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Physical Activity in the Digital Age: An Empirical Investigation into the Motivational Affordances of Online Fitness Communities
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... OFCs generally contain a broad range of features which can be aggregated into three feature categories: self-regulatory, social and gamification features (Stragier 2017). Through these features, OFCs enable a set of motivational 'affordances', more particularly self-regulatory and social affordances. ...
Fitness wearables and apps provide users with quantified information about their exercise behavior. Users often access this information on Online Fitness Communities (OFCs) such as RunKeeper or Strava. These OFCs do not only provide feedback on the user’s performance, but also offer social features. To date, little is known about the extent to which the different features in OFCs answer to users’ motivations to exercise. This study addresses this question, by examining (1) whether there are differences in motivations for running between OFC users and non-users, and (2) whether the use of particular features is driven by particular running motivations. A survey study was conducted among 717 runners, of which 57% used an OFC to support running activities. Results demonstrate that OFC users are more achievement-oriented than non-OFC users, especially regarding the attainment of personal goals. OFC users with physical motivations (e.g., weight loss) use self-regulatory features more frequently, while runners with social motivations more often use features that afford them to share activities on social media. Achievement-oriented runners appreciate features that allow them to track their progress and interact with other OFC users. No relation was found between the use of OFC features and psychological motivations for running.
... OFCs generally contain a broad range of features which can be aggregated into three feature categories: self-regulatory, social and gamification features (Stragier 2017). Through these features, OFCs enable a set of motivational 'affordances', more particularly self-regulatory and social affordances. ...
Fitness wearables and apps provide users with quantified information about their exercise behavior. Users often access this information on Online Fitness Communities (OFCs) such as RunKeeper or Strava. These OFCs do not only provide feedback on the user’s performance, but also offer social features. To date, little is known about the extent to which the different features in OFCs answer to users’ motivations to exercise. This study addresses this question, by examining (1) whether there are differences in motivations for running between OFC users and non-users, and (2) whether the use of particular features is driven by particular running motivations. A survey study was conducted among 717 runners, of which 57% used an OFC to support running activities. Results demonstrate that OFC users are more achievement-oriented than non-OFC users, especially regarding the attainment of personal goals. OFC users with physical motivations (e.g., weight loss) use self-regulatory features more frequently, while runners with social motivations more often use features that afford them to share activities on social media. Achievement-oriented runners appreciate features that allow them to track their progress and interact with other OFC users. No relation was found between the use of OFC features and psychological motivations for running.
... OFCs generally contain a broad range of features which can be aggregated into three feature categories: self-regu- latory, social and gamification features (Stragier 2017). Through these features, OFCs enable a set of motiva- tional 'affordances', more particularly self-regulatory and social affordances. ...
Household energy use is growing and energy prices are rising. A growing need exists among households to get more insights into their energy use. ICT can offers solutions here in terms of smart metering and home energy management. Through our research, we wanted to get a view on the adoption potential, willingness to pay and adoption determinants for these tools. Our results indicate a substantial adoption potential for smart metering tools and an existing but limited potential for home energy management systems. An important adoption determinant will be the price of these systems, since they are aimed at helping households to save energy. If the price is higher than the potential savings, interest is likely to be low.
Personal health-tracking technologies have become a part of mainstream culture. Their growing popularity and widespread adoption present an opportunity for the design of new interventions to improve wellness and health. However, there is an increasing concern that these technologies are failing to inspire long-term adoption. In order to understand why users abandon personal health-tracking technologies, we analyzed advertisements of secondary sales of such technologies on Craigslist. We conducted iterative inductive and deductive analyses of approximately 1600 advertisements of personal health-tracking technologies posted over the course of one month across the US. We identify health motivations and rationales for abandonment and present a set of design implications. We call for improved theories that help translate between existing theories designed to explain psychological effects of health behavior change and the technologies that help people make those changes.
Presents an integrative theoretical framework to explain and to predict psychological changes achieved by different modes of treatment. This theory states that psychological procedures, whatever their form, alter the level and strength of self-efficacy. It is hypothesized that expectations of personal efficacy determine whether coping behavior will be initiated, how much effort will be expended, and how long it will be sustained in the face of obstacles and aversive experiences. Persistence in activities that are subjectively threatening but in fact relatively safe produces, through experiences of mastery, further enhancement of self-efficacy and corresponding reductions in defensive behavior. In the proposed model, expectations of personal efficacy are derived from 4 principal sources of information: performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states. Factors influencing the cognitive processing of efficacy information arise from enactive, vicarious, exhortative, and emotive sources. The differential power of diverse therapeutic procedures is analyzed in terms of the postulated cognitive mechanism of operation. Findings are reported from microanalyses of enactive, vicarious, and emotive modes of treatment that support the hypothesized relationship between perceived self-efficacy and behavioral changes. (21/2 p ref)
I: Background.- 1. An Introduction.- 2. Conceptualizations of Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination.- II: Self-Determination Theory.- 3. Cognitive Evaluation Theory: Perceived Causality and Perceived Competence.- 4. Cognitive Evaluation Theory: Interpersonal Communication and Intrapersonal Regulation.- 5. Toward an Organismic Integration Theory: Motivation and Development.- 6. Causality Orientations Theory: Personality Influences on Motivation.- III: Alternative Approaches.- 7. Operant and Attributional Theories.- 8. Information-Processing Theories.- IV: Applications and Implications.- 9. Education.- 10. Psychotherapy.- 11. Work.- 12. Sports.- References.- Author Index.
Smart devices are becoming increasingly commercially available. However, uptake of these devices has been slow and abandonment swift, which indicates that smart devices may not currently meet the needs of users. To advance an understanding of the ways users benefit from, are challenged by, and abandon smart devices, we asked a group of users to purchase smart sensing devices to advance themselves towards a personal, self-defined goal. We found that participants abandoned devices because they did not fit with the their conceptions of themselves, the data collected by devices were perceived to not be useful, and device maintenance became unmanageable. Participants used devices because they had developed routines and because devices were useful, satisfied curiosity, and held hope for potential benefit to them. We propose ways to reduce barriers, motivate use, and argue for envisioning an additional function of these devices for short-term interventions, in addition to standard long-term use.
Users of self-tracking (such as tracking steps) tend to abandon the technology after a few months of using it. Previous user research suggests that users have "learned enough" and feel they no longer benefit from the technology. However, what exactly does "learned enough" entail? What, when, and how do users actually learn? This poster reports our initial efforts to investigate these questions. We present a small-scale mixed-method pilot study in which we explored learning with step trackers and use our findings to discuss other strategies to operationalize learning with self-tracking technology.
This study takes a perceived affordance approach to explain how differences in teenagers’ mobile messaging behavior associate with indicators of friendship maintenance behavior. Based on a survey among 1943 teenagers, a structural equation model was tested in which their appreciation of three main affordances of mobile messaging predicted the companionship and support that they derive from their friends through their instrumental and expressive mobile messaging behavior. The model fitted the data well: teenagers’ appreciation for anytime–anyplace connectivity, private communication, and control over message content explained to what extent they use mobile messaging to micro-coordinate, to chitchat with friends, and to intimately self-disclose, thereby indirectly explaining the companionship and support that teens derive from friends. This finding supports the notion that inherent characteristics of technology play a role in contemporary relationship management by driving social uses of the technology.
In this paper, we present some insights extracted from experiences with conducting three case studies that show how different game-based approaches affect people’s motivation to encourage more activities in digital services. The first case study is a game-based English words learning application. The second case study is a gamified sharing economy service. The third case study is a persuasive service customized for a user’s unique preference. The results of the case studies show that adopting only one approach is not effective to motivate all diverse people, and multiple approaches should be incorporated when developing digital services that motivate diverse users by game-based approaches.
Mobile and wearable technologies facilitate physiological data collection for health and wellness purposes. Users typically access these data via Online Fitness Community (OFC) platforms (e.g., Fitbit, Strava, RunKeeper). These platforms present users with functionalities centered on self-monitoring, social networking and enjoyment. In order to fully benefit from these functionalities, users need to make a habit out of integrating OFC use into their everyday workout routines. However, research suggests that users often fail to use OFCs over a longer period of time. This study sheds light on the factors that explain persisted OFC use. To that end, the study compares novice and experienced users in terms of their OFC use motives and how these motives contribute to the habitual integration of OFCs into everyday workout routines. Based on the survey responses of 394 OFC users, a multi-sample structural equation model indicates that self-regulatory and social motives directly predict habitual OFC use, and that enjoyment and self-regulatory motives indirectly predict habitual OFC use, by driving the perceived usefulness of OFCs. Moderation analysis revealed that, for novice users, self-regulatory motives are the prime drivers of habitual OFC use, while social motives and enjoyment are more important for experienced users.