Spelifiering som motivationshöjande hjälpmedel för fysisk aktivitet
In today?s world there are plenty of technological tools and methods available with the purpose to increase peoples motivation for a healthier lifestyle. One such tool is a so-called activity tracker which uses sensors to log the user's everyday life and present it as automatic feedback. Gamification is a new and successful method to motivate and engage people in fulfilling tasks by using game elements and mechanics. In this study, five participants were instructed to use the activity tracker and pedometer Fitbit Flex daily for three weeks. Halfway through the study the participants were ranked and listed against each other in a ranking list in order to evoke competition. The study investigated whether the participants' motivation for physical activity changed when the game element ranking list was introduced. The participants' experiences and results were analyzed with questionnaires and statistical methods. Questionnaire results show that the ranking list generated a competition between the participants. They were competitive against each other and thereby they experienced increased motivation for physical activity. The increased motivation resulted in more steps for the majority of participants, but the increase is not statistically significant according to the statistical test. The conclusions from the study is thus that gamification as a complement to automatic feedback affects the experienced motivation but not surely the actual performance. Also, the relationship between the competitors might possibly have a considerable effect on motivation. Larger and especially longer studies are needed to verify the conclusions.