How to develop Fitness Apps that truly motivate people to exercise
The Covid-19 pandemic has once again highlighted the importance of a healthy and physically active lifestyle as it significantly contributes to better health and reduced risks. In the last decade fitness apps and wearables have become an integral part of people’s personal fitness and health routines. Often, they are promoted as a way to boost users motivation by tracking their activities and showing their progress. However, if one takes a closer look at the motivational effect of apps, it becomes evident that although they can increase the motivation of users in the short term, they often fail to do so in the long term. This implies the necessity to further develop and investigate app features in order to understand how people interact with them. In a research project from the University of Bayreuth and the Fraunhofer Project Group for Information Systems in Germany we worked together to investigate the underlying motivational mechanisms of fitness apps usage and how features can be designed to stimulate them effectively. In this context, we developed our own fitness app and examined the interaction with users to solve the mentioned challenge. These are the three learnings that you should have in mind when you think about the development of fitness apps and wearables:
Every user reacts differently to features
One and the same feature has different effects on users. A large number of studies have already found that features are not equally effective in increasing motivation depending on the user’s form of motivation and goal orientation. When we developed our app, the goal-setting feature was rated better and highly used by users who actively wanted to improve their performance, whereas users who were more concerned about their health rated it lower and even reported feelings of pressure introduced by this certain feature. Sounds reasonable. Nevertheless, most apps offer the same (e.g. goal-setting) features to all users — and thus partly fail to motivate them. For the success of apps, it is therefore crucial to know the characteristics of an individual user and to adapt the features accordingly. Questions that need to be answered could be:
- Does a user want to actively improve physical performance or does a user only want to be active occasionally?
- Is a user motivated by more intrinsic (focus on progress) or extrinsic (focus on awards) mechanisms?
Gamification only works if it is used the right way
Gamifciation is highly praised and widely used. Game mechanisms such as points, comparisons and levels can be found in many contexts. In principle, it is also beneficial to use them in fitness apps. But beware. If such mechanisms exert external pressure on the user, they have a demotivating effect in the long term. Often, these elements lead to a short-term boost in motivation, but in the long term to a significantly reduced willingness to use the app. Again, it depends on the user and their characteristics. However, if gamification elements undermine the actual motivation why a person wants to exercise, they can do more harm than good. For users who place a high value on their own physical development, the use of progress and level features is therefore advantageous. For users who are easily motivated by external factors, the use of competitive elements as challenges is suitable.
The holy grail for motivation is meaningful feedback
Ultimately, everything in fitness apps should be about giving the user meaningful feedback. But what does meaningful mean? Meaningful means showing the user information that visualizes their progress towards a desired outcome which a certain user is aspiring. Basically, the goals can be very individual and vary greatly from performance improvement to health promotion to daily life balance. Therefore the feedback should primarily based on showing the interaction between physical activity and physiological or physical development. If an app manages to show the user how regular activity affects physiological parameters that are of relevance for the particular user, a profoundly motivating effect can be achieved. In the case of running a possible meaningful feedback could be displaying a decreased average heart rate over time while the performance remains the same or even increases. Showing the link between exercise and physical development increases a user’s self-efficacy — and this is key for building a habit and maintaining the behaviour in the long term.
So what?
The formula for the successful design of fitness apps and their motivational effects is not as simple as it first seems. A look beneath the surface is necessary to design systems that serve the user. For this purpose, an app should capture the necessary characteristics of the user and align features to them. Gamification elements should only be used if they support the user’s goal in a congruent way. For the future, it is important that feedback loops are created that are meaningful and, for example, show the interaction between physical activity and physiological development. This can increase the effectiveness of apps through a substantial motivational effect and support regular usage.
If you are curious to learn more about the design and development of fitness apps and how they can be used to motivate people, don’t hesitate to contact me on LinkedIn.
