn’t be heard by me and…

View original post 1,248 more words

Online identity – Part 1

BEING a digital ‘non-native’ and not a big fan of social media has so far been a curse as well as a blessing as I attempt to re-engage with this mode of communication, during the ALC708 unit and beyond.

A curse because I again find myself out of my comfort zone (which is also a positive) and having to almost re-learn social media tools, techniques and their respective protocols, particularly Twitter which is the primary platform used in this unit. In some ways I feel like I’m playing catch-up instead of spending my time and energy (whatever’s left of it come study time!) on strategy-related learning – the whys instead of the hows. But then again… it’s ALL part of learning and getting the most out of the unit, even if it is finally understanding why a hashtag is even used in a tweet.

Street scene in Montmartre, Paris.

Which brings me to why I think coming from such a low base could be a blessing, albeit in disguise. As with all aspects in life when it comes to learning new things, not having any (too many) pre-conceived ideas, can definitely be a positive – we all know breaking old habits can be hard, right? Besides, I actually love learning ‘new’ stuff, broadening my horizons and, especially, knowing my personal development efforts will one day pay off in my media career. And what better way to do it than ‘learning by doing’ – which is what ALC708 is all about.

As part of that learning by doing process is getting down to the doing … so these pictures posted here relate to the main theme of my blog which is ‘great travel destinations’ visited on cruise shore excursions. I have chosen cruising destinations specifically because travel is such a broad topic, it helps to narrow down and focus for the purposes of a blog, keeping my audience in mind, of course.

An A-Rosa river ship cruising the Rhone, in Avignon, France. Picture: A-Rosa

I’ll have more to say on this multi-faceted topic in a follow-up blog. But for now, here is a visual snapshot of my online identity (my attempt at being creative to illustrate it – more learning by doing!).

All pictures are my own unless captioned otherwise.

A cafe/bar in Montmartre, Paris.
Vasco da Gama at anchorage off the Esperance coast.

My online identity – yesterday and today

In an age where digital media is so much part of our daily lives, I pondered these questions: Why then does this notion of ‘my own online identity’ seem so foreign and why am I struggling to articulate aspects of it? The answers form the basis of my self-analysis, and were enlightened by research and pinpointed by self-reflection.

My online use has evolved over the last several years from being an occasional poster/user of social media sites – mainly Facebook, but also Twitter and Linkedin – to a much more passive and, at times non-existent, user.

My ‘online identity’, if it could even be called that, was reduced to checking Facebook notifications, mainly so I wasn’t missing any friends’ birthdays, opening teasers and news alerts of interest and engaging with friends and family on WhatsApp. In fact, Twitter use – which I first embraced about 10 years ago when I was a suburban newspaper editor to garner a wider audience for our stories – had petered out altogether upon switching jobs.

Downward spiral

Who would be interested in what I had to say anyway, I thought? Would I be continually judged about what I posted online? Who else is ‘listening’ in? And will I be constantly bombarded with ads spruiking the latest gadget or holiday destination? Besides, I’m getting sick of the same narcissistic people posting ‘look at me’ pictures and annoying rants, I thought.

And there’s lots of evidence in the news and elsewhere that could back up my dystopian views about social media after all, like SBS’s The Feed series Like, Subscribe, Follow about the murky world of social media influencers and faking followers for financial gain. Lanier (2010:4) talks of web communication as the ‘widespread practice of fragmentary, impersonal communication (that) has demeaned interpersonal interaction’. So, it seems I’ve fed off all this ‘moral panic’ to avoid being an active online participant.

However, re-engaging with social media, particularly Twitter in the ALC708 course, has been a revelation as a new way to learn and also in boosting my digital skills for personal and professional use. It’s also been about starting the process of building networks for future success in travel writing.

The lightbulb moment …

How could I make a meaningful difference to the world online? Is it worth investing my time in the hope of achieving these rather nebulous ambitions? Well, Gauntlett (2015:7) puts it in perspective – speaking of media as ‘triggers for experiences and for making things happen’ and, most poignantly, of making and sharing to bring about change in the world often ‘on a tiny scale’; for example ‘to make one friend smile for a moment’.

This passage has profound meaning for my own online identity, in that change Gauntlett (2015:8) speaks of need not be ‘big’, although it’s possible – Canva, for example, in their mission statement speak of ‘being a force for good’ working towards ‘a world that’s good for everyone’. So according to Gauntlett (2015:8) I do have something to offer online, no matter how small my contribution.

Canva infographic by Michael Ferrante

Today

Engaging with the ALC708 hashtag on Twitter provides an opportunity to offer many of those ‘tiny changes’ – for example offering my ALC708 colleagues feedback by tweeting, replying, following, retweeting, etc and, in turn, I can benefit and learn from them. This is underscored by Marshall (2010:42) where he says: ‘Conversation is the epicentre of postings’.

Marshall (2010:42) explains that the ‘public self’ must constantly evolve to stay current and relevant, and that one’s online identity depends on its network of connections to survive – a poignant point in my V-shaped online journey.

As a result, I’ve realised the benefit of becoming more active and engaged on social media, to build a persona or character portrayed as ‘well-travelled’, ‘out and about’, ‘professional but at times comical’ as a means of being a credible source. In other words, adding value for my audiences through content they love and appreciate, and find relevant, useful and interesting in order to build a loyal following.

But it’s early days so this persona will evolve and take time to nurture in what Marshall describes as a ‘performance of the self’ … conscious of a potential audience’. Posting photos of my favourite cruise and holiday destinations from past trips as a travel writer to Instagram, and creating the CruiseZone website and re-engagement with Twitter, is a new beginning of sorts – it’s an extension of my limited online engagement previously. However, I must also consider setting up dedicated socials sites for CruiseZone purposes, with consistent branding separate from my current personal set-up, which will also aid searchability.

Hundertwasserhaus, Vienna. Picture: Michael Ferrante

As suggested by Smith and Watson (2014:74), it may pay to consider giving the blog site ‘authority’ by way of endorsement by a well-known cruise industry insider(s), such as a cruise line executive, for instance. Smith and Watson (2014:74) also ask what ‘visual rhetorics’ could be deployed to engage visitors. Travel is such a visual pastime and requires much of these visual ‘triggers’ – so by supercharging my visual media creation and sharing online I am on the way to building a loyal audience and successful cruise travel blog.

The aim: to make more and more ‘tiny changes’ – smiles, joyful memories and dreams of the next holiday – as the CruiseZone audience grows.  

River cruising Budapest by Scenic Tours for Roderick Eime CC BY-ND 2.0

References

Gauntlett D (2015) Making Media Studies: The Creativity Turn in Media and Communications Studies, 93, (Jones S ed), Peter Lang, New York.

Lanier J (2010) You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto, Allen Lane, London.

Marshall PD (2010) ‘The promotion and presentation of the self: celebrity as marker of presentational media’, Celebrity Studies, 1(1):35-48, https://doi.org/10.1080/19392390903519057

Smith S and Watson J (2014) ‘Virtually Me: A Toolbox about Online Self-Presentation’, in Poletti A and Rak J (eds) Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online, The University of Wisconsin Press, Wisconsin.

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