Motivational Affordances for Older Adults’ Physical Activity Technology: An Expert Evaluation

Abstract

Gamification has become popular as a behavior change strategy to increase the motivation and engagement of clients in health and wellness applications. Motivational affordances or gamification elements can help to foster intrinsic or extrinsic motivation for an activity as mundane as achieving fitness and wellness goals. Research indicates that there are many motivations among older adults for playing digital games and exergames to encourage physical activity (PA). Although studies investigate the influence of game elements in exergames on older adults PA, our study focuses on the usage of gamification elements for gamified PA technology. We designed Spirit50, a gamified PA technology app and conducted an expert evaluation using long form questionnaires and the Heuristics Evaluation for Gameful Design instrument. Content analysis and comparisons of expert ratings of the heuristics provided specific insights into motivational affordances for older adults’ PA technology.