The design of health game rewards for preadolescents Videogames are a promising strategy for child health interventions, but their impact can vary depending on the game mechanics used. This study investigated achievement-based ‘rewards’ and their design among preadolescents (8-12 years) to assess their effect and explain how they work. In a 2 (game reward achievement system: social vs. personal) x 2 (game reward context: in-game vs. out-game) between-subjects design, 178 children were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Findings indicated that a ‘personal’ achievement system (showing one’s own high scores) led to more attention and less frustration than a ‘social’ achievement system (showing also high scores of others) which, in turn, increased children’s motivation to make healthy food choices. Furthermore, ‘out’-game rewards (tangible stickers allocated outside the game environment) were liked more than ‘in’-game rewards (virtual stickers allocated in the game environment), leading to greater satisfaction and, in turn, a higher motivation to make healthy food choices.
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Background:It is unclear why some physical activity (PA) mobile health (mHealth) interventions successfully promote PA whereas others do not. One possible explanation is the variety in PA mHealth interventions—not only do interventions differ in the selection of persuasive strategies but also the design and implementation of persuasive strategies can vary. However, limited studies have examined the different designs and technical implementations of strategies or explored if they indeed influenced the effectiveness of the intervention.Objective:This scoping review sets out to explore the different technical implementations and design characteristics of common and likely most effective persuasive strategies, namely, goal setting, monitoring, reminders, rewards, sharing, and social comparison. Furthermore, this review aims to explore whether previous mHealth studies examined the influence of the different design characteristics and technical operationalizations of common persuasive strategies on the effectiveness of the intervention to persuade the user to engage in PA.Methods:An unsystematic snowball and gray literature search was performed to identify the literature that evaluated the persuasive strategies in experimental trials (eg, randomized controlled trial, pre-post test). Studies were included if they targeted adults, if they were (partly) delivered by a mobile system, if they reported PA outcomes, if they used an experimental trial, and when they specifically compared the effect of different designs or implementations of persuasive strategies. The study methods, implementations, and designs of persuasive strategies, and the study results were systematically extracted from the literature by the reviewers.Results:A total of 29 experimental trials were identified. We found a heterogeneity in how the strategies are being implemented and designed. Moreover, the findings indicated that the implementation and design of the strategy has an influence on the effectiveness of the PA intervention. For instance, the effectiveness of rewarding was shown to vary between types of rewards; rewarding goal achievement seems to be more effective than rewarding each step taken. Furthermore, studies comparing different ways of goal setting suggested that assigning a goal to users might appear to be more effective than letting the user set their own goal, similar to using adaptively tailored goals as opposed to static generic goals. This study further demonstrates that only a few studies have examined the influence of different technical implementations on PA behavior.Conclusions:The different implementations and designs of persuasive strategies in mHealth interventions should be critically considered when developing such interventions and before drawing conclusions on the effectiveness of the strategy as a whole. Future efforts are needed to examine which implementations and designs are most effective to improve the translation of theory-based persuasive strategies into practical delivery forms.
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"In recent years, the former Dutch welfare state has been transformed into a participation society [1]. As support from the government decreases, citizens are increasingly expected to be self-managing. Since not everyone is able to be self-managing, there is an increasing demand for help offered by volunteers. Although the number of volunteers in the Netherlands is relatively stable, the amount of time per volunteer has decreased over the past couple of years [2]. Most volunteers traditionally come from the wealthier, more educated segment of society and are likely to be female, married with children, 50+, and active in religion [3, 4]. In order to meet the increasing demand for volunteers, either the amount of time spent per volunteer should be increased, or new groups of volunteers should be attracted. The Dutch foundation “Possible Today” started an initiative aimed at motivating (potential) volunteers: Social Credits for Volunteers. This is digital platform, based on block chain technology, connects volunteers with projects. The platform uses a digital currency -Social Credits- to appreciate and reward the efforts of volunteers. The currency can be exchanged for discounts or other value, offered by organizations and stores that feel involved with the community. An important feature of this system is the opportunity for volunteers to draft a social curriculum vitae. The aim of this study is to generate recommendations for Possible Foundation about how the Social Credits Platform should be designed and deployed in order to persuade (potential) volunteers to spend (more) hours on volunteering. Therefore, the following research question is answered: ‘What motives, desires and barriers traditional and less traditional volunteers have in regard to appreciation and reward for volunteering?’"
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