Stimulating adolescents' physical well-being by gamification

Abstract

This thesis describes the design of the product-service combination called Move on. Move on is designed to stimulate adolescents to be more physically active. This stimulation is done by gamification, which therefore can be considered as serious gaming product. This thesis starts with a literature analysis of the decreasing level of childrens’ physical well-being. Added to this analysis, is a literature research on the increased digitalization among children to see if there is a connection between their increased screen-time and the decreasing level of fitness. A relation between digitalization and emotional behavior, and digitalization and social relationships, has also been taken into account.
It seems that there is no clear proof of the coherency between the increasing digitalization and decreasing physical activity. Which was a positive result, since the advantages of the digitalization could be taken into account when designing a product for children. After finding out that the adolescents, of all children, spend the most time stuck to their screens, the target group for the ideation phase was determined. A target group analysis and a market analysis eventually lead, together with the previous insights, to a full program of requirements and therefore the end of the design brief. The design brief created the base for the next phase: the synthesis phase. Within the synthesis phase of the product development, some concept directions were found. These concept directions lead to some iteration steps which eventually resulted in the embodiment phase of the Move on. The embodiment phase describes the final concept with regard to its materials, production method, and price estimation. An important part of the Move on, is that it is able to recognize the user motion. This motion will be converted to a reward, which the user can use in their favorite game. Since this motion recognition plays a big role in the product, a basic machine learning validation is executed. Data from walking and running sessions is used to actually predict if the user is walking or running. This validation succeeded with a hit rate value of 96 percent. The end of the thesis will describe recommended steps fur future development of the product, together with a project and a personal evaluation.