Sailors in Motion

Abstract

The aim of this graduation project is to increase physical exercise of employees with low socio economic status (SES) by engaging them in a health intervention. Individuals with low SES often negatively influence their health by having an unhealthy lifestyle. This lifestyle causes the individual problems and non-communicable diseases (NCD), which causes a shorter life expectancy and being ill makes it harder to participate in work activity. The client for this project is DZB Leiden, a re-integration company of the municipality of Leiden. DZB is there for everyone who wants to work but has difficulty keeping up with the current work practice. The people turning to DZB often experience a work disability and have a low socio-economic status. DZB also recognizes an unhealthy lifestyle among their employees. A healthier life will contribute to the well-being of the employee and will decrease employee absenteeism. Thus, not only looking from an employment perspective, but considering improvement of quality of life of their employees, DZB is determined to give a contribution to their employees’ health. To increase the physical activity of the employees, a persuasive game was designed to be played at DZB. Persuasive game design is a tool to motivate people to perform certain behaviours in a game experienced world, which can be beneficial to them in the real world. The physical activity experienced during the game can motivate people to perform the desired behaviour in the real life. In order to design a game based health intervention that will be accepted by the employees, an extensive field study was conducted. By taking a human-centered approach and co-designing with the employees a deeper understanding of the target group was created, including their view on health, motivations, barriers and needs. The findings from the field study were translated to 10 points of attention to be considered for creating the health intervention. Also, a framework for design was developed, including three motivational elements: humour, fellowship and discovery. By applying the 10 attention points and design framework, the final game ‘Sailors in Motion’ was developed. Sailors in Motion is a game where boats are hidden and searched for throughout the building of DZB in a scavenger hunt with treasure maps. Making and following these maps stimulates the player to walk around at DZB. The game is all about discovering new places in the building, which is done together with colleagues. Additionally, the game includes joyful elements. During the journey, health messages can be found, meant to educate the player about the benefits of physical activity. Finally the game was evaluated with the employees. The aim of this evaluation was to figure out whether the game stimulated to walk and triggered to increase physical activity in the employees’ daily life. The evaluation showed that the game does put people in motion and creates a immersive experience for the player. However, since the game was evaluated in a short time, the effect of the game on someone’s health awareness was difficult to measure. It is recommended to play the game more often and spread the activities over multiple weeks to provoke behaviour change. Also, the game could be part of a larger health program where employees set goals and get support to reach them. The game serves as a starting point where people can easily engage in to experience the benefits of physical activity on their mood and body. This experience can motivate them with setting personal health goals and eventually changing their behaviour. The deliverable of this project is not only the tangible game, but also a variety of insights about the employees of DZB. The company could use the framework for design as well as the 10 point of attention during future development of health related initiatives at DZB.