Healthier life and more fun? users’ motivations to apply activity tracking technology and the impact of gamification

Abstract

As being fit and physically more active has become more important in today’s society many people start to use fitness trackers to achieve this goal. To find out if fitness trackers and their gamification elements (here, challenges and achievements) motivate users to be more physically active, a survey was conducted. The survey builds on the Uses and Gratifications Theory, the Self-Determination Theory, and on information gathered during interviews with users of fitness trackers. The investigation contains 689 adequately filled-out online surveys. The participants are looking for information and were intrinsically as well as extrinsically motivated. 61% of all 689 participants take part in competitions and 89% of them recognize achievements. The results show that users apply fitness trackers to get information. The investigation shows that the integrated gamification elements do not only support people to be more physically active but are rewarding them as well.