TY - GEN
T1 - "Healthifying" exergames
T2 - 32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2014
AU - Chen, Frank X.
AU - King, Abby C.
AU - Hekler, Eric B.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Exergames, video game systems that require exertion and interaction, have been rising in popularity in the past years. However, research on popular exergames shows mixed health benefits, potentially due to minimal energy expenditure and decreasing use over time. This paper presents a 2x2 experimental study (N = 44), using a popular exergame, where we vary the framing of intention (i.e., "Gameplay" or "Exercise") and feedback (i.e., "Health" or "No health") to explore their single and interactive impacts on perceived exertion, objectively measured energy expenditure, affect, and duration of usage in a single session. Our study showed that participants primed with exercise used the system significantly longer than those primed with game play (M = 49.2 ±2.0 min versus M = 39.3 ±2.0 min). We discuss our results and possible design implications based on our single-session experiment. We conclude with a discussion on the potential impact of focusing on "healthifying" exergames-highlighting an exergames' dual purpose as both a game and exercise-as opposed to gamifying health behaviors.
AB - Exergames, video game systems that require exertion and interaction, have been rising in popularity in the past years. However, research on popular exergames shows mixed health benefits, potentially due to minimal energy expenditure and decreasing use over time. This paper presents a 2x2 experimental study (N = 44), using a popular exergame, where we vary the framing of intention (i.e., "Gameplay" or "Exercise") and feedback (i.e., "Health" or "No health") to explore their single and interactive impacts on perceived exertion, objectively measured energy expenditure, affect, and duration of usage in a single session. Our study showed that participants primed with exercise used the system significantly longer than those primed with game play (M = 49.2 ±2.0 min versus M = 39.3 ±2.0 min). We discuss our results and possible design implications based on our single-session experiment. We conclude with a discussion on the potential impact of focusing on "healthifying" exergames-highlighting an exergames' dual purpose as both a game and exercise-as opposed to gamifying health behaviors.
KW - Exergaming
KW - Fitness
KW - Persuasive Technology
KW - Priming
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84900428709&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84900428709&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/2556288.2557246
DO - 10.1145/2556288.2557246
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84900428709
SN - 9781450324731
T3 - Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
SP - 1855
EP - 1864
BT - CHI 2014
PB - Association for Computing Machinery
Y2 - 26 April 2014 through 1 May 2014
ER -