What is it about?
We take the ideas of persuasive design to look at the software that comes with activity trackers. Which show goals and progress most effectively? According to the science of behavior change, which ones are most likely to motivate you to be more active and why?
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Why is it important?
It's been a couple years since we wrote this but fitness trackers still suffer from a buy, use for a month and put away syndrome. However, some of our predictions are coming true! The fitness trackers we anticipated would be most motivating have remained in the market and have larger shares of the market than others.
Perspectives
I'm still fascinated by fitness trackers but guess what? I have not yet bought one (2017). My fascination started when I worked with Eric Migikovsky who founded Pebble. I had (actually still have... somewhere!) one of his early prototypes. This experience introduced me to both the magic and the challenge of trackers. I do think the technology will continue and become more mainstream (whether the form factor remains a watch or not).
Dr Catherine M Burns
University of Waterloo
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Behavior Change Techniques Present in Wearable Activity Trackers: A Critical Analysis, JMIR mhealth and uhealth, April 2016, JMIR Publications Inc.,
DOI: 10.2196/mhealth.4461.
You can read the full text:
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