Let’s Play! Mobile Health Games for Adults Andrea Grimes et al. Georgia Institute of Technology UbiComp’10

OrderUP! – Key Concepts Education for healthy living Casual mobile game ▫ 1-10 mins for a level (e.g. Solitaire and Tetris) ▫ As an easy way for people to fill time Targeting adults ▫ Average game players in the U.S. is 35 years old Transtheoretical Model (TTM) – a well-established health behavior theory ▫ Process of change – 4 steps  Consciousness raising, self-reevaluation, engaging in helping relationships, and counter-conditioning

Related Work Games for Health ▫ Exergames  Mueller et al. – fitness games with remote third parties  Hoysniemi et al. – Shadow Boxer ▫ More ubiquitous versions – using players’ physical activity and physiological data (e.g. heart rate) to control game progress ▫ Medical purpose  Managing diabetes by taking insulin injections  Negotiating sexual decisions with fictional partners such as deciding to use contraceptives ▫ Educational health games for children  Developing healthier eating habits, better managing chronic diseases, and increasing their health-related knowledge Casual Games ▫ Traditional video games require 20 mins to 2 hours for a level ▫ Broader audience – 50% of casual game players are women

OrderUP! – Game Design “Various health organizations (such as the American Diabetes Association) have indicated that learning how to make the healthiest possible choices when eating at fast food and other restaurant establishments is an important skill to develop.”

Game Design longer.

User Study 12 African Americans in the Atlanta, GA metropolitan area Nokia N95 cell phone for three weeks ▫ At least once each week ▫ Beyond that, play only as much as they were interested Methods ▫ Baseline survey – demography, nutrition, eating habits, cell phone usage, and experience and interest in electronic games ▫ Exit survey – nutrition, eating habits, usability of OrderUP! (how often, how relevant foods) ▫ Short diary – once a week  The date and time that they played the game  Where they played  Their final score  How entertaning the game was  If the game caused them to think about their eating habits, and if so how ▫ Semi-structured interviews – after one week and after three weeks  Their overall experience playing the game, its cultural relevance and how playing affected their eating habits and healthy eating knowledge

Results

Results – Consciousness Raising Learning How to Eat More Healthfully ▫ Correcting One’s Previous Understanding  Helping them realize that they did not know as much about eating healthfully as they thought  Helping them to learn about the relative healthiness of foods ▫ Learning How One Can Personally Eat Healthier  They described how what they learned applied to their lives  Helping them to be interested in trying foods that they had never tried before Analyzing & Trying to Understand  They also engaged in analysis and reasoning as they tried to understand why different foods were healthier than others ▫ Portions & Preparation: Heuristics for Decision-Making  Leading them to consider how portions and preparation methods affect the healthiness of foods ▫ A Desire for More Feedback  They felt that they were playing a game instead of being lectured  Some wanted to get feedback for reasons separate from game play

Results – The Other 3 Assessing the Healthiness of One’s Eating Habits ▫ Helping them to think about nutrition ▫ Helping them to think more about what they eat at restaurants ▫ Helping them to realize how poorly they were eating ▫ Helping them to realize that their favorite dishes were not healthy Discussing Nutrition with Others ▫ They had discussions about nutrition and eating with people in their social network ▫ The mobility of the game was an important factor in stibulating discussions ▫ They let others play the game, and played the game themselves in front of others ▫ More positive to “I know enough about healthy eating to give advice to my friends and family” after three weeks Modifying Eating Habits ▫ More positive to “the healthiness of foods influences what I decide to eat” after game play ▫ …

Discussion – Casual Games for Healthy Living Consciousness Raising & Dramatic Relief Helping Relationships Counter-conditioning Self-Reevaluation Self-Liberation Stimulus Control & Social Liberation Reinforcement Management