Exergames to Motivate People for Physical Activity

Die approbierte Originalversion dieser Diplom-/ Masterarbeit ist in der Hauptbibliothek der Tech- nischen Universität Wien aufgestellt und zugänglich. http://www.ub.tuwien.ac.at

The approved original version of this diploma or master thesis is available at the main library of the Vienna University of Technology. http://www.ub.tuwien.ac.at/eng

DIPLOMARBEIT

zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades

Diplom-Ingenieurin

im Rahmen des Studiums

Medieninformatik

eingereicht von

Astrid Rauscha, BSc Matrikelnummer 1027444

an der Fakultät für Informatik der Technischen Universität Wien Betreuung: Associate Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Hilda Telliogluˇ Mitwirkung: Senior Lecturer Mag. Roman Ganhör

Wien, 20. Dezember 2016 Astrid Rauscha Hilda Telliogluˇ

Technische Universität Wien A-1040 Wien Karlsplatz 13 Tel. +43-1-58801-0 www.tuwien.ac.at

Exergames to Motivate People for Physical Activity

DIPLOMA THESIS

submitted in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements for the degree of

Diplom-Ingenieurin

Media Informatics

Astrid Rauscha, BSc Registration Number 1027444

to the Faculty of Informatics at the TU Wien Advisor: Associate Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Hilda Telliogluˇ Assistance: Senior Lecturer Mag. Roman Ganhör

Vienna, 20th December, 2016 Astrid Rauscha Hilda Telliogluˇ

Technische Universität Wien A-1040 Wien Karlsplatz 13 Tel. +43-1-58801-0 www.tuwien.ac.at

Erklärung zur Verfassung der Arbeit

Astrid Rauscha, BSc 1030 Wien

Hiermit erkläre ich, dass ich diese Arbeit selbständig verfasst habe, dass ich die verwen- deten Quellen und Hilfsmittel vollständig angegeben habe und dass ich die Stellen der Arbeit – einschließlich Tabellen, Karten und Abbildungen –, die anderen Werken oder dem Internet im Wortlaut oder dem Sinn nach entnommen sind, auf jeden Fall unter Angabe der Quelle als Entlehnung kenntlich gemacht habe.

Wien, 20. Dezember 2016 Astrid Rauscha

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank all those, who helped me in some form or another to write this thesis. Without them, I could not have completed my work and made it to this wonderful project and elaboration, that it is. First, I would like to thank my thesis supervisor Associate Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Hilda Tellioˇglufor guiding and narrowing down my work. She consistently allowed this paper to be my own work, but steered me in the right direction whenever she thought I needed it. I would also like to thank my second supervisor Senior Lecturer Mag. Roman Ganhör, who always answered my questions fast and accurately, and made suggestions to improve my work to the highest quality. I am gratefully indebted to his very valuable comments on this thesis and that he and Associate Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Hilda Tellioˇgluagreed to supervise me even across borders. Furthermore, I would like to thank all reviewers and test persons, who participated voluntarily and without any refund in my user tests. Without their feedback and suggestions of improvements, it would have not been possible for me to create a game, which ﬁts the users’ needs and requirements, and to see and experience my project from a diﬀerent view. I am very thankful to all reviewers and test persons, who took time to review my prototypes conscientiously, precisely and passionately. I would also like to thank my parents, who have always supported me in all my decisions and steps in my life. They have never doubted about me, but stood by my side and encouraged me throughout my years of study. Finally, I want to thank my boyfriend Viktor for supporting me during the time of writing this thesis and proofreading parts of it. He has been always there for me and made me smile. Thank you.

"Gratitude is the memory of the heart." - Jean-Baptiste Massieu, Priest

vii

Abstract

In the last years, the increased number of overweight and obese people worldwide has become a serious problem, wherefore it is important to prevent adiposity. Proper and balanced nutrition, as well as sports are relevant steps in the fight against overweight and obesity. An effective approach in motivating people to physical activity are multiplayer exergames, which are supposed to support socializing and fun. The aim of this master’s thesis is to investigate, if exergames can motivate people to physical activity. Therefore, an extensive literature review was conducted by examining different theoretical fields in order to gain first an overview and then a deepened knowledge about motivation, fitness applications, exergames, avatars, digital pets and game mechanics. Special attention was paid on social game mechanics for finding an approach to support socializing. Based on the results of the literature review, a prototype of a mobile exergame, where users own a digital pet and can interact with other people, was implemented. In order to create a prototype adjusted to the users’ needs, a human-centred design process was performed by applying various research methods, such as sketches, wireframes, mock-ups, personas and scenarios. Within a subsequent user study, the prototype was tested to investigate, if the concept of a mobile social digital pet exergame can motivate people to physical activity. The results of the study showed that the game, and especially the multiplayer mode, were well appreciated by the test persons, since they liked the social aspect and to interact with other people. Furthermore, the results showed that almost all of the test persons would use a final version of the game in their daily life in collaboration with a friend, whereby short-term curiosity and long-term motivation were not taken into account. However, the participants were engaged by the exergame to do physical activity.

Kurzfassung

In den letzten Jahren stieg die Anzahl an übergewichtigen Menschen weltweit so hoch, dass dies zu einem ernsten Problem wurde. Aus diesem Grund ist es wichtig, Adipositas vorzu- beugen. Sowohl richtige und ausgewogene Ernährung, als auch Sport sind nur einige wenige Beispiele für wichtige Schritte im Kampf gegen Fettleibigkeit. Multiplayer-Exergames sind wirksam bei der Motivation zu Sport, wenn sie Spaß und soziale Interaktion unterstützen. Das Ziel dieser Diplomarbeit ist es, herauszufinden, ob Exergames Menschen zur phy- sischen Betätigung motivieren können. Aus diesem Grund wurde eine umfangreiche Literaturrecherche, bei der verschiedene theoretische Themengebiete untersucht wurden, durchgeführt. Zuerst wurde sich ein Überblick über die Themenbereiche Motivation, Fitnessapplikationen, Exergames, Avatare, digitale Tiere und Spielmechaniken verschafft, und anschließend ein vertieftes Wissen darüber angeeignet. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit galt sozialen Spielmechaniken, um eine Herangehensweise zu finden, die Sozialisierung unterstützt. Basierend auf den Ergebnissen der Literaturrecherche wurde ein Prototyp eines mobilen Exergames entwickelt, bei dem die Benutzer und Benutzerinnen ein digitales Tier besitzen und mit anderen Menschen interagieren können. Um einen den Benutzerbedürfnissen entsprechenden Prototyp zu erstellen, wurde ein benutzerzentrierter Designprozess durchgeführt, bei dem verschiedene Forschungsmethoden, wie zum Beispiel Skizzen, Wireframes, Mock-ups, Personas und Szenarios, angewandt wurden. Innerhalb einer anschließenden User Study wurde der Prototyp getestet, um herauszufinden, ob das Konzept eines mobilen, sozialen Exergames, in dem ein digitales Tier das sportliche Verhalten der Benutzer und Benutzerinnen widerspiegelt, Menschen zu physischer Betäti- gung animieren kann. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigten, dass das Spiel und besonders der Mehrspielermodus von den Testpersonen sehr gut angenommen wurden, weil die Probanden und Probandinnen den sozialen Aspekt und die Tatsache, dass sie mit anderen Menschen interagieren können, mochten. Des Weiteren zeigten die Ergebnisse, dass nahezu alle Testpersonen eine finale Version des Spiels in Kollaboration mit Freunden und Freundinnen im Alltag verwenden würden, wobei die Faktoren kurzzeitige Neugier und Langzeitmotivation nicht in Betracht gezogen wurden. Die Testpersonen waren durch das Exergame motiviert, Sport zu treiben.

Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Abstract ix

Contents xiii

1 Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation and Aim of the Thesis ...... 2 1.2 Structure of the Thesis ...... 3

2 Background 5 2.1 Motivation ...... 5 2.2 Fitness Applications and Exergames ...... 11 2.3 Avatars and Digital Pets ...... 21 2.4 Game Design ...... 28

3 Methodology 35 3.1 Literature Research ...... 35 3.2 Human-Centred Design ...... 36 3.3 User Study ...... 40

4 Implementation 43 4.1 Design Process ...... 43 4.2 Functional Prototype ...... 62

5 User Tests 75 5.1 Review Sketches ...... 75 5.2 Review Wireframes ...... 77 5.3 Review Mock-ups ...... 85 5.4 User Tests of Functional Prototype ...... 91

6 Conclusion and Future Work 105 6.1 Summary ...... 105 6.2 Future Work ...... 107

xiii 6.3 Resume ...... 108

List of Figures 109

List of Tables 111

Acronyms 113

Bibliography 115

Appendix 123 Sketches Appendix ...... 123 Wireframes Appendix ...... 126 ...... 127 Mock-ups Appendix ...... 132 ...... 133 User Tests Appendix ...... 134 CHAPTER 1 Introduction

According to the World Health Organization in 2015, the number of overweight and obese people has doubled in the last 35 years. 39% of adults aged 18 and above were overweight worldwide in 2014. This strong increase is a severe problem, since adiposity can lead to serious illnesses, such as cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, diabetes and diﬀerent types of cancer, or death. Therefore, it has become even more important to reduce and prevent overweight and obesity. Proper and balanced nutrition, moderate portion sizes and regular physical activity are relevant steps in the ﬁght against adiposity. For example, 22 minutes of sports per day would reduce the overweight of an adult [1].

However, there are enough people, who do not exercise those 22 minutes per day. The two main reasons for this are laziness and lethargy [2]. One approach, which is proved to be effective against these two factors, are sports applications, which track the fitness performance of users and provide training programmes and weight management in order to help people to achieve a healthy lifestyle. However, current sports applications lack in fun and long-term motivation [2]. Therefore, various motivating factors for physical activity, such as socializing, obligation, fun and health, have to be combined to overcome short-term motivation. The usage of a conjunction of different motivating factors is hence beneficial, because individuals have diverse preferences, which can be additionally influenced by external factors, such as age and gender. What is perceived as meaningful by one person does not have to be sensed as such by another one [2]. An example of combining and fulfilling diverse motivating factors are exergames, which try to counteract against short-term motivation. Those games use a gamification approach, which is regarded as appealing to a broad audience [3]. For that reason, an exergame with social interaction could be a viable approach to please a wide range of people, because it aims at two of the main aspects for physical activity, socializing and fun.

The best example of having success with an exergame is currently the mobile exergame

1 1. Introduction

Pokémon Go1, which was released by Niantic in July 2016, and holds the record in the most downloaded App on the iTunes App Store in a launch week [4]. Pokémon Go motivates users to walk around and explore their surroundings in order to find and catch digital creatures, called Pokémons, which can fight against Pokémons of other users in a gym. Pokémons are distrubted all over the world on various places and can be caught anytime. The main goal of the game is to find and catch all 151 varieties of Pokémons [5]. The difference to other fitness applications and exergames is, that users walk several kilometres, while playing the game without noticing the travelled distance. This big success of the game shows that exergames in combination with social interaction can motivate people to physical activity, if they support entertainment. However, statements about the long-term motivation of Pokémon Go cannot be given yet because of its short availability period on the App market. One aspect, why Pokémon Go might be so successfull, is the usage of digtial pets. According to Chen et al. (2013), by using a digital pet as a user’s digital representation, people are supposed to be more engaged to physical activity, as if they would have an avatar, which represents their actual self. The reason for the higher encouragement to tasks, which are not contained in the people’s daily life, is the correlation with the close relationship between owners and real pets. This relation arouses a sense of responsibility in the owners to take care of another living being [6].

1.1 Motivation and Aim of the Thesis

Within this master’s thesis, a human-centred design process is conducted in order to research, if exergames can help people to motivate to sports. Part of this process is the development of a prototype of a mobile social digital pet exergame. In the course of this, the following research questions are in focus and examined:

• Can the concept of a mobile social digital pet exergame motivate people to improve their physical activity?

• Does a good game mechanic/gameplay exist to implement collaboration and competition in a mobile social digital pet exergame? If yes, how does it look like?

• How is the integrated social game mechanic appreciated?

Aim of the developed mobile social digital pet exergame is to motivate people, mainly adults, to physical activities, ideally for long-term. In order to achieve this goal, the game supports social interaction in form of a collaborative approach. Idle words and non-achieved resolutions shall belong to the past, as well as the listlessness and obesity of people.

1http://www.pokemongo.com

2 1.2. Structure of the Thesis

It is thereby important that more sport types than just running and walking are supported, because most of the already existing exergames and fitness applications only support these two sport types. The social interaction is the key focus in this digital pet exergame, because socializing is one of the main motivating factors for doing sports. Almost all exergames including a digital pet and most of the digital pet games support only single player modes [7]. My personal motivation, which guides me through this topic, is my high interest in sports, wherefore I want to share and transmit my passion for sports and show the people the positive effects of doing physical activity. Fun, social interaction, as well as weight reduction, are only a few examples of the positive effects of exercising.

1.2 Structure of the Thesis

The master’s thesis starts by introducing the problem statement of the thesis, which is discussed during the research and design process. Furthermore, Chapter 1 describes the motivation and aim of the thesis to convey a sense of how important the development of exergames is. Chapter 2 presents a theoretical background to give detailed information about the diﬀerent types of motivation, and how people can be motivated to physical activity and to play games. Furthermore, Chapter 2 examines examples of ﬁtness applications and exergames in order to be able to compare, which kind of application is a good way to motivate people to do sports. Lastly, Chapter 2 presents and compares avatars and digital pets, as well as analyses game mechanics, such as collaborative and competitive game mechanics. Furthermore, Chapter 3 describes the applied methodological approaches during the master’s thesis. It is explained, how the extensive literature research was performed, as well as the human-centred design process, and what prototypes are. The beginning of Chapter 4 describes the design process of the prototype by specifying design requirements and showing the drawn sketches, wireframes and mock-ups. Ad- ditionally, personas and scenarios are enclosed to introduce and characterise the main target group and a typically usage in the best- and worst-case of the prototype. Then, Chapter 4 describes the implementation of the functional prototype by explaining the used technology, the architectural structure of the prototype and its interaction. Chapter 5 summarizes and analyses the feedback of the reviewers for each applied method in the human-centred design process. Furthermore, it describes and evaluates the preparations and the feedback of the user study about the functional prototype in order to investigate, if the concept of the mobile social digital pet exergame and the implemented methods contribute to an increase in motivation to physical activity. Within the user study, a think-aloud study and a retrospective semi-structured interview were conducted.

3 1. Introduction

Finally, Chapter 6 gives a summary about the whole master’s thesis, as well as a future perspective of possible supplements and a further development of the functional prototype. Furthermore, the results of the thesis are associated with the research questions, which are presented in Chapter 1, and a personally resume is drawn.

4 CHAPTER 2 Background

2.1 Motivation

Motivation is a common term in education, business, games and sport. According to Ryan & Deci (2000), “To be motivated means to be moved to do something.” [8], wherefore motivated people feel active, energized and inspired. As opposed to this, a person, who is unmotivated, senses emptiness, a lack of drive and apathy. This amotivation is caused by a feeling of incompetence and disbelief in a desired outcome [8]. Motivation can be measured as an amount, which indicates how much of it exists, and in an orientation, which concerns the goals and drive to an action. An example of the orientation of motivation is when athletes train. They can exercise because of the interest to strengthen their muscles and to build up power and because it is fun, or because they want to be approved by their trainers and other people. In this case, the amount of motivation stays basically on the same level, but the focus of the motivation varies [8]. Fundamentally, two types of motivation exist, extrinsic and intrinsic, which are described in the following sections based on the deﬁnitions of Ryan & Deci (2000).

2.1.1 Extrinsic Motivation Extrinsic motivation are external stimuli, which encourage people to complete an activity, such as sunny weather, music or a health-promoting aspect, in order to achieve a separable outcome [8, 9]. This incentive can be external factors or the outcome itself, but the activity in itself cannot be the reason for doing the activity. Main reasons for exercising are the sense of relatedness, which is the feeling of a connection to other people, such as family members, friends or society, and competence, the understanding of relevant skills for success. There exist four types of this incentive, which can vary in their autonomy. The autonomy indicates, how much people do an activity for their own enjoyment rather than for rewards and a speciﬁc outcome [8].

5 2. Background

External regulation is the least autonomous form of extrinsic motivation, where people do an activity to satisfy an external demand or achieve an externally imposed reward. It is typically contrasted with intrinsic motivation in early lab studies and discussions. An example is when athletes do sports just because of rewards. Additionally, researches have shown that people are more likely to blame others for negative outcomes, if they show less interest, value and effort [8]. The second type of extrinsic motivation is introjected regulation, where people complete tasks because of self-imposed pressure in order to avert guilt or anxiety or to achieve ego-enhancements and pride. Running for getting people’s appreciation is a typically example of this type. Despite the fact that individuals in this type of extrinsic motivation are better in expending effort than in the external regulation, they are also poorer at coping with failures [8]. Identification is an even more autonomous form of extrinsic motivation, where people do activities, because they identify themselves with the importance of the behaviour and accept its regulation as their own in order to achieve personally valued outcomes. An example is when athletes do sports because of the positive effects on their health and fitness, and the acceleration for attaining their life goals. The athletes have identified themselves with the value of this exercise. People have a greater enjoyment of the activity and more positive coping styles within this kind of motivation [8]. The fourth and last type of extrinsic motivation, which has the most autonomy, is integrated regulation. In this kind of incentive, people completely identify themselves with all regulations of a specific behaviour, so that it becomes congruent with one’s sense of self. Integrated regulation has many similarities with intrinsic motivation, because both are autonomous and unconflicted. However, it differs from intrinsic motivation in the way that activities are still motivated by integrated regulations in order to achieve some kind of outcome. An example is when athletes do a special exercise, because it is part of their hobby/job as an athlete and because sports characterise their lifestyle. In all four cases, instrumentalities are comprised, but in the first two ones, conformity with external control exists, whereas in the other two, a personal will and the sense of free choice are added. The latter two types are as well associated with greater encouragement, better performance, high quality, less dropping out and greater psychological well-being [8]. Internalization and integration are processes that lead extrinsically motivated behaviour to a more self-determination, so that individuals can adopt a new regulation anytime they want depending on previous experiences and situational factors. While internalization is the process of accepting values or controls, integration is the procedure by which people transform regulations into their own. Thereby, those regulations become congruent with the people’s values and needs through self-reflection. With the increase of internalization, a greater endurance, a more positive self-image and a better quality of engagement can be detected, whereby this process can be shifted in both directions, also backward into a more nonautonomous form. An example of internalization and integration is that people are motivated to do an activity by rewards, and that this drive allows them to experience inherently joy of the activity, which results in an orientation shift [8].

6 2.1. Motivation

Most of the activities people are doing are extrinsic because of social demands and roles. Especially after early childhood, many activities are extrinsically motivated, because children learn to take responsibility for their behaviour. For example, they have to go to school, do their homework and behave like the teachers want them to [8].

2.1.2 Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation is another type of incentive caused by internal stimuli, which encourage people to do an activity, because it is inherently entertaining, interesting and satisfying. People are stimulated by fun, challenge, inner thoughts, wishes and longings, e.g. self-improvement, rather than by external pressure and rewards [8, 9].

The ﬁrst mentioning of intrinsic motivation was within experimental studies of animal behaviour. The researchers exposed objects to animals and observed that they played around with them without any rewards or reinforcement, just for the positive experiences associated with exercising and learning new skills. People are as well curious, playful and eager to learn and explore new things from birth onward and do not necessarily need any external factors to behave like this. Intrinsic motivation is a decisive factor in cognitive, social and physical development of a child. It is especially important for education, because it results in high-quality learning and creativity [8].

However, intrinsic motivation is not equivalent for every person. Some activities might be enjoyable for one person, whereas it is not for another. Intrinsic motivation will only occur for activities, which seem novel, challenging and aesthetic for the individual. There exist several theories about how intrinsic motivation correlates with activities [8]. For example, the operant theory, established by Skinner (1953), assumes that all behaviours are motivated by gratiﬁcation, and intrinsic motivation contains the reward in the activity itself [10]. In comparison, e.g., the learning theory proposes that all behaviours are motivated by physiological drives, and intrinsic motivation satisﬁes the innate psychological needs. For that reason, examples for enhancing intrinsic motivation are especially positive and approved performance feedback, communication, optimal challenges, choice or the opportunity for self-direction, which contribute towards feelings of competence during a task. However, if they are not accompanied by a sense of autonomy, no enhancement will take place, because people have to experience the satisfaction of both, the competence and autonomy need. On the contrary, tangible rewards, deadlines, threats and competition pressure can undermine intrinsic motivation, because people sense these factors as controllers of their own behaviour [8].

For measuring intrinsic motivation, two common approaches exist. First, in the free choice measurement, participants are exposed to a target task and afterwards left alone in a room with the task and various distractions. Thereupon, the participants are observed, if they return to the task or rather devote themselves to the distractions. Extrinsic factors for the task, such as rewards, do not exist. The more time the person spends with the target task, the higher the intrinsic motivation for this activity is. Second, to

7 2. Background

measure intrinsic motivation, self-reports are also common to use in order to ﬁnd out how interesting and enjoyable an activity in itself is [8].

The Flow Theory Flow is a widely accepted and universal model of enjoyment, which was founded by Csikszentmihalyi and his colleagues and widespread in the 1980s and 1990s [11, 12]. It has its origin in a study about intrinsic motivation, where the artists’ drive while painting and afterwards were observed. Painters were determined and highly motivated to finish the painting, if it was going well. But as soon as the art was finished, they lost their interest in it, independent of possibly external rewards for it [11]. Thereupon, Csikszentmihalyi conducted an extensive research about motivation for completing various activities with a wide range of people all over the world. Based on these research results, he defined the optimal experience as flow. The flow is so enjoyable that people do tasks for its own sake, even if these activities are dangerous and difficult. A separate outcome is not part of the drive for completing the activity, but the activity has to be intrinsically rewarding and autotelic [11, 13, 14]. The quality of experience differs between individuals. When the people’s attention is fully absorbed in activities, they reach an ordered state of consciousness, where thoughts and feelings are in harmony. However, there exist activities, such as sports and games, which provide goals, certain rules and a feedback structure, wherefore people are more likely to achieve the flow during these activities. Nevertheless, basically, the flow can be found in every activity, even in ironing clothes. Consequently, subjective challenges and skills influence the quality of people’s experiences. The ratio between this quality of experience and the perceived challenges and skills can be seen in Figure 2.1 [11]. The current model of flow experience (Figure 2.2) is divided into eight experiential channels: anxiety, arousal, flow, control, relaxation, boredom, apathy and worry. If perceived challenges and skills are below the individual’s average, flow cannot be achieved and apathy is experienced [11]. Additionally, according to [11, 13, 14], eight requirements for achieving the flow can be described as following:

• Completion of perceived challenges or opportunities for tasks • Intensively and focused concentration on the present moment • Provision of well-defined goals • Provision of immediate and unambiguous feedback • Sense of personal control over actions and the knowledge of how to deal with specific situations • Loss of self-consciousness • Deep but effortless involvement that removes distractions, so that the attention merges with the task

8 2.1. Motivation

• Alteration of the feeling of time duration, e.g. the feeling of time has passed faster than normal

Common application domains of the ﬂow theory are music environments, information systems, commercial websites, education, sports and exergames [12, 13, 14].

Figure 2.1: Original model of the ﬂow Figure 2.2: Current model of the ﬂow state state [11] showing its eight reachable mental states [11]

2.1.3 Motivation for Playing a Game For the computer game industry, the most important goal is that players are staying in the game. This can be achieved by providing enjoyment and fun for players. Games must keep the players’ attention and concentration, whereas tasks have to be sophisticated and challenging, as well as enjoyable. Defined goals and feedback on current progress have to be given, so that players feel capable to control the situation and task, which leads to a total immersion in the game and a loss of awareness of time duration. Another drive to play computer games is social interaction, which can cause people playing a game they do not like. Furthermore, games are also a good way for individuals to escape from the daily life and its problems, and to calm down after a hard workday [13]. However, there is no universally accepted model of player enjoyment in games. Many separate game design heuristics meet certain aspects, such as interface, mechanics and gameplay, but do not combine them. For that reason, Sweetser & Wyeth (2005) founded the GameFlow model, which is based on the flow theory. The GameFlow model consists as well of eight elements, concentration, challenge, skills, control, clear goals, feedback, immersion and social interaction. Each of them holds a set of criteria for engaging playing a game. One criterion is that players should be able to concentrate on important tasks, to control the situation and to experience deep but effortless involvement in the game, while balancing mental load and level difficulty. The more concentration an activity

9 2. Background

requires, the more absorbing it will be. Another criterion is that the game should support the players’ skill development and ability, so that it is possible to play without any (long) tutorials. Further criteria are that the game should endorse the opportunity for social interaction, in form of, e.g., chat and online boards, and should provide clear and multiple goals and immediate feedback at appropriate times. Distractions, such as major game tasks and disturbing/unimportant interface elements, should be kept as small as possible. To allow players to be satisﬁed and earn personal rewards, they have to be able to accomplish diﬃcult tasks and challenging opponents and to test and master their skills. The last criterion is that players have to be able to achieve a desired goal and to cope with danger and fear, while using an intuitive and easily understandable interface [13, 14].

2.1.4 Motivation to Physical Activity Motivation is an important factor for physical activity. The main extrinsically aspects for exercising are socializing, encouragement of other people, obligation towards training partners and a competitive drive. In comparison to that, fun, enjoyment, excitement, health, appearance, specific goals, self-improvement and stress and mood management are the main intrinsically factors [2, 15]. Moreover, social interaction can improve training performances and can also increase motivation, because social connections engage people to exercise harder and increase the enjoyment of an activity as a whole. Thereby, training partners, coaches and sport communities are essential factors, because athletes can compete with other people, which gives them a competitive incentive. This can lead to better training results for more competitive athletes. To feel a community belonging, several factors are crucial, e.g., emotional affinity, relationship, responsibility and social support. Furthermore, an appropriate reward system for completed challenges, which establishes the user’s credibility, status and recognition, can raise the motivation as well [9]. Especially, music played at the right time is also a highly motivating factor during physical activity. Therefore, adjusted playlists to pace, workout type or mood of the user are a good approach to increase motivation [2]. Those various motivating aspects for physical activity might be explained due to differences between individuals and external factors, such as age and gender, because what is perceived as meaningful by one person does not have to be sensed as such by another one. Researches have shown that younger adults are more motivated by competition and competence than older adults, as well as men are more motivated by these factors than women. Social interaction is more valued by older adults and females. Furthermore, especially young women are very motivated to do sports by body-related factors, such as weight control and appearance, mood enhancement and stress reduction. The aspects, fun and enjoyment, are for both genders equally high motivating [15]. To overcome all those differences between individuals in motivating factors, a game with social interaction would be a good approach to please a wide range of people, because it aims at two of the main aspects for physical activity, socializing and fun. However, there exist also some barriers for doing sport, e.g., lack of time and energy, the

10 2.2. Fitness Applications and Exergames low importance of sports in the people’s daily life, weather conditions and scheduling [2].

2.2 Fitness Applications and Exergames

The number of overweight and obese people in all age groups in most western societies is constantly increasing because of wrong and unhealthy nutrition and insufficient physical activity [14, 16, 1, 17]. According to the World Health Organization in 2015, the number of overweight and obese people has more than doubled in the last 35 years. Worldwide 39% of adults aged 18 and above were overweight in 2014 and even 13% were obese [1], whereby twice as much of adipose people are living in each America and Europe as in Africa [18]. Tendentially, more women than men are adipose [1, 18]. In Figure 2.3, the percentages of overweight and obese population per region and gender are depicted [18]. Adiposity can lead to serious illnesses, such as cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, especially osteoarthritis, diabetes and different types of cancers, and death. Therefore, it has become relevant to reduce and prevent overweight [14, 16, 1, 17]. Key measures are a proper nutrition by diminishing the size of portions and the number of calories, and a regular physical activity. 22 minutes per day filled with sports would be enough to reduce the overweight of an adult [1]. One approach, which proved to be effective against laziness and lethargy, are sports applications, which track the fitness performance of users and provide training programmes. In 2012, a report presented that approximately 17 828 health and fitness apps are available [19]. But most often these services do not aim long-term motivation and have a lack of fun, why people cease using them after a short time and consequently stop doing physical activity [2, 20]. Exergames try to counteract against this short-term motivation by including the motivational factor fun while using a gamification approach and intelligent game-based objectives. Entertainment and encouragement through games are regarded as appealing to a broad audience [3], especially to people with a low fitness level or who are not interested into a regular and heavy fitness programme [12]. In the following sections, fitness apps and exergames are described in detail and examples are provided.

2.2.1 Fitness Applications Fitness and wellness applications, services and technologies, such as Fitbit1 and Runtastic2, aim to help people to achieve a healthy lifestyle by providing appropriate motivating methods, training programmes and weight management [16]. Additionally, they try to help in goal-setting, and to guide users towards their goals and improvement of health and fitness by checking their training progress [9, 2, 21]. Fitness and wellness applications and technologies belong to personal informatics systems, which present logged data to users in order to invite them to reflect on and understand these data. This self-reflection of oneself aims to gain and increase self-knowledge. Furthermore, these systems are supposed to

1https://www.ﬁtbit.com/uk 2https://www.runtastic.com

11 2. Background

Figure 2.3: The diagrams show the percentage of population per gender and region for overweight and obese people [18]

make people aware about their own behaviour, as well as that data-mining takes place constantly with and without their knowledge [22, 23]. Especially, the development of training supportive gadgets, such as heart rate monitors, GPS devices, accelerometers, chest bands and smart fabrics, has opened new possibilities to various target groups for achieving more accurate and detailed data on one’s training [9, 2, 16, 21]. A study has shown that GPS watches and MP3 players are the two most favored used technologies while doing sports [2].

Features of Fitness Applications

The main features of fitness applications on the current app market are tracking respectively self-monitoring and personal coaching [9, 24]. Users can log, for example, their GPS data, speed, distance, pace, time and calorie consumption, which are presented subsequently through charts and tables [9, 22, 24]. Monitoring of this data and the users’ development on their profiles, as well as the possibility of adding additional details to the log, such as comments, training descriptions, weather conditions and photographs, are essential supplements. Furthermore, athletes can join available routes and workout plans [9, 23, 24]. A personal trainer in the sports app is supposed to motivate the users through videos and offers several gym and weightlifting training programmes, e.g., muscle building, weight reduction and daily physical activity, which are renewed approximately

12 2.2. Fitness Applications and Exergames

every month. Furthermore, this coach is supposed to take care of the right training, such as correct pace and distance, for each individual separately [9, 25, 26]. Especially, beginners benefit from feedback during the whole workout, so that they can achieve their predefined goals [26]. But also the possibility of online coaching through other athletes on the same performance level or higher can increase the motivation to train and achieve a better condition [9]. Another important feature of fitness applications is the provision of music playlists, which are supposed to bring movement into the training [9, 25, 27]. Music has psychophysical effects on athletes and can lead to synchronization and attainment of flow, when it is used in form of an adaption to sports’ situation in real-time and matches the users’ taste [21, 27]. People can create positive associations with the music and synchronize their pace to its tempo, whereby, e.g., 10 levels exist, spanning from a walk till a sprint. The playlists should not be created just once, but be adjusted continuously to the individual’s training progress and various conditions. Especially, the amount of beats per minute (bpm) is a crucial factor in this context, which should match a target-pace in the best case. If the current pace of the athletes does not correspond with their target-pace, the system selects automatically music with a higher or lower bpm, so that the people can find their right speed. In the event of incorrect use, music can also act as a distractor [27]. Another form of fitness and wellness services, which takes up online coaching as one of its main features, are online sports communities and web portals. But they also provide most often automatic monitoring, food and sports diaries and forums to exchange knowledge and information about sports [9, 16]. The opportunity to share experiences and produce content, such as a discussion about good gadgets, clothes, the right nutrition and treatment of sports injuries, helps other users to get social support, and to inspire them with new ideas to develop their training [9]. Social sharing features are one of the main aspects to increase motivation towards physical activity [16]. Furthermore, a study has shown that people endorse the communication and opportunity to ask other users, especially friends, for help and guidance through fitness services. The possibility of participating inner groups, which can be created around users’ locations, training surroundings or a specific sport type, would comply with this study result. Additionally, a connection to social media services, such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, motivates individuals to share content, and to comment other user’s data. However, privacy issues of fitness apps, such as visibility of training data, are of great importance in order to be seen as a trustworthy service to store and monitor data [9]. The most important factor for using fitness applications is the easiness respectively the automation of adding new exercises to the service [9]. But also goal setting, real-time monitoring and feedback, motivating features and social interaction contribute to the use of fitness and wellness applications. Self-monitoring of physical data, such as heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure and sleep patterns, can help people to put health recommendations into a personal context [19, 23]. However, it has to be taken in consideration that this type of service has disadvantages as well. Inaccuracy of data

13 2. Background

recording, a sense of constant monitoring 24/7 and the possibility of misleading to an overestimation can be the consequences of this usage [19, 22].

Examples of Fitness Applications One famous sports tracking app on the current market is Runtastic3. It logs GPS data, speed, distance, pace, time and calorie consumption, which are presented through charts and tables. Afterwards, this data can be shared on social platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, to receive feedback and support from one’s friends. Furthermore, routes and ﬁtness plans are available for the users to join [24]. Another mobile application, which tracks how much the users are walking and how many steps they are taking for that distance, is Steps Pedometer & Step Counter Activity Tracker4. Based on the amount of taken steps, the colours of the gradient background change to display the users’ progress [28]. The main disadvantage of these two applications is that it lacks in entertainment, because it is geared to track data and not for playing with it. Therefore, people are more likely to cease using the apps after a short time, if they are not intrinsically motivated to do sports. One encouraging design approach for combining a ﬁtness application with a 3d virtual world presentation is Virtual Run. While using the treadmill, the athletes can watch themselves as an avatar moving through the 3d visualization of the city, where the gym is located. Depending on their speed, they can overtake slower virtual runners or can be passed by faster virtual performers. The results of a user study have shown that this kind of approach is encouraging, interesting and entertaining. The most motivating factor was the possibility of competing other athletes [29]. However, this design approach requires an investment in a big screen, the software and treadmills. Regarding wearable technology, Fitbit5 and Jawbone6 are top leaders to track the travelled distance and burned calories. Based on the real-time feedback on their display or through colourful LEDs, these devices allow users to view their training state and development directly during the workout [30, 31], which is most often inconvenient for smartphones.

2.2.2 Exergames Exergames, or also called exercise games or active videogames, such as Dance Dance Revolution7 or Wii Fit8, are the combination of videogames and physical activity [14, 17, 32], and belong to personal informatics systems [23]. They are mostly played on a game console or personal computer in combination with a bike, foot operated pad or motion sensors, which ties them to a speciﬁc location, as they are unportable and inconvenient

3https://www.runtastic.com 4https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/steps-pedometer-step-counter/id708359518?mt=8 5https://www.ﬁtbit.com/uk 6https://jawbone.com 7http://www.ddrgame.com 8http://wiiﬁt.com

14 2.2. Fitness Applications and Exergames to use on the way. But also the opportunity to play them on smartphones, alone or with an additional device, exists. Nevertheless, those games often allow players to interact with other users all over the world in form of online communities. This social interaction, in terms of team building, group cohesion and cooperation, leads to an encouragement among people, especially children [33].

The aim of these games is to engage people to physical activity. Researches have shown that exergames can be eﬀective for the health state, but it has to be considered that they are no substitution for real sports, because the movements for controlling the game are fairly small and their intensity is low [12].

Active videogames demand certain design requirements for the engagement to do sports. These are a provision of a proper credit for completed challenges and a personal awareness of the current score and levels, a support of social interaction and a consideration of the players’ lifestyle boundaries. For the success of exergames, a smooth balance between effectiveness and attractiveness is responsible. The difficulty of the challenge has to be levelled, as well as the intensity, so that the players can achieve the flow state [12], a state so pleasing that people do tasks for its own sake [11]. Users will fail, if the intensity is too high compared to their fitness level. In contrast, if the intenseness is too low, players will have no benefit of the exercise. However, important is that exergames should not be too acute, because the main target group of exergames are mostly people with a low fitness level or who are not interested into a regular and heavy fitness programme. Furthermore, if the difficulty of the challenge is too high, players will feel anxiety. If the difficultness is too low, they will sense boredom [12]. Therefore, on the one hand, the games have to meet physical requirements, e.g. playing them three times per week and that the challenges are aligned to the individual’s recommended heart rate, and on the other hand it has to be fun to play them [14]. In Figure 2.4, the extended dual flow model, which describes this smooth balance between effectiveness and attractiveness, can be seen. The dark grey areas show the desired flow state [12].

History of Exergames The idea of exergames is almost as old as videogames themselves. However, many games failed because of high costs and poor interfaces [14, 17]. An early example of an exercise game was created in 1982 by the Atari Puﬀer project9, whereby an exercise bike was connected to a game console. Because of internal changes, this game was not commercialized, but today successful examples of exercise bikes, such as the NEO Smart10 by Tacx, allow users to immerse into a virtual world, which can be controlled by the bikes themselves. Such applications can be typically found in gyms as a training aid for cyclists or as educational games [14].

Around the same time as the creation of the early example of exercise bikes, a foot

9http://www.atarihq.com/othersec/puﬀer/ 10http://www.tacx.com/en/products/trainers/neo-smart

15 2. Background

Figure 2.4: Extended model of dual ﬂow state for exergames [12]

operated pad for controlling a video game on the Atari 260011 was released by Amiga in 1983. The pad can be compared to a conventional joystick, because the users can lean into eight directions to manage their ways through the virtual world. The main purpose of this game was the improvement of the people’s health state while having fun [14]. Motion sensors came in 1989 with the release of the Power Glove by Nintendo. It was a glove, which consisted of motion sensors that detect finger movements and gestures and with which the videogame could be controlled. The game was for a short time successful with 1.5 million sold units, but after one year, the production was cancelled [14]. In 1998, the first very successful dance simulation exergame, called Dance Dance Revo- lution12, was released by Konami. It is a footpad sensor consisting of a set of buttons controlled by the users while jumping, hopping and stepping on them. Until 2003, the company had reported 6.5 million sales of the game, which exists in nearly 100 various implementations. The main concept of it is to follow the dancing steps in line with electronic music, which are shown in form of arrows on the display, supported by flashing lights [14]. Four years later, a special camera, the EyeToy13, connected to the game console PlaySta- tion 2, was released by Sony. Through body movements, the game could be controlled [14]. A later more successful example, which took up this technology, is the Kinect14 released

11http://www.atarihq.com/danb/a2600.shtml 12http://www.ddrgame.com 13https://www.playstation.com/en-au/games/eyetoy-play-ps2/ 14http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-one/accessories/kinect-for-xbox-one#fbid=D84tlaTXiY9

16 2.2. Fitness Applications and Exergames by Microsoft in 2010, which is still in production and allows programmers to develop their own apps for it. The Kinect tracks the players’ movements in three dimensions and converts them into virtual activity. 18 million sales were reported of the Kinect in its ﬁrst year [17]. In 2006, the Wii was released by Nintendo, which is similar to the Power Glove, but instead of a glove, a wireless remote with integrated accelerometers and optical sensors is used. In its pre-package, a collection of sport games is included to familiarize the players with the control. The Wii15 is one decisive factor for the society’s high interest in exergames [14, 17]. As the statistics show, 750 million US dollar of revenue were generated through the sale of active videogames in 2012 with a prediction for a continuous expansion through 2015 [33].

Input Types for Exergames According to Stach et al. (2009), based on an analysis of 107 active videogames, six common input types for exergames can be defined. The first form is gesture, which is the users’ body movement within a defined pattern. Location and orientation of the body is irrelevant, but timing is important. An example is Wii tennis, where the players have to hit a tennis ball with a correct swing gesture with the Wii Remote in the right moment. Stance is the second input type, where the physical positions of the users’ feet, hands and body are important. Wii Fit Yoga is an example of this, because the players have to copy specific poses and stay in them for a certain time on the Wii Balance Board. Another input form is point, which requires players to aim with their fingers, hands or a hand-held device at a specific region. The EyeToy includes a game, where the users have to point at icons in order to collect them. Power is the fourth input type, which represents the raw physical energy exerted by players. The heart rate or pedal speed is for example measured continuously over a period of time to control the speed of an avatar. The exergame Heart Burn16 is an example of this. The fifth input type is continuous control, where it is possible to capture the players’ body movements in two or three dimensions. This enables that the players’ position is mapped to a virtual position in the game, e.g. the Body-Driven Bomberman. Tap is the last input type, which requires the players to touch a physical object or location. The contact is captured and used for controlling the game. Dance Dance Revolution is a typical example of this type. Usually, exergames combine multiple input forms [32].

Different Types of Exergames Active videogames can be designed with two different design approaches. The first one is the exercise-first method, which is a fitness application with a game aspect incidentially. The exercise itself is in focus and gamification is visible through, e.g., the possibility of earning points for completed sports challenges. This design approach is often used

15https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Wii/Wii-94559.html 16http://equis.cs.queensu.ca/?page_id=63

17 2. Background

in connection with physical activities that require a proper instruction, such as muscle- strengthening exercises. However, the problem of this type of design concept is that it lacks in gameplay and fun [34]. An example of this approach is the audio-based running game Zombies, Run!17, where users are accompanied while running by sounds of a zombie apocalypse to engage to a faster run. Due to the limited novel environment and the non-visibility of game screens during the play, it lacks in long-term motivation and in the aesthetics factor from the game design process [20, 35]. The second design approach is game-first, whereby the game is in focus and the exercise incidental, wherefore it provides a more entertaining experience than the exercise-first approach. However, it can lead to incorrectly performed exercises, and therefore to an inadequate improvement of the health state [34]. Examples for this design are Dance Dance Revolution or an interactive version of Tetris, which consists of a set of weights. By pulling them down, the pieces can be moved right, left or downwards. The removal of time constraints is one of the main factors of this Tetris version [14]. Nonetheless, the usage of the game-first design approach is better in the context of motivation than the exercise-first, because it has no problems with lack of entertainment, gameplay and long-term enhancement. Through removing the time-limited factor of exercises in the game, an incorrectly performance and inadequate improvement of the health state should be prevented. Furthermore, based on the principals of behavioural science theory, three model categories of exergames can be defined: analytic, social and affective [35, 36]. The analytic model is personalized on each individual and provides quantified goal-setting, feedback, informational tips and advices for physical activity [36]. Additionally, users’ training statistics are available [35]. The social model allows users to interact with other people, such as friends or family, so that they can, for example, play with each other and give real-time feedback and support [35, 36]. This kind of social interaction, as well as the performance of others, can lead to a higher encouragement to sports than self-motivation, and can cause continuation of a regular training [37]. In the affective model, the users’ progress is mirrored by an avatar’s progress [35, 36]. Movements, behaviours and health state of the avatar reflects the physical activity of the users in form of real-time feedback. Researches have shown that all three approaches help people to be more active, whereby the affective model was less successful in engaging people to physical activity than the other two, but more representative of the users’ daily amount of movement [36].

Mobile Exergames Smartphones and wearable devices are a practical and promising platform for exergames, because they allow a usage anywhere and anytime. Due to the growth of worldwide smartphone shipments, which reached 1.3 billion units in 2014 and expected to reach 1.4 billion units in 2015 [20], more and more people possess a smartphone and consequently have it almost always with them. Therefore, the support and engagement of outdoor

17https://zombiesrungame.com

18 2.2. Fitness Applications and Exergames physical activities are possible, because smartphones are portable [38]. Furthermore, the usage of mobile phones as a game device is cost-effective, saves time and provides a more natural gaming experience than game consoles, which are bound to a specific setting [20]. One example of a mobile exercise-first exergame is Walk2Build, whose aim is to engage people to walk by visualizing their performance and progress in form of buildings in a virtual city. GPS data is recorded and converted into steps, which are represented by houses. The taller the building, the more walked the person in a day. This unconventional feedback in combination with social sharing and support aims to be efficient in the encouragement of people and advertising of the software itself [37]. However, Walk2Build lacks of short-term motivation because of insufficient immediate rewards, and because it takes a while to achieve a large city, which leads to a boredom after a short period [35]. Similar to Walk2Build is the 2D puzzle exergame Legendary Crystal, which has the same aim, engaging people to walk. However, it uses a different gameplay. Completed walking quests, e.g. achieving 500, 2000 or 5000 steps, are rewarded with items, such as crystal balls and energy, that can be used to upgrade a knight. This is useful and necessary for winning the puzzle game. The results of an evaluation process of it have shown that most of the committees and visitors of the Thailand National Software Contest liked the concept and enjoyed playing the game. However, a reduction of the level difficulty and the addition of social interaction were suggested to improve Legendary Crystal [20]. An example of a location-based mobile game-first exergame is a modification of the classic Snake mobile game, called LocoSnake, where the players control the virtual snake by walking around in a four-sided playing field set by themselves on a visualized satellite map. Instead of pressing buttons, they can walk up, down, left or right to collect the emerging fruits in the field in order to achieve a high score. Each level of the game lasts five minutes and can be played in three levels of difficulty. The results of a user study have shown that the participants perceived a higher physical exertion, but suggested that multiplayer features would be even more interesting and engaging to do physical activity while playing the game [38]. In conclusion, for Legendary Crystal and LocoSnake, a multiplayer mode would have affected the gameplay positively.

Multiplayer Exergames Collaboration and competition are good motivation factors for encouraging people to physical activity because of shared experiences and group dynamics. Support of team members helps to overcome more challenging problems and to attain a flow state. Additionally, competition can appear as a striving force for players [12]. A study about the effects of multiplayer modes investigated if single player, cooperation in the same physical space or parallel competition in separate physical areas is best to motivate players to stay in the game. Based on a literature review, the researchers found out that social interaction was one of the main reasons to play exergames, that the dropout rate is lower for multiplayers and that the people stay longer in the game. However, collaboration and competition influence players in different ways. More competitive

19 2. Background

people are more engaged through competition as in a noncompetition mode, whereas less competitive users enjoy less the game while competing each other. During the study, the researchers found out that parallel competition in separate physical spaces is the best approach to motivate people to stay in the game because of high physical activity and motivational eﬀects, e.g. pleasure or future play motivation. Furthermore, diﬀerences between playing with friends or strangers were not established, which is important for the game industry, because some games can only facilitate a multiplayer mode with strangers [39].

Examples for multiplayer exergames are the real-time mobile multiplayer game-ﬁrst exergames Tuck of War and Diamond Hunter. Tuck of War is a game for two to ten players, divided into two teams. The objective of it is based on the main idea of tug of war, where the other team has to be pulled over a speciﬁc gap, that is located between the two teams, by pulling on one end of a rope. However, in contrast to the sport, the players have to perform squat movements as frequent as possible to achieve points. Diamond Hunter is a 2d platform game for one to four players. By jumping in a correct place, the users can collect visible diamonds, which help them to win. The results of a user study have shown that both games were encouraging because of the multiplayer factor in form of shared yelling, cheering and laughing. The communication between team members and the opportunity of competition were appreciated by all participants. Additionally, a fairly intensive workout took place during the game due to well performed exercises and a constantly fast reaction to changes [12].

Another example of a multiplayer exergame is the racing game Speeding, where two teams play against each other. In order to win, the players have to raise the team’s collective heart rate as much as possible and to try to maintain it. The type of physical movement is not important. Due to the connection of the heart rate and the speed of the digital car in the game, it is an intensive workout, and the players try out diﬀerent physical exercises [12]. The main disadvantage of Speeding is that it is bound to a speciﬁc place, because the screens are projected against a wall.

A mobile multiplayer outdoor game-first active videogame is also Scatter!, where groups of four people try to trap one of their own players in a triangle. Via visible GPS positions on a map on their smartphones, they have to find the right position. The group, which has formed the smallest triangle, wins. Weaker players benefit from this scenario, because they are more encouraged in order to be positively effective for the group [7].

Although all of these four games are for more than one player, and therefore support social interaction, which is the most motivating factor for physical activity, they have one major problem in common. These games are dependent on people, who have time and the will to play and do sports simultaneously. An execution of the games in a single player mode is not possible, which restricts the scope of application of the games.

20 2.3. Avatars and Digital Pets

2.3 Avatars and Digital Pets

Players are typically represented in videogames by one or more characters with specific attributes, such as gender, race, profession and skills. These characters are usually called avatars, if the players own only one of them during the whole game [40]. People want to befriend with those more or less realistic and emotional avatars, instead of controlling them, when they seem alive and touching by communicating feelings, share and trust. During the game, players establish an emotional relationship to their avatars, which leads to a long-term interaction, communication, trust and connection [41]. By contrast, digital pets are animated virtual animals, most often digital agents, in software or are embodied in physical robots [41]. Digital agents are programmed by a mathematical and computational algorithm and have most often a specific goal, whereas an avatar depicts the player, who is controlling it [42]. In the following sections, a definition about avatars is given and the relationship between players and their avatars is looked at closely. Furthermore, digital pets are described in detail, as well as examples of digital pet games and exergames are alleged. Subsequently, a comparison between avatars and digital pets is drawn.

2.3.1 Definition of Avatars The term avatar has been originally used for a terrestrial reflection of a Hindu deity [40, 43]. But nowadays, it can be used for any form of digital representation of the users’ identities, wherefore it can be, for example, a name, a picture or an email address [43]. Nevertheless, an avatar is usually understood as a digital object, which represents players in the game environment and has specific characteristics and abilities [40, 43]. It is supposed to enhance and respond to users’ actions [44], because players control all movements of the avatar, wherefore they literally see through the character’s eyes [45]. The responses and performing changes of the avatar are usually executed in real time [42], and all performed tasks for the fulfilment of purposes and intentions happen through the avatar. Therefore, the characteristics, like gender, body shape, race and skills, are very important and have to be chosen carefully, because they influence the whole course of the game. In some games, these attributes are chosen at the first access to the digital world, where the players can pick any kind of features, but afterwards they are locked to this type of avatar. If the users want to change the character, then most often they lose all gained skills and have to start from scratch. One method to circumvent this problem is to buy the desired avatar from another user for real money [45]. In other games, it is possible to change the characters’ looks and behaviours frequently during the game. Furthermore, it is also possible to have more than just one avatar, in order to give players the chance of a more varied experience and to make them stay longer in the game [40]. In fact, people prefer to customize their characters [43]. In non-game virtual worlds, such as Second Life, users tend to call their digital representations avatars, which is a depiction of the player. As opposed to this, in online games

21 2. Background

like World of Warcraft, users name them characters, which means a representation of a person. One reason for that is that these games want to engage the players to use multiple characters with different skills to keep them longer in the game [40]. There exist several types of avatars. One kind is a three-dimensional digital representation in form of a human being, including all associated characteristics [40, 43]. In Figure 2.5, an example of a digital representation of a human being can be seen. Another type is a three-dimensional fictional creature, which has anthropomorphic attributes [43]. Figure 2.6 shows an example of a humanoid creature. People like humanoid virtual characters, who have a face, and with whom they can interact. Therefore, players treat their avatars as social actors [6]. Both, human being representations and humanoid creatures, can be customized at the discretion of the users, wherefore they can choose, for instance, hair or fur colour, height, body shape, clothes, accessories and characteristics [43]. However, an avatar can be, e.g., represented by a spaceship as well. Although the ship is actually controlled by a character, the players get the feeling of piloting the spaceship by themselves, wherefore the whole object is called an avatar [40]. Furthermore, an avatar can also be a cartoon figure or a silhouette, which is a semi-transparent depiction of the users’ body shape [44].

Figure 2.5: Digital representation of a Figure 2.6: Humanoid creature in the human being in the game Sims 4 [46] game World of Warcraft [47]

2.3.2 Relationship with an own Avatar The relationship between players and their avatars is complex and varies among users, games and experiences. It can be divided into three dimensions. The first dimension is identification, where users feel connected to their avatars. This occurs more often among young and immature people. The second dimension is compensation, where players crave for being like their characters. Immersion is the third dimension, where players feel emotionally involved with their avatars and think about them even while not playing. The users feel, for example, angry or happy for things, which the characters have done in the game. This behaviour occurs more often among men and unmarried people. A correlation between immersion and age is not significant [40].

22 2.3. Avatars and Digital Pets

Based on a questionnaire, researchers found out that players, especially depressed people, who have low self-esteem and self-conﬁdence, feel more connected to their avatars, if they represent an idealized version of the persons. Obese and overweight, as well as downcast and insecure people tend to create more physically and socially idealized avatars [40, 48]. Furthermore, older adults are more likely to swap gender than younger players [44], and are also apt to generate a younger looking character [40, 44]. Men are more likely to swap the gender than women, as 23 percent of men play a female avatar, but only 4 percent of women a male one. Nevertheless, in general, gender is not an important factor for playing a videogame [40]. However, in all cases, hairstyle and colour of the avatar is the most important decision for users [40].

2.3.3 The Proteus Effect The Proteus effect is named after the Greek God Proteus, who was able to metamorphose his body to an arbitrary self-representation, and describes the phenomenon, where gamers adopt their avatars’ behaviours in an online virtual world [48, 49]. Reasons for this change are an interaction with others and their expectations, an observation and reflection of one’s own attitudes and a sense of deindividuation. Deindividuation is a concept, where users do not behave like they normally do because of a loss of individual identity. Instead, they act how they think others would expect them to be. The users want to fulfil the expectations and stereotypes, which are associated with their avatars, because the players are anonymous and think that they cannot be blamed for their actions [49]. Furthermore, players change their behaviours depending on their current used digital representation. For example, if users play with a good-looking, physically strong and thin character, then they are more confident in negotiation task, more likely to reveal personal information and keep shorter personal distances in the virtual world [44, 49, 50]. The colour of the avatars’ clothes influences the users’ behaviour as well, because players using avatars in dark clothes are developing a more aggressive behaviour than those using virtual characters dressed up in light apparels [50].

2.3.4 Digital Pets Digital pet games, such as Tamagotchi18 or Nintendogs19, have millions of fans worldwide, who are delighted to interact with their digital pets, which can be a realistic animal, e.g. a dog or cat, or a more imaginative and abstract creature [51]. According to Stern (2002), digital pets are animated virtual animals, most often digital agents, on computer screens and portable LCDs, or are embodied in physical robots. People can feed, pet, wash and look after the animals while they are growing without having any direct goal in the game except keeping the pet happy [41]. This pet nurturing creates a deep relationship with the virtual friend, which leads to a great sense of independence, responsibility and enjoyment for the players [52]. Especially children can become easily attached to digital

18http://uk.tamagotchifriends.com 19http://nintendogspluscats.nintendo.com

23 2. Background

pets while playing the game every day. But if players do not take care of their virtual animal, it will die or run away after some time because of missing ministration [41].

An owner-pet relationship is easier and more uncomplicated than a person-person relationship, because it requires less communication and the owners can choose on their own, which pet they want and purchase [41]. Furthermore, through personal attachment, such as giving the pet a name, adopting and taking care of it, this relationship is deepened even more [53, 54]. Also through certain behaviours, the pet evokes deliberately a sense of empathy and connection on an emotional level in the players. For example, if the digital pet feels lonely, hungry and bored, it will howl and yowl in order to receive attention and affection from the users. Furthermore, the players should perceive a feeling of satisfaction, pleasure, happiness, excitement and pride, but also boredom, aggressiveness, guilt and anger, if the pet is unhappy and almost dying [41]. In addition, an owner-pet relationship benefits the health state, happiness and social life of the owners, because they, e.g., meet other people while they are walking with their dogs. Though, not only a real pet benefits the owners’ lives, but also a virtual one and a robot, by increasing the attention spans, motor skills, ability of solving problems and creative thinking. Additionally, digital pets benefit their owners by having emotional effects and improving the players’ self-esteem [55].

One application of digital pets is in life simulation games, where users feed and take care of their pets. Thereby is important that the type of character and context have to be chosen carefully by the developers, so that the players immediately understand, what they have to do, and recognise the animals as the ones, they should represent. Furthermore, users are not represented directly as a character in the game, but they see the impacts of their movements and actions [41].

Another application of digital pets is to be either a smart or non-smart virtual character in educational games, in order to motivate and accompany the users while studying in a playful way. Smart virtual characters are intelligent and autonomous. Their purpose is to act as a collaborator or competitor to enhance the individual’s learning progress. In contrast to that, non-smart virtual characters are supposed to be tutees, who should be taught by the players. Regardless of whether the digital pet is smart or not, the interaction with the animal encourages the awareness of the own learning status and helps to strive against laziness. The educational game My-Pet v2 uses the approach of mirroring the students’ learning status, so that the mood of the pet is dependent on the users’ learning profile [52]. Consequently, the virtual animal is used as an avatar instead of a digital agent. Therefore, the more the player achieves, the happier the pet is. Figure 2.7 (left) shows the smart virtual character of the game My-Pet v2 in its basic state. Additionally, a pet competition leads to more effort of the students at learning tasks, because then the chance is greater to win the competition [52]. To ensure that people play the game, various design features can be used, because visual appearances, like gender and realistic visual styles of the pet, influence the users’ preferences. An empathic and polite character with expressed emotions is preferred by the players [6].

24 2.3. Avatars and Digital Pets

Figure 2.7: Left: Smart virtual animal from the educational game My-Pet v2 [6]. Centre: Digital pets from the games Petz and Dogz [41]. Right: The game Tamagotchi [56].

2.3.5 Examples of Digital Pet Games One example of a digital pet game is Dogz20, which was released in 1995 and has reported over 2 million sales worldwide until 2003. The main idea consisted of having an animated virtual dog, with which the users can play around. At the time of release, it was unclear if people would enjoy the game, because such an idea has never been realised before. However, the game was well received by all kinds of people, both young and old, as well as female and male. Therefore, a new game, called Catz21, was released, where the users could own a virtual animated cat. The digital animal was an intelligent autonomous agent with real-time 3d animation and sound, which grew up over time and sought to be the players’ friend by receiving their attention and affection [41]. In Figure 2.7 (centre), examples of digital pets from the games Catz and Dogz can be seen. Another example of a digital pet game is Tamagotchi22 (Figure 2.7, right), which was released in 1996 [57]. It is a simple dot-based game, where the users had to feed and play with a depicted non-intelligent animal in order to nurture it [53, 57]. One success factor of the game was, that it conveyed a strong sense of reality and life to all age groups, which is necessary to be well received by adults. Especially, visual reality, convincing behavioural animation, interactivity and autonomy are decisive for communicating a sense of reality. These factors are important that users notice that their behaviour influences the virtual pets’ lives and that the animals are not just a machine but alive. Additionally, associating items in the digital pet game, e.g. virtual dishes, raise the sense of reality as well. However, if a realistic-looking virtual animal is poorly animated, the pet reduces authenticity [53]. In the field of research, the digital pet game PicoPet, which is based on a mobile handheld projector, is a good example of using a new way of representing a digital pet while supporting a multiplayer mode. The pet adjusts its body and behaviour to the physical

20http://petz.uk.ubi.com 21http://petz.uk.ubi.com 22http://uk.tamagotchifriends.com

25 2. Background

environment by interpreting the different colours of the background and the surrounding textures. Based on these interpretations, it, e.g., plays with butterflies or flowers, or swims in water. If the pet stays for a certain time in a specific terrain, it can evolve to an animal adjusted to this area, and can even become another species. Furthermore, the digital pet is able to recognize and track other pets, as well as interact with them by walking towards or away from them, depending on the relationship between the two animals [58].

2.3.6 Digital Pet Exergames Digital pet games can maintain long-term motivation, because they keep players motivated and remind them continually to play the game [57]. Although a virtual pet cannot offer the same good companionship as a real animal, researches have shown that it definitely can provide some to most owners, which benefits them in a social and therapeutic aspect [55]. Because of the relationship between the virtual pet and their owners, people are more motivated to do sports [54, 55]. Therefore, the combination between an exergame and a digital pet, used as an avatar reflecting the players’ health state, is used to benefit the physical activity of the users [54]. However, only few researches deal with this topic and merely a slight amount of digital pet exergames, especially for mobile, exist on the current market, which are most often for single players. A social interaction, respectively a multiplayer mode, in those games is even less common. A research from the year 2013 confirms this by stating that only five mobile multiplayer exertion games were found from the past ten years [7]. A good example of a digital pet exergame in the field of research, which supports multiplayer, is the exercise-first game Fish’n’Steps, which is an application on a public kiosk in combination with a pedometer. Depending on the individual’s number of steps taken each day, a personal virtual fish grows in a tank and changes its mood. According to the successful daily step goal achievement, the fish reaches its next evolution level until it is fully grown. Then a new baby fish is attached to the fish tank. In the multiplayer mode, four players share a tank, where each fish affects the water quality. If users do not achieve their individually goals, then the water becomes darker and the amount of tank decorations decreases. In form of a chat, team members can communicate to encourage an unmotivated and not fulfilling player. This approach is however more appropriate for an anonymous community. During a fourteen-week study, this game was tested in a company in order to find out if this approach encourages people to walk. The results have shown that the competition, of which is the healthiest fish tank, was on the one hand for some people more motivating than the actual virtual character, but on the other hand some thought that this competitive drive was unnecessary. Nevertheless, a lot of players compared their fish to those of other team members. In general, the game encouraged the users to walk, because the physical activity of circa 70 percent of the participants was increased. Furthermore, it enhanced the awareness of the players’ sports level. Though, some people reduced playing the game in order to avoid seeing their sad fish [59]. The main problem with this game is, that players cannot interact with their

26 2.3. Avatars and Digital Pets

fish, wherefore the drive to play the game will decrease after a certain time because of lack of fun and entertainment. Another game picks up the same approach, but instead of using an animal as a representation of the health state, a flowerbed shows the fitness level of the players. If users do regularly physical activity, the flowers will grow faster and bloom. Otherwise, they will die after a specific time. Through levelling-up and achieving certain goals, users can unlock different types of flowers and can share their progress to social media platforms. This representation of virtual character is more appropriate for novice and younger users, but is also more likely to enhance the motivation to physical activity [3]. Tep is another example of such a game, where a giraffe stays alive and is happy, when the users do physical activity. However, players cannot really interact with their giraffe except buying something, the response time is too long and it does not make fun to use the app. What applies in both games is that the interaction between users and the virtual character is missing, as well as the social interaction between players. One example in the field of research, where users can interact with their pet, is a digital pet exergame for children. It consists of a virtual dog, which can be personalized by the player while naming it and choosing the colour of its collar. By achieving a personal goal in sports, the children can teach the pet tricks, which become progressively more sophisticated depending on the amount of attained goals. Furthermore, the dog’s body appearance changes based on the completed physical activity. Results of a corresponding research have shown that children, who interacted with the dog, were significantly more engaged to do sports than the ones, who did not have a virtual pet, because of increased perception of the positive effects of physical activity [54]. A disadvantage of this game is that it is played with a Kinect and a television, wherefore it is bound to a specific location. It is not possible to use it anywhere or anytime.

2.3.7 Comparing Self-Avatars and Digital Pets Self-avatars are a representation of the actual self of players [6]. Although the Proteus effect implies that avatars can have positive effects on the users, there is also the risk that it has a negative impact, especially when the avatar represents the actual self. Researches have shown that players exert less, if their avatar is mirroring their overweight actual self, as if they would have a normal weight character, because the thick avatar reminds the players of lethargy. Therefore, users are also more likely to give up in this situation [50]. In contrast to that, digital pets are more engaging for players to do something, which either they do not want to do or is usually not contained in their daily life, e.g. studying or doing physical activity. The reason for the more intensive incentive is the sense of responsibility to take care of another living being, instead of oneself. Choosing a pet, personalizing, feeding and training it lead to a close relationship between owner and animal, which benefits the actual tended task [6]. It is more important that the pet is happy and healthy than the player self, wherefore users are more likely to engage themselves to these tasks.

27 2. Background

2.4 Game Design

Gameplay is the core of the game and a result of a large number of contributing elements. A universally accepted definition of it does not exist, but in general, a good gameplay keeps the players motivated and encouraged through the whole game [12, 60]. Game mechanics, such as points, levels, badges and challenges, are functioning components of the game, with which the players’ actions and behaviours are guided and controlled. They are made up of a series of tools, which evoke a response in form of e.g. emotions from players [61]. Additionally, these components should be fluent and easy to use in order to enhance play experience [12]. In contrast to that, game dynamics are players’ interactions with game mechanics, and act as a response to them. They are the users’ desires and motivations. Game aesthetics are supposed to influence the players’ feelings during the interactions with game mechanics. They are the outcome of the interactions, and create emotions [61].

2.4.1 Core Game Mechanics According to Zichermann & Cunningham (2011), point systems are awarded to players for successfully completed tasks in a game and are numbered among the most important game mechanics. They are necessary to value and track players’ movements in order to receive an insight in the interactions with the game. Additionally, they inform about the importance levels of various activities. There exist five different types of points in gamification. The most important points are experience points (XP), which are awarded for every action done in the game, will never expire or decrease and cannot be redeemed. Redeemable points (RP) are points, which are exchanged for things, and appear usually as coins, bucks or cash. The usage of those points form the foundation of a virtual economy, where attention has to be paid to money flow to avoid inflation or deflation, and to accuracy and importance of redeemable things. Another type of points are skill points, which are awarded for specific actions within the game in order to gain experience or reward for activities. They are most often a bonus set of points and are represented as, for example, magic and power. Furthermore, karma points are give-away points, where players benefit while sharing them with other people by, e.g., thanking for an action. They can be assigned to a regular grind, such as regular login behaviour, and are supposed to replace virtual currency or gifts. The last type are reputation points, which represent the most complex point system. Their purpose is to give a feeling of trust among players, wherefore, for instance, a user comment can be voted up or down. However, points can also expire in order to achieve a regular login of users. This is most often used in games, where digital flowers or pets grow through nurturing of the players [61].

Another game mechanics are levels, which indicate the players’ progress in the game, in order to inform them about their score and stage while playing. Nowadays, level designs, such as colours and layouts, do not diﬀer anymore extremely between various levels as it was in former times, wherefore transitions between levels are smoother. The

28 2.4. Game Design

level difficulty increases in a curvilinear form, so that today’s games start at the simplest level and move constantly toward the complex. A progress bar is most often used in combination with levels to inform, how close players are to complete the current level. A typical application domain of progress bars is when users are supposed to add personal information to a site [61]. Badges and trophies are another type of game mechanics, which mark the completion of goals and challenges in order to create a sense of pleasure or surprise for users. Furthermore, they can display effectively the players’ progress within the game, wherefore they can be seen as a replacement of levels in some cases. In a few games, badges are chosen randomly, which is supposed to be more interesting and exciting. However, this can lead to frustration of competitive players because of an uncertainty of achieving a badge. Another approach is a badging system of ribbons, where players know how to gain ribbons, and are able to receive several of one type, which differ in the degree of achievement [61]. Application store coupons or discounts for healthy food or gyms can be also used as rewards to incite people to use a game, because those coupons are a material inducement, where people have a real benefit of it, which is not the case with virtual badges [33]. Challenges and quests are supposed to direct players to activities in the virtual world, in order to add depth and a meaning to play experience. The idea behind challenges is that users always have something interesting and significant to do in order to avoid a lack of structure and boredom in the game. One type of quests are cooperative ones, where, e.g., players gain achievements on their own, but share the results within a group or let their friends know about the awards. Additionally, the incentive about the knowledge, that just a certain number of players can achieve a special reward, is compelling for users as well. The power of social support is so strong, that the encouragement of people increases significantly [61]. Another type of game mechanics is customization, for instance, the possibility to dress up an avatar, or to decide the background colour and font. It is a powerful tool to achieve commitment and engagement to the game, but attention has to be paid to the amount of choices. The quantity of options interrelates with users’ satisfaction, and if the range is too big, the contentment will decrease rapidly. A number of well-placed customization options increases play experience. In combination with redeemable points, such as virtual money, customization will promote the dynamic of a virtual economy [61]. Feedback is one of the most straightforward and important game mechanics, because it is crucial to inform players about their progress and the accuracy of their current actions. Most often, feedback is given in the interplay between scores and levels, in order to outline how many points or actions are left to gain the next level [61].

2.4.2 Social Game Mechanics Social mechanics are game mechanics to provide a multiplayer interaction, whereby most of them can be numbered among either collaborative or competitive game mechanics

29 2. Background

[62]. In the next sections, these two game mechanics are described and examples are provided. Which approach of them is better in engaging people to physical activity cannot be stated. On the one hand, several studies show that competition is more enhancing than collaboration, and participants put more physical effort in the exercises while competing. And on the other hand, other studies declare that cooperation is more motivating than competition, and people lost more weight while working together. But what all studies show is, that competitive players enjoy more the competition mode than other participants, who can become frustrated and demotivated while competing. For that reason, the enjoyment of different kinds of multiplayer modes is depending on individuals’ preferences [63]. However, there exist social mechanics, which cannot be numbered among neither of the two. Social engagement loops are an example, which are a concept of user encouragement to come back to the game. It is a circle consisting of four steps and starting with motivating emotion. This emotion is the drive for the first use of the game, e.g. exploring the system or expressing feelings and thoughts. Afterwards, player reengagement takes place, where quests are set up by the system, or players reply on actions of others. This reengagement leads to a social call to action, whereby users are incited to react to the action in form of, for instance, giving friends and followers a virtual gift or karma points. A visible progress or reward, such as points or trophies, closes the circle and motivates players yet again to come back to the game [61]. Another example is sharing game content, such as high scores or badges, and experiences on social network platforms in order to achieve esteem or even required virtual goods for the game from friends. Furthermore, social sharing brings reputation to the game itself [61]. A third example of social mechanics is a friend bar, which is a row of pictures of friends or their avatars. Through clicking on those pictures, it is possible to interact with other players, e.g. visiting, gifting or challenging people, because users own their own controllable and sometimes visitable virtual space in the game. Furthermore, the friend bar provides friends’ high scores and progresses at a glance, which can engage friendly competition and cause a sense of socialization. Nevertheless, the friend bar is most often always silent, i.e. no sound or music is associated with a special friend [62]. In the next sections, these interactions with other players are described in detail and matched to either collaborative or competitive game mechanics.

Collaborative Game Mechanics In collaborative games, such as World of Warcraft or Counter Strike, users play together to, for example, achieve the same non-exclusive goal, receive certain desired virtual items or ﬁght against another team, wherefore players are more likely to add new friends to the game [62, 64]. The single players’ success contributes directly and positively to the whole team’s achievement [63]. Although most often the game could be played alone as well, players tend to invite people, such as friends or family members, to the game, because it

30 2.4. Game Design is more diﬃcult to progress alone than in cooperation with another person, and also the overall experience is less enjoyable [62]. Cooperative play experiences cannot be shared with others in a single-player mode [64].

Collaborative game mechanics are mechanics to provide a multiplayer interaction, where users are supposed to work together in order to achieve a desired goal. An example of a collaborative game mechanic is gifting, where players can give each other virtual items, such as ﬂowers, cakes or hearts, or karma points [61, 62]. The purpose of gifting is to create a sense of connectedness and socialization. Those gifts do not have to be meaningful or expensive, but rather fun and easy. The gifting itself should be integrated into the virtual economy of the game [61], because it is a currency, which is exchanged to facilitate and enhance gameplay. In some cases, gifting can be compared with the potlatch approach, where people boast with how much they have by giving it to others, e.g. serving food at a dinner party. By progressing in the game, advanced players have more possibilities to gift because of unlocked additional presents, which are more valuable in some way to other users. Furthermore, gifting is most often an unspoken assumed exchange relationship, where people send each other presents in order to receive one back. This leads to a more multiplayer experience. Therefore, gift-receiving-notiﬁcation messages usually include a request for sending a present back as well. This is especially important, when it is required to collect a large number of items to complete a quest, which can be sometimes even time limited. There are two ways to gain these items, either to purchase them via virtual currency, or to ask friends and neighbours to gift them. In some games, players are rewarded for gifting with, e.g. virtual currency, mystery gifts, which create a sense of uncertainty, or the same present, they have given, if it is accepted by the other user [62].

Another collaborative game mechanic is visiting other players, which oﬀers a wider range of options than gifting, e.g. playing, hugging or dancing with the other user’s avatar. Visiting is based on the idea that players have their own virtual space to control and inhabit, where they can build and design elements in order to gain a personalized gaming experience. Through asynchronous visits, users mostly receive a bonus or reward for either the visit itself or for helping others. These bonuses engage players to return to their friends’ pages, but are limited to a certain number per day to avoid exploitation of this rewarding mechanic [62].

Furthermore, complementarity between diﬀerent character types engages users to play in a team, because due to various abilities of avatars, characters complete each other. This complementing and the synergies between capabilities make players stronger as they would be alone. Additionally, special rules and skills, which can be just used on other users to, e.g., heal them, encourage to play collaboratively as well [64].

Another collaborative game mechanics are cooperative challenges, especially physical ones, where, e.g., people try to solve a task together in order to succeed. Due to restrictions of one player, such as not being able to be at two places at the same time, some challenges require several users to participate in order to win. Communication and coordination

31 2. Background

between players are very important in that case, so that their actions harmonise, and team work is able to exist [64]. Additionally, a chat between all users and between teams can support the communication and coordination. If several people work together, then most often, all of them succeed at the tasks and will progress in the game [62]. Furthermore, time and resource limits engage players to focus and work quite closely together because of additional pressure [64].

Competitive Game Mechanics In competitive games, players challenge each other and use the game to manage and communicate their social status [62]. Users succeed, if they play and perform better than the rest of the players. Their success is inversely related to the success of others [63]. Competitive game mechanics are mechanics to provide a multiplayer interaction, where users battle against each other in order to achieve a desired goal. An example of a competitive social game mechanic are leaderboards, which are a presentation form of a ranking system in a game. A leaderboard is an ordered list with a score beside each username in order to make it easy for players to compare their points with other people, such as friends, followers or strangers. People, who have a deep interest in their position, are likely to be competitive players. Therefore, there can be a risk that users push themselves so much to win, that it results in an unhealthy behaviour. But if the players’ motivations are considered during the design process and a social leaderboard is used, this risk can be avoided. Two types of leaderboards exist. In the no-disincentive leaderboard, current positions of players are displayed in the middle of the ranking, where it is visible, how close the users are to the next score, and who of their friends are right after them. If players are in the top 10, then the leaderboard should show the literal ranking, which is more meaningful in this case. The other type is the infinite leaderboard, where no player can ever fall off or get stuck in the ranking. Therefore, various versions of a leaderboard are implemented at the same time, e.g. global, social and local. The global view shows all players within the system, the social one friends and followers of the players in the game and the local view displays a ranking to other people in the users’ immediate area [61]. Furthermore, leaderboards can also show time limited rankings, such as daily, weekly and monthly ones [62]. Another examples are competitive challenges and quests, where players, e.g., have to accomplish a task, fight or drive against another user. This can take place in form of matches, races and tournaments, alone or in a team and asynchronously or in real-time. Some games let challenges proceed automatically, so that players do not have to decide anything. The result of the match will be calculated based on the experience and skill points and on the statuses of the players. Another approach used in games is that, e.g., users can choose the attacks in the fight or can control their cars on their own, wherefore they influence the outcome of the match or race with their decisions. This engages players to define their own strategies and methods to succeed in the game. Additionally,

32 2.4. Game Design most often it is not just possible to fight and play against friends and followers, but also against strangers while the players are moving forward on the game world map [62]. The challenge difficulty has to be considered, because if the difficulty is too low, users feel bored, and if it is too high, they sense scared to fail in the task, wherefore they will be unable to complete the challenge [12].

2.4.3 Must-Have Game Mechanics for the Intended Mobile Social Digital Pet Exergame In the multiplayer mobile digital pet exergame, which will be created during the master’s thesis, one must-have game mechanic, which is indispensable, is a point system. It is one of the most important core game mechanics and is essential for valuing and tracking players’ movements [61]. However, not all types of point systems are necessary to implement in the exergame, e.g. reputation and karma points, because they do not contribute to this specific gameplay. Reputation points are supposed to give a feeling of trust from the users, but this is not crucial in this context. Karma points are give-away points, which benefit the receiver [61], but there is no purpose for them in this specific game either. Instead of these points, gifting can be implemented to give other players a present, e.g. food or toys, in order to gain a sense of community and cooperation between users. Gifting often leads to an unspoken exchange relationship, where players send each other presents to receive one back [61], wherefore they collaborate unconsciously. However, experience points are important, because they display the overall score and give information about the users’ progress and status in the game [61]. In this context, badges and rewards are also important to implement, because they mark the completion of goals and challenges and display as well the players’ progress within the game [61]. This is especially important in exergames in order to motivate users to continue with physical activity, because badges create a sense of enjoyment and ambition by collecting all of them. Badges and trophies can be gained by, for example, starting a workout plan, completing one, 50, 100 or 200 workouts, and doing two, five or ten hours of power and strength. Trophies should be appropriately conferred for continued play [13]. For this reason, the exergame has to contain challenges as well, so that users are able to achieve badges and trophies. These challenges can be in form of, e.g., having a specific workout plan, and if players stick to it for one week or month, they win this challenge. Important is that challenges should be sufficiently demanding by meeting the players’ skill levels, but at the same time enjoyable, and gradually increasing the task difficulty. Additionally, challenges should provide clear goals at an early stage in the game or at appropriated times. Furthermore, the users’ attention has to be grabbed quickly and maintained through the whole game time, regardless of whether it is just 20 seconds or 20 minutes [13]. Furthermore, redeemable points are essential in a digital pet game, because without a virtual currency, no food and goodies for the pet can be bought. This process of buying things is a significant mechanic in a digital pet game, because otherwise players could not take care of the pet and interact with it. Additionally, in this context, customization

33 2. Background

should be supported, because allowing users to personalize the game (e.g., the pet and landscape), to create strategies and to choose challenges can enhance long-term motivation for playing the game. Players receive a certain autonomy and choice [33]. Moreover, skill points should be implemented in the game, if a competition mode is used, because those points display the strength and power of the pet, which is necessary for competing with other people. Based on skill points, it is possible for the system to calculate automatically the user chances in matches and to find an equivalent and coequal opponent. To identify oneself as a winner can lead to positive social comparisons and enhanced competition, because people can, e.g., share their victory over social networks and compare the amount of wins with other players [33]. Though, there exist differences in individuals’ preferences of whether favouring competition or cooperation and both modes have their advantages and disadvantages. For that reason, a combination of collaboration and competition is picked, so that the game satisfies a wider audience. Nevertheless, cooperation will play a bigger part in the mobile digital pet exergame, because it does not frustrate people, if they do not prefer this mode, as it is in a competition mode. However, the game should not contain long dialogs and cutscenes, because they lead to a frustration of players [33]. Whereas levels are a must-have in this specific context, because based on experience points, players level up, wherefore they are able to train their pets to gain more skill points. In turn, this helps to have better chances to win against opponents in matches. Levelling up shows also the players’ progress and provides information of how close users are to accomplish the current level [33]. Another must-have game mechanics are leaderboards, which are a ranking system in a game in order to make it easy for players to compare their points with others [61]. To be not dependent on the amount of users’ friends, a global, as well as a social, leaderboard should be provided. Additionally, besides an overall ranking system, a one-month time limited leaderboard can encourage to physical activity, because then players are able to try to exercise more in the next month to overtake others. This is not possible in an overall ranking, because a new user can never overtake a player, which uses the game regularly and is already a member for several months. Finally, immediate and unambiguous feedback is essential to implement in the exergame, because it helps to achieve the flow state, and enhances motivation and interest to physical activity, as well as to play the game [11, 13, 14]. Feedback should be on progress towards multiple goals and immediately on actions [13]. Nevertheless, feedback has to be embedded within the game and should not disrupt the gameplay. Manuals, tutorials, long instructions and endless repetitive gameplay should be avoided as well, because it interrupts the gaming, and players feel like they would do anything else than playing or always repeating the same action [13, 33]. Possible feedbacks are positive statements in relation to user performances, such as “Good work! Keep going on!”, and reminders to exercise, e.g. “Get fit and feel awesome this week!”. Additionally, interesting facts about total completed ran kilometres or stemmed kilograms, such as “Only 10 000 m left until you have accomplished the distance between Vienna and Paris!” or “Only 100 kg left until you have stemmed a whole rhinoceros!”, could be encouraging as well.

34 CHAPTER 3 Methodology

When designing and developing a product, numerous approaches can be applied in order to create a product adjusted to its technical, functional and social requirements [65]. Based on what is in the focus of the design process, either the task or the user, the applied methods diﬀer. Within this master’s thesis, a human-centred design process was conducted for creating a mobile social digital pet exergame prototype, which focuses on the users’ needs and preferences. The following described methods were conducted in an iterative approach, where each subsequent method bases on the outcome of the previous applied method.

3.1 Literature Research

At the beginning of the research, a comprehensive literature research was conducted to thoroughly acquaint myself with the topics motivation, fitness applications, exergames, digital pets, avatars and game mechanics. Digital journal and conference papers, eBooks, newspaper articles, blog posts and web pages were surveyed on the Internet from different academic databases, such as ACM Digital Library1 or IEEE Xplore Digital Library2, but also from non-scientific sources. Based on the first findings of the literature research, the idea of Spox, a mobile social digital pet exergame, was born and the research questions (Can the concept of a mobile social digital pet exergame motivate people to improve their physical activities? and How is the integrated social game mechanic appreciated?) were determined. The outcome of the literature research is mainly described in Chapter 1 and 2. A continued literature research produced the five design requirements for the digital pet exergame, which are stated in section Design Requirements.

1http://dl.acm.org 2http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/home.jsp

35 3. Methodology

3.2 Human-Centred Design

Human-centred design focuses on the users’ perspectives, wishes, likes and contexts while creating and developing a product, which tries to fulﬁl the users’ needs. Potential users of the product to be created are constantly and actively involved in an iterative design process to give information about the context, where the product is supposed to be used, and tasks, which should be simpliﬁed by using the product. Feedback from potential users in early stages of the design process helps to establish the requirements and design of the product as soon and precisely as possible, and gives the users a feeling of design collaboration instead of imposition of something new [65].

The human-centred design process consists of five essential steps for including the users’ requirements into the development. These steps are planning of the human- centred process, understanding and specifying the product’s context, specifying the users’ requirements, producing the design and prototype, and carrying out a user evaluation. In an iterative way, step two to five are repeated until the final product is created, whereby always another approach is applied in the design step [65]. Figure 3.1 illustrates the five steps of the human-centred design process.

Figure 3.1: The human-centred design process from ISO 13407 [65]

In the following sections, the theoretical background of the diﬀerent applied design methods in the master’s thesis is described. The speciﬁc implementation of these approaches is presented in Chapter 4, and the feedback is summarized in Chapter 5.

36 3.2. Human-Centred Design

3.2.1 Personas Personas are caricatures of people from the target group of the product to be created, whereby each persona contains a name, personality and picture. The purpose of personas is to find out and understand the users’ needs, desires, motivations, behaviours and relationships with other people [65, 66]. However, personas base on facts and behavioural data, which are observed and collected during the research process. Furthermore, personas differ from stereotypes by not including the designers’ prejudice, instead they provide the possibility to understand how and why users behave and think [66]. According to Cooper et al. (2007), the best way to define personas is to create and design individuals with specific needs. The caricature, which represents the needs of a big part of the target group, is prioritized, wherefore their needs have to be fulfilled without any compromises. The product to be created is completely adjusted to these users’ needs, wishes and motivations. Therefore, this type of caricature is called primary persona. A secondary persona is similar to a primary persona, wherefore most of their needs and goals are fulfilled, when the requirements of the primary persona are satisfied. However, the secondary persona has also specific additional needs, which are not a priority for the primary persona. These needs can be implemented in the product to be created without clashing with the primary persona. However, the interface cannot be completely designed for the secondary persona, because then the primary persona would not be satisfied. In contrast to primary and secondary personas, non-personas represent nonusers including their needs and goals. Nonusers are people who do not use the product to be created [66]. Within the master’s thesis, a primary, secondary and non-persona was characterized in order to specify the main target group of Spox and to clarify the users’ requirements.

3.2.2 Scenarios Scenarios are realistic descriptions of non-realistic use cases, where users carry out tasks with the product to be created in a specific context. The purpose of scenarios is to help in understanding and clarifying different aspects of users’ needs and requirements. Additionally, scenarios intend to help identifying usability targets and the most important tasks of the product to be created. Designers are supposed to be engaged to consider different potential users, tasks and environments while creating scenarios in order to explore different aspects of the design and requirements [65]. On the one hand, scenarios can be created in an extreme positive scenario, where all tasks can be performed without any problems and the users are completely satisfied with the product. These scenarios are called best-case scenarios. On the other hand, scenarios can be also created in an extreme negative scenario, where all tasks of the product fail and the users feel completely angry and frustrated. These scenarios are called worst-case scenarios [66]. Within the master’s thesis, two different scenarios including a best- and worst-case scenario were created for extracting tasks, which potential users can perform with the

37 3. Methodology

prototype, and contexts, where users will use the product.

3.2.3 Prototyping

Prototypes are specific tangible representations of interactive systems, which support creativity, communication and early evaluation in a human-centred design process, for allowing users to experience the product to be created before its actual completion. The purpose of prototypes is to generate and express ideas, to reflect on them and to evolve these ideas into a working system. There exist several types of prototypes, which differ in their representation, precision, interactivity and evolution [67].

Oﬀ-line prototypes, or also called paper prototypes, are created with paper, pens, cards and post-it notes in order to sketch and draw quickly user interface elements, such as menus, buttons or icons [65, 67]. Oﬀ-line prototypes are usually used in early stages of the human-centred design process because of their low cost and fast creation. They help in exploring the design space easily and in considering alternatives of the design without constraining designers in their ideas and creativity. Because of their rapid production, designers do not become emotionally attached to them, wherefore this type of prototype can be easily thrown away after its usage [67].

In contrast to that, on-line prototypes, or also called software prototypes, are digital animations, videos, interactive systems and applications written in scripting languages, which are used on computers. This type of prototype is usually used in a later stage of the human-centred design process, because its production is more expensive and takes more time than of oﬀ-line prototypes [67].

Furthermore, prototypes differ in their precision of details. In early stages of the human- centred design process, low precise prototypes are used to save production costs and leave details open. While proceeding in the design process, prototypes become more precise in order to specify all interface elements in their size, position and content. Another characteristic of prototypes is interactivity, which gives users a look and feel in order to provide a first experience with the product to be created [67]. Rapid prototypes are created quickly for a short usage to throw them away after they have fulfilled their purpose, whereas iterative prototypes evolve during the human-centred design process and reflect the specification of the process [67].

In the master’s thesis, oﬀ-line prototypes in form of sketches and on-line prototypes in form of wireframes, mock-ups and an interactive system written in scripting languages are used to create an idea of the mobile social digital pet exergame. Furthermore, all applied prototyping methods belong to the category of rapid prototypes, whereby these methods were used to create some interactive and some non-interactive results. In the following sections, the diﬀerent types of prototypes applied in the thesis are described.

38 3.2. Human-Centred Design

Sketches Sketches are rapid prototypes, which are usually off-line, non-interactive and imprecise. They can be created on paper with pens and cards in a few minutes in order to help to draft, compare and combine design ideas and concepts in a rapid way but in low fidelity. The advantage of their low price in production makes sketches useful to draw and generate quickly first ideas, to expand the design space and consider design alternatives. Then in later stages of the design process, sketches are progressed into more detailed images, whereby they are mostly incomplete and imprecise [67]. Within the master’s thesis, two versions of off-line and non-interactive sketches were created for drafting and comparing rapidly design ideas.

Wireframes Wireframes are two-dimensional detailed sketches, which can be drawn on paper or with a painting tool on the computer and show a first interface of the final product. They are supposed to give a first feeling of the design and features of the product by using concrete interface elements integrated into a sketched or printed frame. Colours, fonts and pictures are not an issue in this prototyping method, instead navigation elements, structure of the page and the combination of different interface elements are of importance [68]. Within the master’s thesis, two versions of wireframes were created with the wireframing tool Balsamiq Mockups3 in order to get a first impression of the interface structure and design.

Mock-ups Mock-ups are two- or three-dimensional design representations of an idea, which are similar to the product to be created, but do not contain the whole functionality [67, 69]. They can be drawn on paper or transparencies, as well as with a painting tool on the computer by overlapping diﬀerent layers [67]. The purpose of mock-ups is to create a look and feel of the product to be created in order to help identifying potential problems and explore design alternatives by trying to avoid a waste of time and resources [69]. In mock- ups, the design of the product to be created, such as positions of buttons and screens, are important. To compare several ideas, designs and input and output options, diﬀerent mock-ups can be built, which helps to gain a deeper understanding of the interaction with the product in real-life situations [67]. Within the master’s thesis, two-dimensional on-line mock-ups of the interface of the mobile social digital pet exergame were created for determining the design, colours and graphics of the game.

Functional Prototype A functional prototype is a realistic and speciﬁc interface or interactive system, most often written in scripting languages, which contains the main functionality of the product to be created in order to prove or disprove a certain theory. The design may not have the

3https://balsamiq.com

39 3. Methodology

appearance as in the mock-ups, but the functional prototype is supposed to demonstrate that the selected technology works, wherefore its implementation and functionality are more important than the design [69]. This type of prototype belongs to on-line prototypes and is an advanced rapid prototyping tool in the sense of invested time and eﬀort. The usage of scripting languages makes the development of a functional prototype easy and quick, but still more expensive in the production than the other prototyping methods [67]. Within the master’s thesis, a functional prototype was implemented in the scripting language JavaScript in order to be able to test the main game ﬂow of the prototype including the interaction and navigation. Additionally, the functional prototype is supposed to convey a sense of the design and how it is to play the mobile social digital pet exergame.

3.3 User Study

During a user study, real people test a created prototype by performing specific tasks with it, which is observed and analysed by designers and researchers. The test persons are often people, who fit into the target group of the product to be created and represent therefore potential users [70]. Two types of data can be collected during a user test, process data and bottom-line data. Process data are observations of participants’ behaviours and thoughts to comprehend why test persons act in each task of the test like they do. In contrast to that, bottom-line data are test results, such as needed time to solve a task or the amount of made errors. This data is supposed to give information about what happened during the user study [70]. In the master’s thesis, mainly process data was collected in order to find out, how the concept of a mobile social digital pet exergame is appreciated by the test persons and how the interaction with the prototype is. In order to understand the relation between concept, interface elements and experiences in games and technology, bottom-line data was collected by measuring the needed time for solving each task. During the conducted user study in the master’s thesis, the methods of a screening questionnaire, think-aloud study and semi-structured interview were applied. In the following sections, the theoretical background of these three approaches is described in detail.

3.3.1 Screening Questionnaire Screening questionnaires are short preliminary surveys and interviews to ﬁnd out background information and interests of participants of a user study [71]. These questionnaires take place at the beginning of a user study to categorize the participants according to their results and eventually to exclude them in time from the user study, if they do not fulﬁl the given requirements [72].

40 3.3. User Study

The advantages of screening questionnaires are the low cost, the easy and quick analysis of data and the simple exclusion of not qualiﬁed participants [72]. Within the master’s thesis, a screening questionnaire was distributed to the ﬁve participants of the user study for collecting basic data about them, their smartphone usage and their sport habits.

3.3.2 Think-aloud Study A think-aloud study encourages participants to say their thoughts, impressions and feelings out loud while performing tasks, such as mathematical equations, reading comprehensions or testing a prototype [70, 71, 73]. The performing tasks are supposed to be demanding and at the same time adapted to the cognitive abilities of the test persons, so that there is a right balance between automatization in responding and overpowering in cognition [71]. In a think-aloud study, participants do not express their thoughts in complete and reasoned sentences, because they are formulated within the inner speech. Therefore, it is important for the observer to take notes during the think-aloud study to be able to comprehend the participants’ behaviours and approaches afterwards [71]. The observer acts silently and does not comment on anything, what the participants are doing in order to not distract and irritate them. But if the flow of words stops, the observer engages shortly the test persons to talk constantly. The purpose of this testing method is to find out, what the test persons think and try to do, and which questions arise during the tasks [70, 71, 73]. During the master’s thesis, five people participated the think-aloud study by completing five tasks with Spox.

3.3.3 Retrospective Semi-Structured Interview In a semi-structured interview, a researcher talks with people about their perceptions, experiences and thoughts about a specific topic. Based on a set of questions to ask, the conversation between interviewer and interviewee develops and can vary between different interviewees. The set of questions to ask represents more a recommendation than a strict rule, and has therefore not to be asked in a specific order. The purpose of a semi-structured interview is to find out, why people are behaving like they do [74]. Retrospective questioning takes often place after a think-aloud study in order to clarify and reflect the study’s results. This questioning is supposed to help to deepening the participants’ statements, feelings and approaches for understanding and comprehending them later [71]. Within the master’s thesis, eleven retrospective questions were asked in form of a semi- structured interview in order to discuss the impressions about the tested prototype and applied approaches of the participants in the user study. These eleven questions are listed below and are supposed to help getting a deeper understanding of the test persons’

41 3. Methodology

preferences and opinions about the exergame and suggestions of how the game can be improved.

• How did you like the game?

• How did you like the game concept?

• How did you like the graphics?

• How did you like the multiplayer aspect?

• What did you like the most and why?

• What did you not like and why?

• Which diﬃculties did you encounter during the game?

• How can the game be improved?

• Would you use the game in your daily life? Why?

• Would the game motivate you to do physical activity? Why?

• Would you use the game in collaboration with another person? Why?

42 CHAPTER 4 Implementation

During the master’s thesis, a human-centred design process was applied in order to create a prototype, which focuses on the users’ needs and preferences. At the beginning, information and data were collected within a comprehensive literature review to determine the needs of the users’, which represent the design requirements. Subsequently, this information was transformed into sketches to gain a ﬁrst impression, of how the interface of the prototype might look, and if the users’ needs are realized satisfactorily. Afterwards, personas and scenarios were created for determining the target group and standard use cases of the game. Based on that, wireframes and mock-ups were developed. Thus, after each applied method was performed, user-feedback was gathered in order to include the users already at the beginning of the design process. This early involvment of users in the design process is supposed to adapt the game to the users’ needs and preferences and to improve the design and features of the game. Based on the ﬁnal mock-ups, the prototype was implemented [75]. In the following sections, the entire design process is described in detail, followed by a description of the prototype implementation.

4.1 Design Process

According to Cooper et al. (2007), design is the understanding of users’ needs, desires and motivations for a product, as well as the understanding of requirements, opportunities and constraints of a product. The knowledge about these factors builds the foundation for the design process. The design process is a series of methods, which are repeatedly applied by designers and engineers in order to launch a product, which meets the users’ needs and requirements [66]. The design process shows the development from a concept to ﬁnal mock-ups. During this process, various human-centred methods were applied in order to ﬁnd a well usable and appealing design for the prototype.

43 4. Implementation

4.1.1 Design Requirements Design requirements are supposed to restrict the amount of design possibilities in order to meet the users’ emotional and personal needs and desires, as well as the technological opportunities and constraints [66]. Based on the literature review, five design requirements were set, which are important for the exergame prototype in order to enhance the usability and user experience. The first design requirement for the prototype is the usage of the game-first design approach, whereby the game is in focus and the exercise incidental. This approach is better in the context of motivation than the exercise-first, because it has less problems with lack of entertainment, gameplay and long-term enhancement. Additionally, removing time-limited factors of exercises in the game are supposed to prevent an incorrectly performance and inadequate improvement of the health state. The second design requirement for the prototype is a digital pet as a users’ representation, because digital animals are more engaging for people to physical activity than representations of their actual self. For owners of real pets, it is often more important that their animal is happy and healthy than themselves. The close relationship between an owner and real pet is built through nurturing and looking after the animal, and has positive effects on the owner’s life and physical activity. This close relationship can be also found between an owner and digital pet. Therefore, users of the prototype will be more likely to engage themselves to sports by owning a digital pet than seeing a digital representation of themselves. In this context, a combination of an affective, analytic and social model of behavioural science theory has to be applied in order to show the users’ progress by the health state of the digital pet and achieve a higher encouragement to sports. In particular, the affective model is important to implement, because it is more depicting than the social and analytic model. The reason for that is that the affective model mirrors the users’ progress by an avatar’s progress instead of providing training statistics [35, 36]. A detailed description of these three models can be found in the section Different Types of Exergames. The third design requirement for the prototype is that the exergame has to be for mobile because of the amount of possibilities of smartphones as they are not bound to a location. Examples, like Speeding or Diamond Hunter mentioned in the section Multiplayer Exergames, are constrained by their settings, because televisions or projectable walls have to be used as screens. Therefore, it is not possible to use the games everywhere and anytime. But, by making it feasible to use the exergame on mobile devices, the game can be played everywhere and anytime. Furthermore, the game will be accessible for a wide range of people, including people, who are able to afford a smartphone, because it is more cost-effective to use an already possessing smartphone than an external device. The fourth design requirement are sufficient immediate rewards and feedback, so that the exergame does not have to face the problem of lack of short-term motivation, as it is, e.g., in Walk2Build, mentioned in the section Mobile Exergames. The fifth and last design requirement for the prototype is a multiplayer mode, because

44 4.1. Design Process social interaction is one of the most motivating factors to physical activity [12, 39]. Ex- amples, like Legendary Crystal or LocoSnake mentioned in the section Mobile Exergames, have shown that the gameplay would have been aﬀected positively by the addition of a multiplayer mode in order to achieve more entertainment. Nonetheless, the exergame has to support a single player mode as well allowing people to play the game alone and anytime. Otherwise, players are dependent on other people, like friends or family members, who have time and the will to play and do sports simultaneously with them. The support of both single player and multiplayer mode is supposed to prevent this problem of dependency on other people.

Figure 4.1: Sketches of the first concept for the prototype. Left: main game view, which displays a living room of the pet’s home. Right: fighting mode, where the player’s pet can fight against other players’ pets.

4.1.2 Sketches After determining the five design requirements, sketches were drawn in order to get a first idea of how those requirements can be implemented and how the interface of the prototype of a mobile social digital pet exergame may look like. The first game concept was a fitness application in combination with a digital pet, which is able to fight against other pets. The sketches were reviewed by one male potential user and then transformed into wireframes. Then, two other male reviewers gave feedback to the wireframes. The fighting mode confused one reviewer of the wireframes due to uncertainty, what would happen, if the digital pet loses the fight. Furthermore, the application was supposed to display tracked data, such as pace, speed and calorie consumption, in order to inform users about their training progress. But the design of detailed information fitted better in the exercise-first design approach, which contradicts with the first design requirement to use the game-first design approach. Therefore, the concept was adopted by removing the fighting mode and the detailed tracking statistics in order to achieve a game-first application. The fighting mode was replaced by a collaborative approach,

45 4. Implementation

where users have to team up for receiving bonuses. These bonuses help users to build faster a gym for their pet, as if they would play alone. New sketches were drawn of the second version of game concept. After characterizing personas and scenarios to specify the typical user and use case of the exergame, these sketches were transformed into wireframes.

In Figure 4.1, a sketch of the main game screen and the ﬁghting mode of version one can be seen. The gym mode of the second version of sketches is shown in Figure 4.2. In the Sketches Appendix section, all sketches of the concept version one and two can be found.

Figure 4.2: Sketches of the second concept for the prototype. Left: gym mode with locked rooms. Users have to do activities in order to gain goods, which are missing for buying rooms in the gym. Right: gym mode unlocked, where users can place ﬁtness equipment in the diﬀerent rooms.

4.1.3 Personas

After creating the second sketch version, the ﬁnal idea of the design for the prototype was born. Therefore, a typical user was speciﬁed to represent the target group of the digital pet exergame. Personas are important for understanding and visualizing the users’ needs, desires, motivations, behaviours and relationships with other people in order to design a product, which is adapted to those personal requirements [66, 67].

In the following section, a primary, secondary and non-persona are characterized. A detail description of those three method types, can be found in the section Personas.

46 4.1. Design Process

Primary Persona

Name: Jane Tender

Age: 30

Gender: Female

Residence: A 65m2 big apartment in Dover, United Kingdom, Europe

Civil Status: In a relationship with Paul (36) for 4 years, no children Figure 4.3: A picture of Jane Tender, the primary persona [76]

Education & Occupation After her business study of economics at the University of London, Jane started to work as an accountant in a mid-sized company in Dover. She is ﬁne with the job, but would have imagined to work in a more engaging company, where she can fulﬁl herself and her dreams. She wanted to become a product manager in a big company in London and to work with something, what she likes and is fun, with nice colleagues and a good working atmosphere. But based on her mediocre grade point average, she did not have so many possibilities to choose her job.

Personality Jane is a caring, but not-social person. She likes to be whether alone or with her boyfriend Paul, who has his own bookshop in Dover. He was also one of the main reasons, why she moved to Dover and took the job oﬀer for her current work. Although she lives in a small city, she takes the car for every kind of distance, because she is too lazy to walk and does not like bicycling at all. Her boyfriend Paul always tells her to leave the car at home at least once or twice a week, but she does not listen to him. In her opinion, it is more comfortable to take the car, because she does not want to get wet, if it is raining, and it is really raining a lot in England. For her, the right motivation for doing sports is missing, but she has no clue what can help. Paul suggested that she could have a dog, which she has to take out for a walk. But on the one hand, they do not have the money and space to aﬀord a real dog, and on the other hand, Jane does not want to go out every day because of the weather.

Hobbies Jane’s hobbies are watching movies and series either at home or in the cinema and to read books, because this is the only way, where she can escape and relax from the daily life and its problems. Furthermore, it also brings some excitement to her dull and boring life, where every day has the same routine as the one before.

47 4. Implementation

Also baking and cooking and subsequently eating rank among her favourite hobbies. Therefore, it is even more important to get sufficient exercise in order to not come down with diabetes or other serious illnesses, which can be consequences of insufficient physical activity and a surplus of calories per day. However, sport is absolutely not a hobby of Janes, because she thinks it is boring and exhausting, and finds always excuses to be not able to do exercises.

Technology experiences Jane knows, how to use a computer, because she needs it for almost all situations and tasks at work. Additionally, she owns a laptop, with which she, e.g., watches movies and series at home. She possesses a smartphone as well and knows how to operate it, but she uses it mainly only for calls and text messages. Other widely used apps on her smartphone are an eBook reader and some games, where she, e.g., has to coordinate the service in a restaurant.

Citations “I need something, which motivates and engages me to do sports in a fun way, where I do not necessarily have to be outside and where I do not recognise prima facie that exercise has priority.” “I know, how to use a smartphone, and I have a certain basic knowledge and understanding about game mechanics, so the interaction with the system can be a little bit more advanced. The system does not need to explain and clarify every single button.”

Secondary Persona

Name: Mark Balberg

Age: 38

Gender: Male

Residence: A small house in Stockholm, Sweden, Europe

Civil Status: Married to Sophia (35) for 8 years, 2 children: David and Julia in the age of 3 and 5

Figure 4.4: A picture of Mark Balberg, the secondary persona [77]

48 4.1. Design Process

Education & Occupation After Mark ﬁnished his gymnasium in Stockholm, he started to work immediately in a big company in order to earn a lot of money, because he grew up in poor conditions. His parents had to work all day and never had time for him. Therefore, he had sworn to himself, that he would never want such a life for himself and for his wife and children. In a relatively short time period, he climbed quickly the career ladder in the company, he is working, and became the head of the advertising department. He absolutely loves his job and that he can organize his meetings and working hours as he wants to, wherefore he can spend enough time with his family. But in the last half year, the company had some internal problems and was close to bankruptcy, wherefore Mark had to work overtime a lot and spent all his little remaining free time on his children. Therefore, the time for himself, like doing sports and meeting his friends, came oﬀ badly.

Personality Mark is an active and extroverted person, who loves to be surrounded by people. He tries to do everything for his wife and two children, so that they can enjoy life as much as possible. Although he likes nature and sport, he had no time to do physical activity in the last few months because of stress at work and other more meaningful things. Since he cares a lot about his family, their well-being is more important than his own health state, wherefore he neglected doing sports in the last time. But now the time has come, where he wants to change that, but the right incentive for starting a workout plan is missing at the moment. His wife Sophia suggested to go to the gym, but Mark would prefer to exercise with his friends, because he did not spend more than five hours with them in the last time. Additionally, he would prefer to do something on his own, where he can simply switch off, let his thoughts run free and enjoy relaxing from the daily stress and its problems. For this purpose, a fitness centre is too crowded for him.

Hobbies Mark’s hobbies are playing around with his children, meeting his friends for a drink and playing the guitar. In general, he is always surrounded by people, which is on the one hand good, because he likes it, but on the other hand, he is also missing a little bit of time for just himself, where he can think and reﬂect about everything in silence.

Technology experiences Mark is technically adept and knows, how to use almost every single device, because he needs to have this skill at his work in the advertising department. He has a laptop for his own purposes, a personal computer and a tablet at home, where also his children are allowed to play around with them. For him, it is important that his children learn how to use technological devices as soon as possible, because technology is the future of everything.

49 4. Implementation

Mark also possesses a smartphone, which is a ﬁxed component in his daily life, because he uses it to coordinate his days and also to stay in contact with all people. Furthermore, he has installed a few games in order to have a diversion, while driving home from work.

Citations “I need something, which lets me take time for myself in silence and engages me to do sports – something, what I care about.” “An additional beneﬁt would be, if I could also stay in contact with my friends, but can decide, when and if a communication takes place.”

Non-persona

Name: Jennifer Gothan

Age: 21

Gender: Female

Residence: A 57m2 apartment in Vienna, Austria, Europe

Civil Status: Single, no children

Figure 4.5: A picture of Jennifer Gothan, the non-persona [78]

Education & Occupation After Jennifer quitted school, when she was 16 years old, she started an apprenticeship as a seller for a fashion store. Since then, she has worked continuously at the same store and likes it very much. She is happy with her tasks, her working hours and the whole working atmosphere and could not imagine to work somewhere else. The working hours can be connected with her lifestyle and hobbies very well, because she has to work only four days a week and the other three days are free and available for adventures. Sometimes she even works two weeks in a row in order to have vacation the other half of the month.

Personality Jennifer lives and enjoys her life to the fullest, wherefore she travels a lot in order to see as many places of the world as possible. However, family and friends are also important for her, because she is a caring and loving person. That is the reason, why she never stays longer away than three weeks, and of course her job is a boundary for long holidays as well.

50 4.1. Design Process

She is very social, which is kind of necessary in her profession to be able to sell a lot of products, which in turn beneﬁts her bank account, because she receives commission for every sold item.

Hobbies Sport, sport, sport. Everything revolves around sports in Jennifer’s life. Before and after her job, Jennifer goes to the gym for a workout or goes jogging in the huge nature area next to her apartment – sometimes alone and sometimes with friends. Besides that, she likes to travel the world, go to parties and meet and visit her friends. Since she tours a lot around, Jennifer has friends in many countries all over the world, where she is always welcomed and can stay for some days.

Technology experiences Jennifer does not have any technology experience, because she was never interested into it. She is glad that she knows, how to do basic tasks on her computer, like surﬁng the Web, writing emails and documents. Furthermore, she does not own a smartphone, because in her opinion, it is not so important to have one and she would not know, what she should do with it. She prefers the old fashioned way by calling people and writing text messages with her old mobile phone.

Citations “I love sports! There is nothing better than a workout after a stressful day or a relaxing run in the morning.” “I don’t have a smartphone and never dealt with it. I don’t see a purpose in having it. It is just expensive and makes people loosening the attention to their real life.”

4.1.4 Scenarios In order to achieve a complete understanding of users’ needs and requirements for the prototype, two typically use cases were created. In the following sections, these two scenarios including a best and worst case iteration can be found. In Figure 4.6 and 4.7, a depiction of the two scenarios are shown in their best case iteration.

Scenario 1 It is Wednesday evening, girls’ night, and Jane Tender, a 30-year-old accountant, living with her boyfriend Paul in Dover, United Kingdom, is meeting her friend Caroline in their usual gathering place, the beach café Peer-Pub, in order to gossip about their works and partners. Although Dover is a small city, Jane takes the car for every single distance, because she is too lazy to walk and does not want to be outdoors, if it is bad weather. And in the

51 4. Implementation

UK, it is quite often rainy and windy. So it also happened this time, that she took the car to the café, although it is just a ten-minute walk from her home. Her boyfriend Paul always tells her, that she should leave the car at home at least once or twice a week and do some physical activity, but she ignores what he is saying. He even suggested that she could have a dog, which she has to take out for a walk every day. But unfortunately, they do not have the money to afford the pet. In the moment, Caroline enters the café, she sees that Jane arrives with her car once again. She is furious, because Jane should actually do more physical activity in order to avoid suffering from serious illnesses. After some time, she addresses this topic, but Jane does not want to hear anything of it. In the minute, Caroline remembers that a working colleague has recommended her a new app, called Spox, which is fun to play and engaging to do sports, she tells Jane about it. However, Caroline is not sure, if her friend would be convinced of the idea or would find again another excuse for not doing physical activity. Though, something has suddenly changed. Jane is eager to try it out immediately, because she was looking for such an extraordinary incentive for a while, but never found the right approach.

Best Case Iteration Jane downloads the application, while she and her friend Caroline are saying goodbye to each other. Even before, they have left the café, the game is installed on her smartphone. “Everything went so easy, just pressing the download-button and the app installed itself without any problems”, she thinks. She clicks on the icon of Spox on the desktop of her smartphone and the game opens immediately. An interface is shown, where she can create her pet. Jane goes through the selectable animals and likes them a lot, because they are looking so cute. She fills in the name of the pet and picks its gender, before she chooses a penguin as her character. In no time after clicking on the “Create Pet”-button, an introduction and tutorial movie starts, which explains the most important functions of the game and the story of the animal. Jane is enamoured by her hatching penguin from the first sight. But the animal is sad, when it arrives at home, because Jane has not done any sport yet. She does not want it to be sad. It makes her feel bad, as she would not have cared and looked after it enough, although she just owns it since two minutes. So, she resolves that she will start an activity in the game by walking home in order to make her penguin happy. By pressing the “Start Activity”-button, the tracking mode is displayed, where she can choose an exercise, she wants to execute now. After swiping several times to the left, Jane has found the activity “Walking” and presses the “Start”-button. The numbers in the time and distance display start slowly to increment. Jane thinks that it actually does not feel so bad to walk a little bit. It has been a while since she strolled around. Suddenly, she meets her neighbour Steven. She neither wants the game to continue tracking nor to stop completely the tracking, because she is not home yet, so she presses the “Pause”-button. Everything works so smooth without delay. The time and distance display has stopped icrementing. She is satisfied that she can talk with him without rushing.

52 4.1. Design Process

After Jane has finished the conversation with her neighbour, she restarts the tracking by pressing the “Start”-button, and continues walking. Back home, she stops the tracking by clicking on the “Stop”-button, and reads on the screen that she has received five blocks of ice and four steel beams for her performed activity. These goods can be later spent on the pet’s gym. Jane has not looked at this specific mode yet, but she is very curious about what she can do in the penguin’s fitness centre and which items she can buy with her collected commodities. By clicking on the door in her pet’s living room, she is forwarded to the gym mode. It occurs to her directly that her collected goods are displayed in the indicator under the title. In the next step, Jane wants to buy a room, but she does not have enough goods to buy it. Therefore, she decides to leave the apartment and walk around in order to gain more goods. Back home, she receives again commodities, namely five steel beams and two logs. Jane is a little bit upset, that she still does not have enough goods to buy the room, but then she remembers that there is the friends’ mode. “Maybe this will help me to gain more goods”, she thinks. Therefore, she clicks on the telephone in her pet’s living room, and names of other players are shown immediately. She recognizes that the first field is supposed to list her friends, but since she has not connected with Facebook, no one is displayed there. In the second field, names of other players, strangers, are shown. By clicking on the “Team up”-button, she connects with one person, who is already in level 6. Jane is curious, what will happen now. “At the moment nothing has changed”, she thinks, “but maybe if I will return to the gym mode, then something is different”. Before she changes to the mode, she invites her boyfriend Paul to the game by clicking on the “Invite friends”-button and entering his email address, because she assumes that this could be of interest for him as well. Jane goes back to the main view of the game, the living room, and presses on the door in order to be forwarded to the gym mode. In no time, the pet’s fitness centre is displayed. “Something has changed”, she thinks, because suddenly one room is unlocked and even an exercise bike is already placed in it. She is happy, because now she can also purchase an item and place it in this room. By clicking on the trolley icon, she is forwarded to the store, where she can choose between three already unlocked items. However, for purchasing one item, Jane needs to have a certain amount of specific goods in order to be able to buy a product. Fortunately, she has collected enough goods for purchasing a ball court, whereby she presses the “Buy”-Button. The gym view appears. At the position, where the goods are usually displayed, an information field is shown. It says that Jane is supposed to place the item anywhere in a room, she wants to. Therefore, she taps on one position in the unlocked room and the ball court appears directly at this position. The customer satisfaction bar increases its status to 100%. Jane is very delighted about the game and loves it, because her pet and the customers of her penguin’s gym are happy, and she has done physical activity without noticing it. Not until reflecting her actions, she realizes that she has done some kind of sport in the last hour of which she is very proud. The next day, Jane checks on the game, how her penguin’s frame of mind is, and it is

53 4. Implementation

getting bad again. She thinks, this is not good, wherefore she should maybe leave the car at home and start a new activity in the game in order to make her pet happy. Instead of taking the car, she wants to take her old bicycle, which she has not used for ages. The ﬁrst and last time, when she used it, was, when she bought it with her boyfriend Paul, because he wanted to cycle around with her.

Worst Case Iteration

Jane downloads the application, while she and her friend Caroline are saying goodbye to each other. Not until she reaches her car, the game is installed on her smartphone. “That took a long time to download the app. Hopefully, it also does not take so much time to open it.”, she thinks. Because of curiosity, Jane wants to open the game, but the ﬁrst two trials are failing. She is irritated and already does not like the app at all, wherefore she gives up trying to open the game and gets into her car in order to drive home.

At home, she tells her boyfriend Paul about this weird application, which her friend recommended her, but cannot be opened. He suggests to reinstall the game and try it again. Jane acts on his advice and suddenly it works after the reinstalling, but takes again some time to even load the ﬁrst view. An interface is shown, where she can create her pet. Jane goes through the selectable animals and thinks, that they are looking childish and unprofessional. She ﬁlls in the name of her pet and picks its gender, before she chooses a penguin as her character. After clicking on the “Create Pet”-button, an introduction and tutorial movie starts, but crashes after 30 seconds, so that she has to press the “Skip”-button in order to be forwarded to the next view. A bird in the middle of a living room is displayed, instead of a penguin, she actually has chosen. She is again irritated and frustrated, because the app did not save her choice and took instead just a random animal. Anyway, Jane wants to give the game a chance and to try at least some functions. The bird is sad, because she has not done any sport yet. But since she was not able to watch the introduction movie, she does not know, why the pet is in this mood, and she also does not care about that.

Jane presses the “Start Activity”-button, but nothing happens. She is not sure, if the activity has already started, or if the button just did not work. That is why, she presses it another time, but still no reaction of the game. She gives up trying to start an activity and continues her gameplay by tipping on the backpack. Again nothing changes in the app, which frustrates Jane even more.

Finally, by pressing on the door, another view is shown, whereby she does not know, what it shall represent. It says, it is the pet’s gym, but she does not see any exercise equipment. Furthermore, all buttons are disabled and the inventory levels are all on zero, wherefore she cannot do anything and also does not know, how to change that. Jane is so frustrated and annoyed about the bad game, that she quits and uninstalls it. She will never try out a recommendation of her friend Caroline again, because it was the worst thing, she has done recently, and just a waste of time.

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Figure 4.6: Scenario 1: Jane using Spox while walking home

Scenario 2

On Sunday afternoon, Mark Balberg, head of the advertising department in a big company and a 38-year-old, busy family man, and his two children meet their friend David with his three kids in the park in order to spend some time together. The wives of both men have their day oﬀ today, wherefore the fathers are responsible for the children’s entertainment.

David and his family are already sitting in the grass, when Mark and his two kids are arriving. Mark gives the children a football, which he took with him from home, so that they are busy for some time, while he can talk with his friend. Then he sits down to the side of David and they start chatting. After a while, Mark complains about his busy life and that he does not have any time anymore to do sports, although he would love to. His work occupies so much time of his life at the moment, that he spends the remaining hours with his children, because he cares so much about them. For that reason, Mark neglects his own needs. Suddenly, David realises that Spox is the best app for his friend, because the care about his/her own virtual pet causes the owner to do sport. Additionally, he was also looking for a friend for a while, he could team up with. He recommends the game to his friend and Mark is directly enthusiastic and wants to try it out immediately.

Best Case Iteration

Mark downloads the game from the app store, and within ﬁve seconds, it is possible to open it. An interface is shown, where he can choose an animal, name it and pick its gender. After completing these three steps, he connects with Facebook, in order to be linked with his friends, who are already playing the game. Then, he presses the “Create Pet”-Button, whereupon the introduction and tutorial movie starts immediately. Mark is delighted about the interface design, the fast response time of the app and the movie, because now he knows, how to use the app and what the main functions are. When the

55 4. Implementation

film is finished, the game forwards him to the main view of the app, the living room of his pet. David tells his friend, that he should team up with him in the friends’ mode, whereupon Mark tips on the telephone. The view changes immediately and two fields are visible. The first one displays David’s pet in level 5, which is good at collecting berries and wood. The second field lists other users, who are unknown to him. Mark presses the “Team up”-button, next to his friend’s pet. Subsequently, David receives a notification on his smartphone, that Mark wants to be in a team with him. He accepts the request, whereupon both are connected with each other. Afterwards, David tells Mark that they have to start an activity now, in order to gain goods, which they can use for purchasing rooms and exercise equipment. For that reason, they want to join their children while playing football. Before that, by clicking on the “Start Activity”-button on each of their own smartphones, they are forwarded to the tracking mode, where they can choose the type of sport, they want to perform. After swiping several times to the left, they choose “Football” and press the “Start”-button at the same time. One and a half hours later, both families are exhausted and ready for a pause. For that reason, David and Mark press the “Stop”-Button in order to complete their tracking. On both devices, the pets say, how many goods they have received during the activity, and because the owners did the same sport simultaneously, they receive the double amount of commodities. Mark and David are very happy about that and decide to do sport from now on always together in order to progress faster in the game. Mark wants to try out the other functions as well, wherefore he taps on the door. In no time, he is forwarded to the gym’s mode, where the shared room between him and his friend is now unlocked. He wants to purchase an item, so that the customer satisfaction of the gym will increase. For this purpose, he clicks on the trolley icon, because he assumes, that this will signify the store. He was right. Immediately, the shop is displayed with all items, which are purchasable or can be unlocked in higher levels. Mark is unfortunately not able to buy something, because he does not have enough goods. Therefore, he taps on the backpack icon by supposing that this will forward him to his inventory. And he was right again. He thinks that the icons are very understandable. In the backpack mode, all possible goods plus their amount in Mark’s inventory are listed. There is also a “Trade”-button, which Mark wants to test out in order to receive more glass panels for being able to buy an exercise bike. When he presses the “Trade”-button next to the glass panel’s entry, a trading dialogue opens. Mark can choose between two options, either sending a friend request to David or trading the good in a 2:1 ratio. He decides for the friend request and tells David that he should accept it. Thereupon, his friend accepts the request directly in the notification dialogue of his smartphone and on Mark’s screen the requested amount of glass panels appear. He is delighted that this process worked so smooth without any complications, wherefore he is able to buy the exercise bike. He returns to the store and presses the “Buy”-button in the bike entry. Subsequently, the gym appears and instead of the commodities display, an information field states, that he is supposed to place the bike anywhere he wants to in an unlocked

56 4.1. Design Process room. He taps on one position in the shared area, and the item appears there immediately. Consequently, the costumer satisfaction of the gym increases. Mark is surprised, how well the game works, and is engaged to keep on playing it.

Worst Case Iteration Mark downloads the game from the app store, and within two minutes, it is possible to open it. “Such a long waiting time! Hopefully, the long waiting time does not occur again during the gameplay, and David recommended me something good”, he thinks. Then, finally, the first view of the game appears, where he can choose an animal, name it and pick its gender. After completing these three steps, he connects with Facebook in order to be linked with his friends, who are already playing the game. Then, he presses the “Create Pet”-Button, whereupon the introduction and tutorial movie starts with a delay. Mark is already frustrated about the interface design, the long response time of the app and the movie, which is completely unnecessary and childish. Therefore, he presses the “Skip”-button to continue with the game. He is forwarded to the main view of the app, the living room of his pet. David tells his friend, that he should team up with him in the friends’ mode, whereupon Mark taps on the telephone. The view changes slowly and gets stuck suddenly in the middle of the switch between both views, so that some items from the last view are seen, and some from the new one. Mark is irritated about that and does not want to play it anymore. But David convinces him to try it again by closing and restarting the game, because it has never done this before, when he played. So it is that Mark acts on his friend’s advice and restarts the application. After waiting again two minutes, he can finally change to the friends’ mode, but unfortunately the game cannot find any of Mark’s Facebook friends, including David. Thereupon, Mark skips teaming up with someone and wants to start at least an activity, because he wants to play football with his children now. He clicks on the “Start Activity”-button on his smartphone and is forwarded to the tracking mode, where he can choose the type of sport, he wants to perform. After swiping several times to the left, he chooses “Football” and presses the “Start”-button. One and a half hours later, both families are exhausted and ready for a pause. For that reason, Mark presses the “Stop”-Button in order to complete his tracking. But instead of receiving a success message, the app returns to the living room view and displays nothing. “Something went wrong!”, David says, “Usually, you should receive goods after completing an activity”. Mark is really furious, because the application is not even able to perform its main function correctly and accurately. He does not like the game and think that it is poorly developed. However, he is curious, if the last function of Spox also does not work. Therefore, he taps on the door. After one minute and frustrated waiting, he is forwarded to the gym’s mode. There, he wants to interact with the system, e.g., to purchase an item or a room, but since he has not gained any goods, he is not allowed to do that. So basically, a static view is displayed. Mark is so annoyed that he quits the game and uninstalls it immediately. He tells his friend David, that he should never recommend him a game again.

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Figure 4.7: Scenario 2: Mark and his friend David using Spox simultaneously while playing football

Summary Both scenarios show possible use cases and potential in the design of the final exergame. It was revealed that reliability, accessibility and a smooth change between the different views of the game are important to provide a good usability and to enhance the gameplay. Special focus has to be put on the pet’s gym, because this mode represents a crucial part of the exergame. The purpose of gaining goods while tracking activities is to spend it on rooms and fitness equipment in the pet’s gym. Therefore, specific rules and a detailed game structure have to be established. Furthermore, it has to be ensured that the graphics of the game do not look childish in order to address adults as the main target-group. The narrow borderline between cuteness and childishness must not be exceeded.

4.1.5 Wireframes The next step in the design process was the creation of dynamical and low ﬁdelity two-dimensional wireframes in order to precise the features and the layout of the idea of a mobile social digital pet exergame. Wireframes help to specify functions and to develop how various interface elements from sketches can be combined without going into excessive detail. For building the wireframes for this master’s thesis, the tool balsamiq1 was used, because it provides already standard interface elements, which facilitate an easy and rapid creation

1https://balsamiq.com

58 4.1. Design Process

of wireframes. The usage of already existing elements enables a time-saving and cost- effective way to build wireframes in order to be able to change easily and fast the design after a reviewing process. To provide a good work flow of the idea, the wireframes were clickable for forwarding reviewers to other views of the game. The clickability was supposed to support the feeling of using the game in real life. In Figure 4.8, three examples of the first version of created wireframes can be seen. The fighting view was completely removed in the second version of the concept because of incomprehension of this view. Additionally, the displayed detailed tracking information was also removed, because it contradicts with the game-first design approach. The main game view changed slightly in order to simplify the interface and interaction with the game. The concrete reasons for changing the game concept are listed in section Review Wireframes. One reason, for example, was that the game appeared to be a combination of a fitness application and a digital pet without having a smooth conflation of them.

Figure 4.8: Three wireframes of the first idea of the mobile social digital pet exergame. Left: main game view. Centre: tracking view, where users can choose a particular sport type to start a tracking. Right: fighting view, where the own digital pet can fight against another user’s pet.

In contrast to Figure 4.8, Figure 4.9 depicts three examples of the created wireframes of version two. The ﬁrst wireframe shows the main game view, the second the tracking view, where users are able to choose a speciﬁc sport type for starting an activity, and the third displays the gym view after the users has completed successfully several activities.

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Figure 4.9: Three wireframes of the ﬁnal idea of the mobile social digital pet exergame. Left: main game view, which displays the living room of the pet. Centre: tracking view, where users can choose a particular sport type to start a tracking. Right: gym view unlocked, where users can place ﬁtness equipment and have to increase the customer satisfaction of the pet’s gym.

All wireframes of version one and two can be found in the Wireframes Appendix section and were reviewed by three different people for each version in order to involve users directly in the design process. In general, all six reviewers understood the concept of the game, although there arouse some misinterpretations and difficulties while reviewing version 1, e.g. losing in the fighting mode. Detailed information about the feedback can be found in the section Review Wireframes.

4.1.6 Mock-ups

Based on the reviewers’ feedback to version two of wireframes, two-dimensional high- ﬁdelity mock-ups were created in order to achieve a look and feel for reviewers. Mock-ups build upon wireframes and expand the interface by colours and graphics for achieving a deep understanding of the interaction with the system in real-life situations [67].

The mock-ups of the mobile social digital pet exergame were created with the software

60 4.1. Design Process

Adobe Photoshop CC 20152 and Adobe Illustrator CC 20153, because templates for real smartphones exist for Adobe Photoshop, which simplifies the generation of mock-ups, and vector graphics can be created easily in Adobe Illustrator. All used graphics in the mock-ups were created by myself. A dynamical application of the mock-ups was not implemented, because the interaction with the game was already tested with the dynamical wireframes. The mock-ups of the prototype were supposed to concretize the final idea and to help to find out, if the reviewers understand the idea and like the interface, graphics and colours.

In Figure 4.10, three examples of the created mock-ups can be found. The first mock-up shows the main game view, where a pet is depicted, reflecting the users’ sport behaviour. The second mock-up displays the tracking view, where users can choose a specific sport type for starting an activity. The third mock-up shows the gym view, where users can place fitness equipment in already unlocked rooms for increasing the customer satisfaction of the pet’s gym. In the Mock-ups Appendix section, further mock-ups can be found.

Figure 4.10: Three mock-ups of the mobile social digital pet exergame. Left: main game view, which displays the living room of the pet. Centre: tracking view, where users can choose a speciﬁc sport type to start an activity. Right: gym view, where users can place ﬁtness equipment in already unlocked rooms.

2http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop.html 3http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/illustrator.html

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As in the case with the wireframes, the mock-ups were reviewed as well by three other people in order to involve users directly in the design process of the prototype. This approach is supposed to adapt the design and interaction of the prototype to the users’ needs, desires and requirements. Based on the reviewers’ feedback, the design of the prototype was improved, ideas were taken into account for the concept of the ﬁnal game, and requirements and schedule for the user study of the prototype were determined. For example, the reviews showed that a provision of a detailed instruction for the test persons has to be ensured in the user study to point out the goals and main features of the exergame. However, the concept was well received and understood by all three reviewers, and few misinterpretations occured. Detailed information regarding the feedback to the mock-ups can be found in section Review Mock-ups.

4.2 Functional Prototype

After completing the design process, a functional prototype of the mobile social digital pet exergame, called Spox, was implemented. A prototype is a precise representation of a concept, including the interaction, and is supposed to help reflecting upon the final system. There exist various types of prototypes, such as off-line and on-line prototypes, in specific levels of detail for serving different purposes [67]. In this master’s thesis, an on-line or also called software prototype in high-fidelity was implemented for a usage on smartphones. The design and interaction of the prototype was developed within an iterative process by including the received feedback from reviewers for the previously created sketches, wireframes and mock-ups.

In the following sections, the game concept, used technologies and the architecture of the prototype, as well as the interaction with the prototype are described in detail.

4.2.1 Game Concept

The idea of Spox is to motivate nonathletic people to physical activity by using a playful approach. Players are supposed to raise an own created virtual pet, which hatches out of its egg in the beginning and grows up over time. Additionally, the digital pet becomes an owner of a gym, which can be expanded by buying ﬁtness equipment for it. The main goal of Spox is to own a happy and healthy grown-up virtual pet and to establish the biggst and most successful gym in the game.

The health state and mood of the pet are depending on the users’ sport behaviour. By completing physical activity in real life, players make their pets happy and healthy. However, if users do not exercise regularly, the pets will die after some time, because a timer decreases the health state and mood of the pet constantly. Furthermore, by doing sports, players collect virtual goods in the game, with which they can build up a virtual gym with the pet as an owner. Through levelling up and collecting these virtual goods, rooms and ﬁtness equipment for the gym can be unlocked and bought. The bigger the

62 4.2. Functional Prototype gym is and the more ﬁtness equipment players possess, the more customers will come to the gym, as well as the customers’ satisfaction will increase.

By connecting and working together with a friend, users are able to proceed faster in the game, as if they would play alone. The reason for this beneﬁt is, that if two teamed up players do the same sport type simultaneously, they receive the double amount of goods as if they would exercise alone. Additionally, they are able to trade goods at a ratio of 1 to 1 among themselves. Otherwise the trade is always at a ratio of 2 to 1.

By providing well-defined goals, challenges and immediate and unambiguous feedback, users are supposed to receive the flow state while using Spox. A deep and concentrated but effortless involvement, a sense of personal control and a loss of self-consciousness of users are aimed by the game. Further information about the flow state can be found in section The Flow Theory.

4.2.2 Used Technologies The mobile social digital pet exergame, Spox, was implemented as a single-page application by using the web technologies Hypertext Markup Language 5 (HTML5), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript (JS). A single-page application is a web application running on browsers, where parts of the HTML document are reloaded while using the application instead of a reload of the whole page. The advantages of a single-page application are a fast response and loading time and fewer data consumption [79]. To simplify the process of creating a single-page application, the open-source framework AngularJS4 was used to facilitate data binding. Additionally, the open-source HTML5 hybrid mobile app framework Ionic5 was utilized in order to build rapidly a robust mobile-optimized web app. The combination of AngularJS and Ionic supports the development of a rich and serious mobile application [80]. Furthermore, the open-source HTML, CSS and JS framework Bootstrap6 was applied in Spox for developing the front-end in a fast and easy way, because it provides templates for various user interface elements. For animating the pet’s movements, the plugin jQuery.animateSprite7 was used for controlling sprite animations. In order to do this, one sprite sheet per pet was created in Adobe Illustrator CC 20158. A sprite is a static two-dimensional bitmap graphic, depicting one object or character. A collection of many slightly diﬀerent sprites is called sprite sheet. The sprites in one sheet are then put into an ordered sequence, and one of them is shown at a time in the scene. By changing quickly between the sprites, it appears like the object in the sprite is moving. The advantage of sprite sheets is the short time needed for displaying images on a screen, because only a speciﬁc part of the frame is shown instead of changing whole images [81].

4https://angularjs.org 5http://ionicframework.com 6http://getbootstrap.com 7http://blaiprat.github.io/jquery.animateSprite/ 8http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/illustrator.html

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After completing the source code, the whole code was compiled into an Android application with Adobe PhoneGap9. PhoneGap is an open-source Apache Cordova10 based framework, which compiles HTML and JS code into hybrid and cross-platform applications [82]. Hybrid applications are a combination of native and web apps. Hybrid apps can be downloaded via the app store and have access to soft- and hardware components of smartphones, like native apps, as well as are displayed in a browser, like web applications, whereby the browser is embedded within native apps [83].

I decided to use these various technologies, because of the advantage that hybrid applications are platform independent and fast in development, and the fact that I have already experiences in coding with HTML, CSS, JS and the framework AngularJS.

Figure 4.11: An extract of the ﬁle structure of Spox

9http://phonegap.com 10https://cordova.apache.org

64 4.2. Functional Prototype

4.2.3 Architecture The most important file in Spox is index.html, which is responsible for the main layout of Spox, includes libraries, plugins and CSS-files, and ensures the insertion of views. A view in Spox is an interface, but at the same time also a package, which manages its own logic and represents an own component of Spox. Furthermore, the architecture of Spox is split into two main folders, app and assets, and is depicted as a diagram in Figure 4.11. The folder, app, contains two files, app.js and GameCtrl.js, and the components folder. The file, app.js, handles the setup and all states of Spox, and loads dependencies in AngularJS11. The file, GameCtrl.js, is the controller of the game. The controller in AngularJS determines the behaviour of the application and controls data flow. The components folder contains the different views of Spox. The views modulate the source code. Each view comprises an HTML-file and a JavaScript-file, which represents a singleton, so that only one instance of each view can be created. These JavaScript-files are services, which are responsible for specific tasks regarding the particular view, and can be also compared with small databases, because they contain the variables of the specific view. The folder, assets, contains all images, libraries and CSS-files, wherefore it is not responsible for any view nor logic of the application. In Spox, three subfolders of assets were used for having a clear overview. In Figure 4.11, the assets folder is depicted with its three subfolders. The first folder contains all used libraries and plugins of Spox, the second one comprises all graphics and the third one all CSS-files, whose purpose is to specify layout formats, colours and fonts.

4.2.4 Interaction The prototype of Spox implements the whole game ﬂow. However, since only a prototype was built during this thesis, not every must-have game mechanic, such as experience points, leaderboards or gifting, described in section Must-Have Game Mechanics for the Intended Mobile Social Digital Pet Exergame, was implemented. The reason for omitting these game mechanics is that their implementation would exceed the limits of this master’s thesis. Therefore, only game mechanics were implemented, which are important for the main game structure, such as customization and immediate and unambiguous feedback.

First Use When users start Spox for the first time, a pet creation view is displayed (Figure 4.12, left). This creation view is part of the game view, wherefore it is not an own package. Through naming the pet, choosing a gender and the type of animal, a certain customization on the players’ side is provided. Users can choose between a bird, a penguin, a tiger and a turtle. In order to avoid empty input fields, the “Create Pet” – button will be enabled, if a name with at least two characters is filled in and a gender is selected.

11https://angularjs.org

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Figure 4.12: Left: view, which is displayed, when users enter the game for the ﬁrst time. Centre: game view, when users have not done any physical activity for a while. Right: game view, when users have completed currently a tracking.

Tutorial After creating a pet, the idea is to show an interactive tutorial for explaining how the exergame works and how players can interact with Spox. Additionally, a video is supposed to tell a story about the pet, how it hatches out of an egg and is adopted as a baby by the users for creating a ﬁrst owner-pet relationship. However, this tutorial is not implemented in the prototype, because it is not necessary for the main game structure. This tutorial was instead replaced by detailed instructions by myself in the user study.

Game View The game view is the personalized home screen of the application and shows up always, whenever users start the game and have already created a pet. It shows the pet’s living room with clickable furniture, which forwards players to the diﬀerent views. The door redirects players to the gym view, the telephone to the friends view and the backpack to the backpack view. These three views are described in the following paragraphs.

The pet is sad and its health state is low, if players have not done any physical activity recently. By tracking exercises, users can make their pet happy and healthy again. In Figure 4.12 (centre, right), the game view is depicted, once with a sad and once with a happy pet. The bar in the bottom right corner depicts the current health state of the

66 4.2. Functional Prototype pet. It is decreased by one every five seconds and changes from green to yellow and then red, whereby green indicates happiness and health, and red sadness and sickness. To make the differences in the health state also visible for colour-blind people, a percentage display exists and the mood of the pet itself changes. The health state is decremented every five seconds for testing purposes and to show the concept of the health bar to the reviewers of the user study in short time. In the final revision, the idea is to extend significantly the reduction time of the health bar.

Tracking View To start a tracking, players have to press the “Start Activity” – button. Since it is a crucial feature in the game, this button is available in all views at the same place in order to create consistency throughout the application. By pressing this button, players are forwarded to the tracking view (Figure 4.13, left), a green landscape. There, users are able to select a specific sport type, which they want to track. In the prototype, bicycling, football, running, lifting, and yoga are available, but the idea is to offer significantly more sport types in the final revision than these five. For lifting and bicycling, an advice is given in order to prevent sports injuries of users while doing physical activity. By clicking on the left and right arrow next to the three displayed sport types, players are able to go through all available sport types in the game. Depending on the current selected type, the accessory next to the pet changes. For example, if bicycling is picked, then a bike is displayed, or if running is selected, then running shoes are shown. By clicking on the “START” – button, the tracking of the selected activity starts (Figure 4.13, right). Speech bubbles provide immediate and unambiguous feedback about the current tracking as well as motivational text, such as “You’re on a good way!”. Depending on the selected type of sport, different parameters are tracked. In Table 4.1, the various sport types with their tracked parameters are depicted.

Tracking Parameters Sport Type Kilometres Time Repetitions Bicycling X X Football X Running X X Lifting X Yoga X

Table 4.1: Representation of tracking parameters for each available sport type in Spox

During the tracking, players collect virtual goods, which are necessary for the pet’s gym, which are described in the following paragraph. Each type of animal is good at collecting two speciﬁc goods, whereby each of them belongs to another category. These categories are goods for the gym and goods for the customers. Table 4.2 depicts which animal is good at collecting which goods.

67 4. Implementation

Figure 4.13: Left: tracking view before an activity is started. Right: tracking view, while an activity is tracked.

Pet Good for Gym Good for Customers Penguine Steel Ice Turtle Glass Water Bird Wood Berries Tiger Stone Meat

Table 4.2: Representation of which pet collects which goods most frequently

Furthermore, the idea is that users also collect experience points in order to be able to level up. However, this feature of levelling up and accumulating points is not implemented in the prototype, because it is not necessary for showing the game structure. Users are able to pause the tracking, if they want to continue the activity after a break. Otherwise, they can stop the activity completely. By doing so, users are forwarded to the game view, where they receive an immediate and unambiguous feedback notiﬁcation in the shape of a speech bubble. The message informs about the tracked performance and the collected goods, e.g., “You’ve received 5 berries and 4 wood in 00:13:38.”. By clicking

68 4.2. Functional Prototype

either on the speech bubble, one of the furniture or the “Start Activity” – button, the message disappears. Furthermore, a happy and healthy pet is displayed. In Figure 4.12 (right), the feedback notiﬁcation and happy pet can be seen in the game view. In the prototype, users always receive the same amount of goods independent on the elapsed time, kilometres or amount of repetitions in order to make it easy for the reviewers in the user study to test Spox. In the ﬁnal revision, the idea is to adopt the amount of gained goods to the elapsed time, kilometres and amount of repetitions of the completed tracking. This adoption is important to prevent cheating in the game.

Gym View The pet’s gym is based on the concept of business simulation games, where users own a company, restaurant or theme park, and are supposed to establish this facility to a customer attraction. Therefore, the pet’s gym in Spox consists of four rooms, which have to be bought with goods by each user. These goods are glass, steel, stone and wood. However, only one room is unlocked in the beginning of the game in order to keep players in the game and create an incentive for users in high levels. By levelling up, the other three rooms will be unlocked. If one room is bought, the idea is that the room is not directly available to use, instead it takes a specific time for constructing it. However, the construction process is not visible in the prototype, because otherwise, people could not test all features of the game at once, but would have to wait, e.g., three hours until the bought room is available to use. In the pet’s gym, a fifth room is located, which can be unlocked by teaming up with a friend. More information about, how players are able to team up with another person, can be found in the section Friends View. However, this specific room, cannot be bought, but is directly available after unlocking it. The left image in Figure 4.14 depicts the gym view at the first usage of a player.

Store View After unlocking one room in the pet’s gym, the store is unlocked. By clicking on the trolley icon, players are forwarded to the store, where a list of fitness equipment is displayed (Figure 4.15, left). In the beginning of the game, three items are available, exercise bike, ball court and dance class. By levelling up, further items will be unlocked. If users have enough goods to buy one fitness equipment, three green check marks appear next to the required goods for the item, otherwise a red X is displayed next to each item, which is missing. By clicking on the “Buy” – button, players are forwarded back to the gym view, where they can place the bought item in an unlocked room. The idea is that players can only purchase rooms and fitness equipment, if their digital pet is happy and healthy, wherefore they are required to exercise in order to be able to buy something. However, this idea is not implemented in the prototype, because it is not crucial for the main game flow. In Figure 4.14, the notification about placing an item can be seen in the right image, as well as the gym view after several uses of Spox.

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Figure 4.14: Left: gym view, where all rooms are locked and therefore empty. Right: gym view after playing Spox for a while.

The purpose of the purchase process is that customers come to the pet’s gym and use the fitness equipment. Therefore, the more rooms and items the players have, the more customers will come. This influences the customers’ satisfaction positively and hence raises the gym’s success. But the customers’ satisfaction decreases after some time, because visitors need as well specific goods, such as berries, ice, meat and water, for being happy. By deploying those required goods to the customers, the satisfaction will increase again. The digital pet can also work as a trainer in its gym in order to make its customers satisfied, but only if the pet is healthy and happy as well. The more satisfied visitors the gym has, the more successful it is and the closer the players are to achieve the game goal, to have a pet, which is the owner of the biggest and most successful gym in the game. However, this idea is not implemented in the prototype of Spox, because it is not crucial for the research question, Can the concept of a mobile social digital pet exergame motivate people to improve their physical activities?. More important is the reflection of users’ sport behaviour by the health state of the pet and if players would work together for proceeding faster in Spox.

70 4.2. Functional Prototype

Backpack View The backpack icon represents the inventory of goods of users. All eight achievable goods are listed in this view. These goods are berries, ice, glass, meat, steel, stone, water and wood. Since one type of animal is good at collecting two speciﬁc goods, it will be that players have a greater amount of these two goods than of the other six goods. Therefore, it is possible to trade goods with a virtual bank at a ratio of 2 to 1 in order to make it possible for users to receive a bigger amount of other goods than they can collect. Figure 4.15 (right) shows the backpack view with an opened trade dialogue.

Figure 4.15: Left: store view of Spox. Right: backpack view with an opened trade dialogue.

Friends View The multiplayer aspect is essential in Spox, because it helps to proceed faster in the game. Players are able to connect with another person in the friends view (Figure 4.16, left), which can be opened by clicking on the telephone in the game view. A list of the users’ friends and a list of all users are displayed among each other. To connect with friends, players can send email invitations to people and can connect with Facebook, so that their

71 4. Implementation

friends, who are using Spox, appear in the list. By clicking on the “Team up” – button, one person allies with another one. One benefit of this collaboration is that one room is unlocked in the pet’s gym and both players share it, wherefore a placed fitness equipment in this room aids both users. Other benefits are that these two players can trade goods at a ratio of 1 to 1, and if they start and stop the same activity simultaneously, they will receive the double amount of goods, as if they would have exercised alone. These benefits of a collaboration between two people are supposed to engage players to such a collaboration, and thus to support social interaction while physical activity. However, the trading process between connected friends is not implemented in the prototype, because it is not crucial for the game flow. By pressing the “Detach” – button, players terminate the connection with another person. Additionally, it is possible to play and proceed in the game alone, which is important for users, who do not want to connect with anyone. The disadvantage of this approach is that the game progress will be slower than in the multiplayer mode. A competitive approach can be found indirectly in Spox as well because of one specific aim of the game. This goal is to establish the biggest and most successful gym in the game, wherefore players, or even teams, can encourage each other by trying to surpass the other person or team.

Game Over The virtual pet is happy and fit, if users do sport. Consequently, the less sport the users do, the unhappier and worse the pet becomes. If players have not done any sport for a while, the pet dies. This means the game is over, all scores are reset and the user has to start from scratch. But before this happens, the idea is that players will receive push-notifications in order to remind them to exercise and to take care of their digital pet. However, these push-notifications are not implemented in the prototype, because they are not essential for the game flow. In Figure 4.16 (right), the game view can be seen, when it is game over and the pet died.

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Figure 4.16: Left: friends view, where the user is connected with another person. Right: game view, when the player has lost and it is game over.

CHAPTER 5 User Tests

Within the master’s thesis, a human-centred design process was applied in order to implement a prototype of a mobile social digital pet exergame, which is adapted to the users’ needs and desires. Therefore, users were actively involved in every step of the design process to extract the user and task requirements of the game. The sketches were reviewed, as well as the created wireframes and mock-ups. Based on the respective feedback, the game concept and design of the interfaces were changed and redesigned to adjust them to the users’ needs. After completing the prototype, a user study was conducted to gain insights for the research questions, Can the concept of a mobile social digital pet exergame motivate people to improve their physical activities? and How is the integrated social game mechanic appreciated?. In the following sections, the feedback of sketches, wireframes, mock-ups and prototype will be summarized, as well as evaluated and analysed.

5.1 Review Sketches

The initial concept of Spox was sketched, reviewed and transformed into wireframes. The review of the sketches took place in form of a face-to-face conversation with a media technology student (male, 23 years old), who is an experienced user in games and technology. After reviewing the wireframes of the initial idea of Spox, the game concept changed significantly, wherefore new sketches were drawn to restart the design process. Since there was only one review round intended, the sketches of the second version of Spox were not reviewed again. Instead of that, wireframes were directly created and tested. In the following paragraph, the review of the first version’s sketches are summarized. The reviewer’s feedback of the first version’s sketches was in general positive and he liked the game idea of having a digital pet, which reflects the user’s sport habits. He

75 5. User Tests

noted that the plus button in the middle bottom of every view is irritating, and therefore should be removed or changed. The purpose of this button is to forward users to the tracking view, but instead it was associated with adding things, especially in the store and settings view, and when a pet is created. Therefore, his advice is implemented in the second version of the concept by replacing the plus button with a “Create” – button on the ﬁrst view in order to make it clear, that a virtual pet will be created by clicking on the button. In the settings view, the plus button is completely removed, and in the other views, the plus button is replaced with a “Start Activity” – button.

Another suggestion was to display the settings view after creating a pet, so that personal information can be gathered already at this early stage. This suggestion was ﬁrstly implemented in the wireframes, but then removed again because it contradicted with another later review. In the later review, one person expressed that she would prefer, if the game would start directly after creating a pet. The reason for that is that otherwise the amount of input data would scare oﬀ new users. In her opinion, people prefer to try out new things without signing up, wherefore personal information should not be collected obviously at an early stage of the game. I agreed with her, wherefore I removed the settings view after creating a pet. Apart from that, the reviewer of the sketches liked the settings view, because it is designed like a standard settings page.

The game view was understood, but the level indicator was misinterpreted. The reviewer thought it is a button, and asked therefore, why he can click it. The design of the level indicator was not changed, but the indicator was relocated in the top right corner to avoid conﬂicts with a back button, which is usually in the top left corner. Consistency is created by displaying the level indicator always on the same position in every view.

At ﬁrst, the store was not recognized as such, but then the reviewer realized that it is supposed to represent goods shelves. These shelves remembered him of the game Zelda, which uses the same design approach. He suggested that an item in various colours and with diﬀerent skill points and power could be added to the store. This suggestion was not taken into consideration for the second version of sketches, because the design of the store was completely changed. To provide more information about each item and to make the overview of items clear, each item is now displayed in one single row.

For the reviewer, it was not clear, what he can do in the fighting mode. He asked, how attacks can be chosen, and how the user knows, how much damage an attack is worth. Although this problem was solved in the first version’s wireframes, the fighting mode was completely removed in the second version of game concept. The reason for removing completely the fighting mode is that this mode was confusing for the reviewers of the wireframes. It was not clear, if the pet would die, if it loses the fight, and if the user has to start from scratch, if this happens. A more detailed description to this feedback of wireframes can be found in the following section.

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5.2 Review Wireframes

First, based on the feedback of the sketches, wireframes were created and shown to two other people in order to receive feedback, and subsequently adapt the interface design to the users’ needs and wishes. However, the feedback of the wireframes caused a signiﬁcant change in the concept, wherefore a second version of sketches and wireframes were created.

The feedback from all reviewers, whether of ﬁrst or second version of wireframes, was collected and analysed. Its purpose is to help me ﬁnding out, if the concept of Spox is understandable, if the design supports the users’ needs and wishes, and if the interaction with Spox is comprehensible and plausible.

In the following sections, the feedback of the ﬁrst version of wireframes is evaluated, followed by an evaluation of the feedback of the second version of wireframes.

5.2.1 Review Wireframes Version 1 The ﬁrst version of wireframes was reviewed by two men in an approximately 30-minute face-to-face conversation. One participant, reviewer 1, is 68 years old and not experienced in playing games. The second participant, reviewer 2, is 23 years old and an experienced user in games, as well as in technology. Based on the feedback of those two participants, the concept of Spox was adopted, and the wireframes were partly redesigned.

General Feedback

The concept of Spox was understandable and well received. Reviewer 1 had problems with understanding common game mechanics, such as level, points and money display, due to inexperience in digital games. In this context, reviewer 2 noted, that the dollar sign for the money display should be changed to another currency unit. These problems and suggestions were partly taken into account while designing the second version of wireframes by removing completely the points and money display. Since the level indicator in form of a number in a circle is a common interface element in games, this element was not changed in the redesign. The first version of wireframes (Figure 5.1, left) contains a navigation bar, wherefore the reviewers knew quickly without any problems, how to navigate between the different views. However, this navigation bar is removed in the second version of Spox because of the feedback that the application does not look like a game. The reviewers meant that Spox appears like a combination of a tracking application and a digital pet. Therefore, the whole game concept was revised, and tried to make it look more like a game. Consequences of this change are the removal of the navigation bar and the detailed information in the tracking view. Furthermore, the whole interaction is simplified, because navigation buttons were created as furniture in the pet’s living room. In order to define the game concept to the limits of the master’s thesis, the possibility of achieving rewards and leaderboards is removed completely.

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Figure 5.1: Left: Game view of version 1 of wireframes. Right: Create-a-pet view of version 1 of wireframes.

Create-A-Pet View In the create-a-pet view (Figure 5.1, right), users have to create a digital pet by naming it, choosing its gender and selecting a type of animal. For reviewer 1, it was not clear, if he has to create a ﬁctional pet, or if the animal has to be based on an existing pet in real life. Furthermore, the label “name” did not point out, if it is supposed to be the name of the pet or of the user. This problem is solved by changing the label to “The Pet’s Name”. Another problem with the name occurred as well in the settings view, because it was not clear, if users have to ﬁll in their real name or a nickname. This is also solved by changing the label to “My Name”. In this context, one reviewer asked, if it would be possible to add a nickname to Spox. Adding a nickname is not directly possible, respectively it is not named as such, because the name of the pet represents the user’s nickname.

Tracking View The tracking view was understandable and well received by both reviewers. Reviewer 2 liked the design of the tracking view and its icon. He suggested to implement infographics in the history view of tracked activities, where an overview of the users’ average sport behaviour would be displayed. Then users could view each completed sport type as a line in a diﬀerent colour in the graphic. In his opinion, with this visualization, it should be clearly visible, which kind of sport has to be done in the next week in order to vary between sport types. Since the game concept was adopted, the detailed information

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about the tracking was completely removed. Therefore, these suggestions were not taken into account.

Furthermore, reviewer 2 mentioned that the pause button is unnecessary in the tracking view, because if a person pauses and starts the tracking, then it is the same as if she or he would stop and start it. This feedback was taken into consideration, and I decided to implement it in the second version of game concept, because I could not ﬁnd any beneﬁt for restarting the tracking at this point of the design process.

Store View

The store was recognized as such. Reviewer 1 suggested that an additional label with “You can buy . . . ” at the top of the store and a plus button in front of the price of each item would enhance the knowledge about which item is possible to buy. This feedback was implemented by adding a buy button. However, the whole design of the store is simpliﬁed in the second version, because the amount of options and types of buyable items was too high to overlook it.

Rewards View

In the ﬁrst version of wireframes, rewards and leaderboards are implemented to create a sense of competition between users. The icon for this view, as well as the view itself was understandable and well received. The only note was that it should display, how far away the users are from their goals. To simplify the whole concept, this view is completely removed in the second version of wireframes, wherefore this feedback was not further considered.

Multiplayer View

The multiplayer mode in the first version of wireframes consists of a fighting and gifting mode. One user is able to fight against another user by battling their pets. Furthermore, it is also possible to give away virtual presents. Reviewer 2 really liked the idea of fighting against another user, because he thinks that brings excitement into the game. However, reviewer 1 did not like this idea at all. It was not clear, if the pet would die, if it loses the fight, or if it stays alive. Furthermore, it was not understandable, how the other pet is selected and why the two animals are not in the same level. Additionally, the life display was misinterpreted in the way that reaching 100 percent was understood as dying. For this reason, the whole concept was reconsidered and I came to the decision to remove the fighting and gifting mode by replacing it with an approach of a business simulation game. In a business simulation game, users have to develop a company, e.g., a restaurant or a zoo, for achieving rewards and winning the game. Therefore, the pet’s gym was created, where users have to develop a virtual gym to make their pet to the most successful gym owner in Spox.

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Settings view Reviewer 2 recognized that the age input in the settings view is a number field, but not the height and weight input. He noted that these three input fields should be of the same type, and that a Facebook login would shorten the process of data entry. The idea of a Facebook login was taken into account and later implemented in the mock-ups. The assimilation of input fields was considered, but not implemented because weight and height are in most cases a significant higher number than age, wherefore it is easier to type them in instead of selecting it with arrows. The age input field remains the same in order to stand out against the other two input fields.

5.2.2 Review Wireframes Version 2 The second version of wireframes was shown to three women. All three reviews were conducted in an approximately one-hour face-to-face conversation. Based on the received feedback, the interface design of Spox was slightly changed, as well as the game concept. The ﬁrst reviewer, reviewer 1, is 31-year-old and inexperienced in playing digital games and using technology. The second reviewer, reviewer 2, is 60-year-old and also inexperienced in digital games and technology. Furthermore, both do not do any sports. In contrast to that, the third reviewer, reviewer 3, is a 25-year-old experienced user in digital games and technology and exercises regularly.

General Feedback In general, all three reviewers liked the idea of Spox, as well as the design. Diﬀerences in preferences and opinions of each reviewer can be reducible to their age and game experience. For example, reviewer 2 noted that the design of Spox should not become too immature, because in her opinion, people are more interested into their performance instead of collecting something. In contrast to that, reviewer 1 and 3 would want to use the game. Especially, reviewer 3 was looking forward to try out the ﬁnal prototype of Spox and had more proposals for add-ons, instead of critique.

Create-A-Pet View All three reviewers understood, what they can and have to do in the create-a-pet view, as well as that the tutorial afterwards shows the background story of the chosen pet, provides a walkthrough through the game and explains the interaction with it. Although it took just a short time for the reviewers to orient themselves in Spox, they meant that a tutorial could be helpful to show features, which are not visible on the ﬁrst sight, e.g., navigating by clicking on furniture in the pet’s living room. Reviewer 1 asked, what would happen, if she would click on the left and right arrow next to the pet, and if the colour of the pet would change by clicking there. Due to missing interaction in this case, the change of animal type is visible while testing the wireframes. However, the feedback showed that the arrows display a certain change of the pet, which

80 5.2. Review Wireframes is intended, wherefore these design elements are not modiﬁed in the mock-ups. Regarding switching the type of animal, reviewer 1 also mentioned, that she would like to have the possibility of changing her pet during the game, e.g., after a week, in case she does not like the animal anymore. This suggestion was not further considered, because changing or renewing the own pet would counteract and dissolve a close relationship between owner and pet. Therefore, it was decided against the possibility of switching the pet during the game. If users want to have another animal, they have to restart the game. Reviewer 3 suggested to implement a connect button on the ﬁrst page, which links to a social media platform, such as Facebook or Twitter, because in her opinion, it could be interesting to connect with one of those platforms. Since she saw this possibility in the settings view, she noted that it could be an advantage of providing this connecting process already while creating an account. This feedback is implemented in the mock-ups by adding a Facebook connect button.

Game View The concept of the pet’s living room was understood by all reviewers, as well as the navigation to the other views. However, all three reviewers wondered about the purpose of the couch, because it is not clickable in the wireframes. For that reason, this furniture is removed in the mock-ups to avoid further confusion about its function. The level indicator was understandable for all three reviewers, as well as the fact that they have to do sport for reaching the next level. One suggestion in this context was that the level circle should look like a timer showing the user’s progress and the remaining points to the next level. For that reason, a second circle around the level display is added to show the progress. Furthermore, one reviewer thought that the settings icon stands for help, which applies to be partly true to its function, because it contains settings, user proﬁle and the tutorial. However, the question mark within the gear is removed in the mock-ups in order to make it easy to identify this icon as settings.

Tracking View All three reviewers understood the main purpose of the tracking view (Figure 5.2, left), as well as the buttons and icons. They comprehended that they can track diﬀerent sport types by pressing on the start and stop button, that the digital pet accompanies them during the exercises, and that the collected goods can be found in their backpack. Furthermore, they liked that the tracking view is accessible from all views, because it was identiﬁed as one of the most important functions in the game. Reviewer 2 liked the green colour for the start and the red colour for the stop button. She would have replaced the blue colour of the button, which links users to the tracking view, with yellow, but that is more a matter of taste in her opinion. Furthermore, she suggested that the game could give feedback respectively information about preventing

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sport injuries while selecting a sport type. She mentioned an example for bicycling, where the game could point out to use a helmet by letting the pet say “Take it” or “Use it”. In this context, she advised to be aware that the font of this text should not be too small in order be readable, and that it could be placed in the pet’s helmet. This feedback is implemented in the shape of a speech bubble in the mock-ups, because it can help to prevent sport injuries. Additionally, it gives users feedback about how they are supposed to exercise correctly. Furthermore, reviewer 2 suggested to use bold capital letters for the text of the start and stop button for making them outstanding and easily to see. This is important, because the two buttons control one of the main functions in the game, the tracking. For that reason, the advice is implemented in the mock-ups. In this context, reviewer 1 suggested that an implementation of a pause button would be good. In the first version of wireframes, the pause button was removed, because one reviewer did not see the purpose behind it. However, the function of this button was again considered, and I decided to implement it anew, because pausing and stopping do not have the same effects in the game. It would take more time to receive a good when starting a new tracking, as when restarting an old tracking after a pause. Reviewer 3 suggested that it could be interesting to view day-by-day or weekly statistics, which could be found, e.g., in the settings view under a category “History/Statistics”. These statistics should provide detailed information about the workout habits of each user. This feedback was not further considered, because it contradicts with the first design requirement, to use a game-first design approach. Detailed information and statistics about a tracking would give the game a serious appearance, which is not necessarily intended.

Gym View Reviewer 1 and 2 did not understand the idea of the pet’s gym without any explanation and instruction, and found the view confusing and complicated. In Figure 5.2 (right), the gym view can be seen. The rooms were not recognizable as such because of design issues and missing labels. This is improved in the mock-ups by adding the word “room” and diﬀerent colours to each virtual room, and by removing the two crossed lines within the rooms. Suggestions by the reviewers to make the sale room green or red and the site room yellow or brown were partly implemented, by using green for sale and violet for the construction area in combination with a yellow and black crane. All three reviewers understood, that the site means that the room will be full respectively free to use, when the construction is done. Furthermore, the participants understood that they can place bought items in an already unlocked room, which is not under construction. A suggestion of reviewer 2 was to remove all goods and replace them with a certain amount of required workout hours, e.g., that a user has to bicycle 3,5 hours in order to be able to buy a certain room. This suggestion was taken into account for a long time, because I really liked the idea of using workouts as payment. But in the

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Figure 5.2: Left: Tracking view of version 2 of wireframes. Right: Gym view of version 2 of wireframes. end, it was decided against it, because the removal of goods would have led to a loss of multiplayer aspect, which is a crucial feature of Spox. One assumption of reviewer 1 and 2, what the gym should represent, was that users can buy the required goods for the purchase of rooms in the rooms itself. Other assumptions were that rooms represent letters, because they are crossed out, and that users need friends, who do different sport types, for collecting different goods. In order to avoid these misinterpretations, the tutorial in the beginning is supposed to explain the idea and goal of the pet’s gym, and to clarify the gym’s purpose and interaction. In contrast to that, reviewer 3 recognized that she needs a certain amount of goods for buying a room, because otherwise, the buy button is not clickable. Moreover, she comprehended that certain rooms are locked, if she has not reached the required level to unlock them. Reviewer 1 identified the store icon as a muffin instead of a shopping bag, wherefore this icon was changed to a shopping cart. The backpack was recognized as such from all reviewers. Additionally, reviewer 1 noted that the goods display looks like small video cassettes and that it is not clear what they count. For that reason, the display was enlarged and an image of each good was added to clarify, which item is counted in which bar. Furthermore, the customer satisfaction bar was understandable, but it was not clear how the reviewers can give goods, like water and berries, to the gym’s customer. A suggestion

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for the satisfaction bar was also to design the smiley in yellow and to change the bar’s colour depending on the customers’ satisfaction, e.g., red for not satisﬁed to yellow and subsequently green for totally happy. This feedback is implemented in the mock-ups, because it was already planned, but not realized while doing the wireframes.

Store View The understanding of the store view stood in relation with the experience in digital games, because reviewer 3 comprehended the store concept in contrast to the other two participants. Reviewer 3 conceived that fitness equipment can be bought for the possessed goods. In contrast to that, reviewer 1 and 2 did not understand completely the store concept. Reviewer 2 thought that she could buy additional sport types for the tracking, instead that these items represent fitness equipment for the pet’s gym. Furthermore, reviewer 1 assumed that the buyable item represents an exercise, which she can perform. By completing this exercise, she meant that she could buy the determined goods, which are actually necessary to buy the fitness equipment. After explaining the concept of the store, reviewer 1 and 2 understood that the check mark indicates that the required amount of this good for buying the item is reached, and if they have enough goods they can buy a fitness equipment for the pet’s gym. In order to prevent misinterpretations, the store concept will be explained in the tutorial. One suggestion for the store view was that collected steel should only be used for buying weights. This feedback was not considered, because it is contrary with the concept of a pet collecting two specific goods. If the suggestion would have been implemented, the type of animal, who is good at collecting steel, would have been privileged in this context.

Backpack View All three reviewers understood, that the backpack view displays the amount of goods in their inventory, and that it is possible to trade goods for other goods. It was not clear, with whom these goods can be traded, if it is with friends or strangers. Since it does not matter with whom the goods are traded, because users receive the required good directly after pressing the trade button, this feedback was not taken into account. However, the tutorial will explain that the trade is conducted with a virtual bank. Furthermore, reviewer 2 suggested the removal of goods and adding instead a trade of sport types, e.g., bicycling with football, so that one user plays longer football instead of bicycling. This feedback was considered for a long time, because it appears attractive to the motivation of Spox. But it was decided against it, because users are not supposed to be forced to do various sport types. Users are able to choose on their own, which exercise they do, wherefore the trade of sport types would not work.

Friends View All three reviewers understood that they can connect with friends, and inform and invite friends to the game by clicking on the Facebook button. Moreover, the participants

84 5.3. Review Mock-ups comprehended the information text about their friends, that they are in a certain level and their pet is good at collecting the two written goods. The connect and disconnect buttons were not clear for all reviewers, because reviewer 2 understood them reversely. She thought she is disconnected with a friend, when the disconnect button appears, and that she is connected with a friend, when the connect button is displayed. This misinterpretation is probably caused by insufficient English knowledge, wherefore verbs were confused with adjectives. In order to prevent another misinterpretation with words, the button texts are replaced with “Team up” and “Detach”. After the reviewers have seen the gym view, they understood correctly that they can build a unit and collect goods with their connected friends. But they did not understand the purpose of why they can do that. Therefore, a detailed explanation of this purpose will be given in the tutorial. During the feedback, two questions arose. The first question was if it is possible to steal goods from connected friends, and the second one was which friends are displayed in this view. To improve the usability, the displayed friends were divided into “All Users” and friends, who were invited via Facebook. Furthermore, goods are not possible to steal, because the game is supposed to support collaboration instead of competition. The possibility of stealing would cause that one user can influence another user’s game state in a bad way for her or his own purposes, which is not intended with the actual game concept.

Settings View All three reviewers understood the purpose of settings, so that they can edit their personal information, change the language, give feedback to the game developers about how they liked the game, and that they can watch the tutorial again from the beginning. They were ﬁne with giving personal information to the game in order to personalize it, and thought that all essential settings were covered in this view.

5.3 Review Mock-ups

After completing the mock-ups of the mobile social digital pet exergame, three other people, experienced in technology, reviewed them in order to give feedback about the design. Two of the reviewers are male (23 and 24 years old), reviewer 1 and 2. The third reviewer, reviewer 3, is female (24 years old). The reviews of the mock-ups were conducted in an approximately 35-minute face-to-face conversation.

5.3.1 General Feedback In general, the reviewers understood the flow of the game, that they have to create first a pet and then to exercise in order to collect goods, and that the amount of received goods is depending on the fitness performance. In addition, they comprehended that the more

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sport they will do, the more goods they will collect and the faster they will reach the next level.

Regarding the colours and graphics, reviewer 3 liked the graphics because of their simplicity and sweetness. In her opinion, these graphics can be attractive especially to a young audience. Furthermore, she liked the font, the simple and not too crammed interface and the match of colours. She stated that the design ﬁts appropriately the audience. In contrast to this, reviewer 2 did not like the colours, because he prefers subtle colours. However, in his opinion, Tamagotchis should be gaudy, wherefore the selected colours of Spox ﬁt the game concept. He agreed with reviewer 3 in the point that the graphics are made very well, e.g., the bicycle, backpack and helmet.

5.3.2 Create-A-Pet View

All three reviewers comprehended that they can choose a name and gender for their pet. Reviewer 3 did not notice at ﬁrst that she can select another animal than the penguin, but this is due to the missing interaction of the mock-up. Reviewer 1 and 2 noticed directly that the arrows on the left and right side of the pet indicate a selection of animal type. However, reviewer 1 questioned, if the pet needs to have a gender, if it does not change its look. It is an eligible question, and the animal does not necessarily have to have a gender. But choosing a gender supports the customization aspect of one’s animal, wherefore this feature is not removed in the prototype implementation.

Furthermore, the Facebook login button was disturbing for reviewer 1 and 2. It was not clear for them, if the system would ﬁll in the pet’s name and gender with the received data from Facebook. Both participants noted that the button should be removed respectively moved to a login and signup view, if the Facebook connection only serves the purpose of gathering personal data about users. For that reason, the Facebook login button is removed in the prototype, because the purpose of connecting with the social media platform was to gather information about users.

All three reviewers agreed on that the tutorial is understandable and nice, and that the game starts after the tutorial. However, reviewer 2 asked, if the tutorial starts directly, how it works and if it is possible to watch the tutorial video again, because he is a person, who is overzealous and therefore more likely to skip the tutorial. Then, he is most often annoyed, because he does not know, how to play the game. In this case, he meant it would be great, if he would get the possibility to redo the tutorial. In the concept, it is planned that users are able to redo the tutorial in the settings view, but in the prototype, no tutorial is implemented. This is caused by the fact, that the coding or animating of a tutorial would exceed the limits of this master’s thesis. Moreover, it should be enough, if the test persons of the user study receive a verbal instruction about the navigation and goals of the game.

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5.3.3 Game View The game view (Figure 5.3, left) was very well received by the reviewers, because they thought it looks nice, sweet and funny. However, the reviewers asked, if the door and telephone have a specific function respectively suggested that additional buttons should be added to navigate to the pet’s gym, backpack and friends view. These misinterpretations of buttons are caused by the missing interaction with the mock-ups and the insufficient instructions of what the reviewers have to do. I especially paid attention to not tell the reviewers exactly, what the game is about and how to interact, because I wanted to find out, if they understand the concept by themselves and what the buttons stand for. This attempt was partly effective, because the feedback showed that the reviewers understood the idea and how the main functions work, but the navigation appeared to be unclear. This problem is solved in the prototype through existing interaction and a more detailed instruction. The navigation constituted no problem in the wireframes, wherefore the interaction itself does not have to be changed. While testing the wireframes, the reviewers could discover all features by clicking on the screen, which is also possible in the prototype. The feedback of the mock-ups showed that the not existing tutorial has to be replaced with an instruction of the investigator in order to make sure that the people know how they can navigate through the game.

Figure 5.3: Left: Game view of mock-ups. Right: Tracking view of mock-ups.

Furthermore, the level indicator was recognized as such, as well as that the backpack stands for an inventory. However, reviewer 1 noted that the settings button looks like a ﬂower on the wall, and suggested to design it transparent and with a background, so that it resembles a standard button. For that reason, in the ﬁnal game, the settings

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icon is supposed be changed, but since no settings are implemented in the prototype, it was decided to omit the icon at all. The settings are not implemented in the prototype, because they are not necessary to understand the concept and to see how people interact with the game. Another suggestion for the game view was a health and happiness display for the pet, so that users directly see and know, how the pet feels and how much time and percentage is left, until the pet dies. This feedback is implemented in the prototype, because it improves the interaction with the pet and provides important information about the game state. A health bar from zero to 100 is decreased by one every five seconds. This reduction takes place every five seconds for testing purposes and to show the concept of the health bar to the test persons in the user study in short time. The idea is to extend significantly the reduction time of the health bar in a final revision of Spox. Additionally, the pet changes its mood depending on the percentage of health. The animal will wave with its arms, when it is happy, and will cry, when it is sad.

5.3.4 Tracking View The three reviewers understood that they can start tracking an activity in the tracking view (Figure 5.3, right), and the more exercises they do, the higher they will rise in the game. A suggestion of reviewer 3 was the implementation of a display of an approximate calorie consumption, because in her opinion, a lot of people think it is interesting to see, how many calories they have burnt during sports, e.g., in 20 minutes of bicycling, the user has burnt 700 kcal. This suggestion was taken into account for the prototype implementation. However, to keep the prototype as simple as possible, it was decided against this addition of information. But it is definitely worth considering for the final game concept to add a tracking history displaying detailed information about the tracking, such as calorie consumption, pace, speed, etc., because this feedback was also mentioned in the reviews of wireframes. Providing detailed tracked information would aim to address people, who are exercising regularly. Reviewer 3 also suggested the integration of special features, which would sometimes appear, e.g., if a user collects a golden 8 km, something will happen. This idea is definitely worth taking into account for the final game concept, especially because rewards were already implemented in the first version of wireframes. Because of simplification of Spox and the limits of the master’s thesis, this game mechanic was removed in the design step of wireframes. But challenges can be definitely engaging to play a game, which was shown in section Core Game Mechanics. Reviewer 1 felt a little bit frustrated by the not exercising pet, which only gives good feedback. He compared the animal with a person standing in the middle and shouting something to others. Therefore, he suggested a slider in the bottom of the game, where the pet, e.g., sits on a bicycle and drives from one side to the other, when biking is tracked. In the final game concept, the pet is supposed to move and do the same activity in the tracking view, as it is tracked. The moving pet is supposed to encourage the

88 5.3. Review Mock-ups user to physical activity by using the fitness equipment, but because of the limits of the master’s thesis, these visualizations were not implemented. Additionally, a moving pet in the tracking view does not enhance the basic game structure, because it does not reflect the sport behaviour of its owner. This reflection is one of the main purposes of the pet and is visible in the game view.

5.3.5 Gym View The gym view caused confusion among the reviewers. This is due to an insufficient instruction and a missing tutorial, because the reviewers had no previous knowledge about this specific mode, wherefore they did not know its purpose. This problem is supposed to be solved in the user tests by giving a detailed information about the main goals of Spox, which include to make the pet to the owner of the most successful and biggest gym in the game. Since the gym’s concept was not understood, it was not clear for the reviewers, why people have to buy rooms. Reviewer 3 misinterpreted the concept completely wrong by thinking that she has to buy an additional level, which is only possible, if rooms are available. Reviewer 2 comprehended that he can buy rooms with the received goods from completed physical activities, but not why he should do this. Therefore, he asked, if they have a deeper advantage and if it is possible to use them, or if they are just for decoration respectively as a reward for doing sports. An explanation to these questions and confusions will be given in the tutorial of the final game, where the concept and goals are explained. For the prototype, a verbal instruction by me in person will be given in order to simplify the comprehension of the gym’s concept. Reviewer 1’s knowledge was biased, because he had already seen the idea before, wherefore he knew, what the gym is about. Still, he suggested to visualize the gym as an actual house with grass around it, where it is possible to add new parts of the building. He meant that the gym looks like a game from the 90’s, but for a prototype, it would be totally okay. Therefore, the design of the gym is not changed in the prototype implementation, but his suggestion of visualizing the gym as a real building will be definitely taken into account for the final game, because it improves the graphics and the understanding of the gym’s idea. Above the goods’ display in the gym, a customer satisfaction bar is shown. This bar was misinterpreted in the way that reviewer 2 thought it would display the health state of the pet, wherefore he wondered why it is shown in the pet’s gym and not in the game view. Since a health display is added to the game view in the prototype, this customer satisfaction bar will hopefully not be misinterpreted again, especially, if an instruction explains that the customer satisfaction can be increased by buying fitness equipment and rooms. Furthermore, the customers’ necessities in form of small speech bubbles were not understood due to missing information about the gym. Reviewer 1 added in this context that the font of the users’ needs has to be bigger in order to be readable without any problems.

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5.3.6 Store View The store view was clear, understandable and well received by the reviewers. All three realized that they can buy fitness equipment for the rooms, that red crosses are shown, if goods are missing, and green checkmarks, if the user has enough goods for buying the equipment. Reviewer 1 suggested an implementation of statistics about how the fitness equipment changes the customer satisfaction and influences the gym’s success. He mentioned as an example “Why is it better to have a ball court than a dance class?”. For the prototype implementation, this suggestion was not considered, because to examine how people become successful in the pet’s gym was not the purpose of the master’s thesis. But for the final revision of the game, statistics of the fitness equipment will be helpful for users to comprehend and come up with right tactics, so that their pet can become the most successful owner of a gym.

5.3.7 Backpack View As well as the store, the backpack view was clear, neatly arranged and understandable. It was understood that goods can be exchanged by pressing the trade button. Again the question arose, with whom the goods will be traded. In the prototype implementation, the trade is conducted with a virtual bank, wherefore the trading ratio is 2 to 1. In the final game revision, it is possible to exchange goods with the team member to a ratio of 1 to 1. This is supposed to be explained in the tutorial. One suggestion for the backpack view was the reduce of goods, because reviewer 1 meant he has always seen only four available items in a game, whereby one of them was money. Otherwise he suggested to separate them somehow more from the rest. He did not think that eight goods are bad, but it was unusual for him. I decided against implementing this suggestion, because those eight goods are crucial for the game. They are divided into two categories, one for buying rooms and fitness equipment, and one for satisfying customers. The amount cannot be reduced, because the idea is that each animal type is good at collecting one specific good of each category. Therefore, users will possess a higher amount of these goods than of the others, wherefore they have to either team up with another person with a different pet or to trade goods in order to be able to buy rooms and make customers satisfied. Users need all eight different goods for proceeding in the game.

5.3.8 Friends View The reviewers liked the friends view and understood it. However, it was not clear, what they can do with friends because of missing instructions. Reviewer 3 asked, if it is possible to trade and sell things to them. In the ﬁnal game revision, it will be possible for users to trade goods with friends. Furthermore, the question arose, what would happen with the pet’s gym, if users connect with a friend, especially, if both players have already

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proceeded in the game. In the prototype, one room is implemented, which is shared by two connected players. Everything, what is placed and happens in this room eﬀects both players, wherefore they can beneﬁt from this connection. If one player detaches the connection, then the room and its state will be reset. Another question was, if it is possible to connect with friends, who do not have Facebook. This feature is already implemented in the mock-ups in form of an “Invite friends” – button, which opens an email for being forwarded to people. Reviewer 2 has overlooked this button, when he asked this question. Furthermore, it was not clear, if the label “All Users” means really all users. I have not thought about this before, but I came to the conclusion that the list would be very long, if it would show all users of the game. Therefore, I decided to display only users, who are close to the current logged user’s position.

5.3.9 Settings View The settings view was well received, except that it was mentioned that the font is too small, as well as the buttons. The reviewers said it was diﬃcult to read the text, and that a font with serifs should be used. Since the settings view is not implemented in the prototype, this feedback was not further considered. In the ﬁnal game revision, these suggestions will be implemented.

5.4 User Tests of Functional Prototype

As part of the master’s thesis, a user study about the implemented prototype was conducted. The purpose of this user study was to ﬁnd answers to the research question, Can the concept of a mobile social digital pet exergame motivate people to improve their physical activities?. Furthermore, it was strived after ﬁnding answers to how the integrated social game mechanic in this concept is appreciated, and if the design and interaction with the prototype meets the user’s requirements. In the following sections, the preparation phase of the user study and the evaluation of the test persons’ feedback are described in detail.

5.4.1 Preparations Initially, a detailed study plan was established for determining the participants, setting and components of the study. A detailed description of the study plan can be found in the section Components. After completing the study plan, attempts were made to find five people, who fit into the target group. The target group is represented by unathletic persons in the age group of 20 to 35, who do either no sport at all or not regularly every week. Additionally, they should have a certain knowledge in technology for being able to use a smartphone. In order to find five participants for the user study, an advertisement for participating in the study was posted on a social media platform. The purpose of

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this distribution approach was to reach as many people as possible in order to find the required amount of test persons. The search after five participants appeared to be more difficult than I thought, because people either wanted to have a compensation for their effort, or did not fit into the target group. Furthermore, it was ensured that no participant took part in one of the previous reviews for the sketches, wireframes and mock-ups in order to prevent a bias in the previous knowledge about Spox. However, in the end, five test persons, who were willing to participant voluntarily in the user study, were found. In the section Participants, a detailed description about those five people is given. Before the user study was finally conducted, a pilot study was performed for making sure that the five given tasks were understandable and it would not take too much time to solve them. The test candidate is a colleague of mine and has seen the prototype before the pilot study. Therefore, the solving time results of the pilot study are slightly biased because of previous knowledge.

Components At the beginning of the session, the participants received an informed consent sheet about participating voluntarily in the user study. The sheet explains that the session is audio and video recorded and eventually transcribed, and that the data is anonymously used in the master’s thesis. The test persons had to sign this sheet for being able to move to the next step. Then, the participants had to ﬁll in a screening questionnaire for gathering basic information about them. This questionnaire consists of eleven questions, which concern the sport habits and smartphone usage of the participants, as well as personal information, such as name, age, gender and occupation. The results of this questionnaire are summarized in the section Participants. The screening questionnaire was followed then by a think-aloud study, where each participant had to perform ﬁve given tasks while using the prototype of the mobile social digital pet exergame. These tasks are:

1. Create a pet

2. Gain a room in your pet’s gym

3. Place a ﬁtness equipment in one room

4. Trade a good

5. Simulation of Multiplayer Mode

In task one to four, the participants have to follow the description in the respective task. Task 5 is a simulation of the multiplayer mode, where the participant has to team up

92 5.4. User Tests of Functional Prototype with a friend. I pretend to be the connected friend of the participant and show the test person that the shared room in the pet’s gym is unlocked. Then, we start the same sport simultaneously and receive the double amount of goods after stopping the tracking. This simulation is included in the think-aloud study in order to give the participants a feeling of a collaboration with another person within the game and to demonstrate the advantages of working together. In each tasks, time was measured to see how easy it is to understand the game concept and the interaction with the game. Additionally, notes were taken about the participants’ feedback and explanations. To engage people to talk freely about their thoughts, a detailed instruction about what a think-aloud study is and what the participants are supposed to do during this study was given at the beginning of each session. For example, it was explained that the test persons should talk about what they find confusing, which questions arise during the tasks and which decisions they take. It was especially highlighted in the instructions that nothing, what the participants are saying, is wrong. The results of the thinking-aloud study can be found in section Evaluation Think-aloud Study. After the think-aloud study, a semi-structured interview was conducted in order to find out, how the participants like the game, how it can be improved and which difficulties occurred while using the game. Eleven questions determined in advanced in combination with meanwhile occurring questions were asked during the interviews. The purpose of the interviews is to find answers to the questions, if the participants would use the game in their daily life, if it would motivate them to do physical activity, and if they would use it in collaboration with another person. The results of the interview can be found in section Evaluation Semi-Structured Interview. Further theoretical information about each applied approach can be found in Chapter 3. The informed consent sheet, screening questionnaire, task list, logging sheet and interview guideline can be found in the User Tests Appendix section.

Participants In the following paragraphs, the results of the screening questionnaire are summarized in order to present the five participants of the user study, their smartphone usage and sport habits. The participants filled in the screening questionnaire at the beginning of their session. Participant 1 is a 29-year-old female student, who likes to make music, meet friends and watch movies and series in her spare time. Her smartphone usage is mediocre, because she checks her phone approximately every three hours and uses it for staying in contact with her friends, taking pictures and surfing the Web. Playing games on her smartphone does not belong to one of the purposes, why she is using her phone. Participant 1 does sport approximately once a month, and then she plays badminton, goes bicycling or hiking. While exercising, she does not use any fitness applications and gadgets, such as pulse trackers.

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Participant 2 is a 24-year-old male TV engineer, who likes to sing and do construction projects. He always checks his phone, if a message comes in, and uses his smartphone for basically everything, e.g., look up things and contact friends. Participant 2 never does any sports, wherefore he also does not use any gadgets or applications while exercising. He does not see any connection between sports and fitness applications, because in his opinion, the motivation should come from oneself and not from an app. Participant 3 is a 25-year-old female IT engineer, who likes to play music and dance in her spare time. She always checks her phone, if she receives a message and uses her smartphone for communication, information gathering and social purposes. Participant 3 tries to run or go to gym and dance classes every second week, and also likes to play badminton with friends. While running, she uses the fitness application Runkeeper. Participant 4 is a 20-year-old female student, who dances, bakes and spends time with her friends in her free time. She always checks her phone, if she receives a message, otherwise she uses her smartphone for calling and texting people, surfing the Web and staying up-to-date on social media platforms. Participant 4 goes to the gym approximately twice a month and uses no gadgets or fitness applications while being there. Participant 5 is a 26-year-old male shop assistant, who likes to play computer games, go out with friends and to ski. Because of his hobby to play computer games, he has the most experiences in digital games of all participants. If he receives a message, then he always checks his phone directly. Furthermore, he uses his smartphone for staying in contact with friends over social media platforms and for making calls. Participant 5 does sports once a month and then he goes running or bicycling. He also plays bowling, but he does not count this as a sport type. While exercising, participant 5 does not use any smart gadgets or fitness applications.

Setting The user study about the implemented prototype of Spox was conducted in a quiet group room at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Each session time of one participant took approximately 30 to 40 minutes and was audio and video recorded in order to achieve more detailed results while analysing afterwards by being able to listen to the thinking-aloud study and the semi-structured interview a second time. Each participant received a smartphone, where Spox was already installed as an Android application, to remove potential problems beforehand caused by diﬀerent screen sizes of the participants’ phones and possible occurring problems while installing the game on another phone. Main purpose of the prepared smartphone is to save time, so that more time can be spent on the crucial parts of the user study, the think-aloud study and the following interview. It was tried to create a welcoming and friendly atmosphere for the participants, so that they feel relaxed and comfortable. This is important to ensure that people are talking freely about their thoughts with knowing that nothing, what they are saying, is wrong.

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Additionally, the test persons were engaged to speak by a “Keep talking” – sign to not disturb them in their thoughts by asking questions. If the participants still did not talk, questions, such as “What are you thinking?”, “What are you trying to do?” and “Tell me about decisions you are making.”, were asked. Help was only provided, if it was necessary, otherwise I tried to be silent and to not disturb the participants in their thinking aloud. Figure 5.4 shows the set-up of the user study. A participant is using Spox on the prepared smartphone while being audio and video recorded. The "Keep talking" - sign stands next to the laptop.

Figure 5.4: Set-up of the user study with a partcipant using Spox

5.4.2 Evaluation Think-aloud Study Within the think-aloud study, the five participants had to perform five tasks while using the prototype of Spox. The think-aloud study is supposed to help finding out, how the interaction with the game takes place and how well its concept is received. In the following paragraphs, the feedback to each single task is summarized and analysed.

Task 1 - Create A Pet All five participants did not encounter any problems while creating a pet as the first step in the user study. Each test person started the creation by giving the pet a name, then choosing its gender and finally picking the preferable type of animal. An interesting fact is that four of five participants chose a male pet independent of their own gender and named their pet differently than themselves. An explanation for this gender and name choice cannot be given. Four of five participants said directly at the beginning that they like the graphics and think that the pets are looking cute. Furthermore, also four of five participants started directly after the creation of a pet an activity, although this was not part of the first task and not the first step of the second task. In order to receive as much feedback as possible, I did not disturb them in their discovery of the prototype. It showed, that the participants did not understand on their own that they are supposed to do the tracked

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activity in real life next to the animal. A reason, why the fifth test person did not start directly an activity at the beginning, might be that she has experiences in doing user studies, wherefore she knows that test people are supposed to follow the given task list. The average solution time of task 1 was 00:53 min, whereby participant 1 represents an outlier, because she needed 02:02 min for solving task 1. This above-average time is caused by a restart of the game, because participant 1 clicked on the “Create A Pet” – button to remove the keyboard for being able to see the selectable animals. However, the button forwarded her to the game view. But since she wanted to look at all types of animals, she had to restart the game and re-enter the data. Participant 5 suggested directly while creating a pet, that he would wish to select from a wider range of animal types than it is currently provided. In the final game, the idea is to provide a significant higher range of animal types than it is available now in order to offer high customization to the users.

Task 2 - Gain a room in your pet’s gym Before all five participants went to the pet’s gym view, they explored first the navigation of Spox. It emerged clearly during the user study that test persons with game experiences found their way in the game, as well as understood the game concept and mechanics easier and quicker than the ones without any experiences. Four of five participants clicked first on the backpack to discover this view, before they either clicked on the phone or the door. Participant 3 had an own approach to discover the navigation by clicking quickly everywhere on the screen to see, if something is happening. This method worked partly good, because she found all features, but did not know, where she had clicked to open a feature. However, because of a forwarding delay to the pet’s gym, she thought that the backpack had directed her to this view, wherefore I had to explain her that she has to wait after clicking on the door. For the final game, this time delay has to be removed. After all participants had reached the gym view, four of them understood directly or after a short thinking time that they need the four required goods in order to enable the buy button. Participant 1 needed an indication on the required goods to understand this part of the game concept. In this context, participant 3 suggested to add an indicator at the required goods for buying a room to make it more visible, which goods she already has and which are missing. This suggestion was taken into account and is planned to be implemented in the final game revision, because it enhances the usability. Furthermore, all five test persons assumed correctly that the longer they do an activity, the more goods and points they will receive. But since a prototype was built, this concept was not implemented. Participant 1 and 2 tried the approach first to start different activities in order to gain different types of goods, which did not happen, because it is implemented in the prototype that the different animals are always collecting the two goods, they are good

96 5.4. User Tests of Functional Prototype at gathering them. Therefore, the two participants followed the method, which the other test persons did directly, by trading available goods in their inventory with required goods. After several trading steps, all participants knew that they can purchase the unlocked room in the pet’s gym, if they own all required goods. The problem of not knowing or forgetting, which goods the test persons need, occurred several times. It did not seem to be a problem for the participants, because they did not complain about that in the retrospective interview afterwards. Therefore, a change of this purchase process is not considered for the ﬁnal game revision.

An interesting fact is that none of the participants tried to unlock the shared room by teaming up with a friend. Instead everyone concentrated on buying the ﬁrst available room, although it is a more time-consuming way than to unlock the room by connecting with a friend. An explanation for this behaviour might be that the buyable room is in the top left corner, which is the starting point to read for western society, whereas the shared room is in the bottom.

The average solution time for task 2 is 05:28 min, whereby participant 4 represents an outlier, because she needed only 02:38 min for solving this task.

Task 3 - Place a ﬁtness equipment in one room

All participants except participant 1 found the store for the ﬁtness equipment directly by clicking on the shopping cart. After looking in the diﬀerent views of Spox, participant 1 found the store as well under the shopping cart. Since all test persons did not have enough goods to buy one item instantly, they started an activity for receiving goods. Subsequently, they traded these goods with the required goods. In this task, the problem of forgetting, which goods are required to buy an item, occurred again.

The average solution time for task 3 is 02:26 min, which is approximately half of the needed time in task 2. This time diﬀerence might be caused by the knowledge of how to gain goods and use them to buy something in the game.

After buying a ﬁtness equipment, the test persons also tried to place the item in a room. Only participant 4 and 5 knew directly that they have to drag and drop the item from the information bar to a place in the bought room. The other participants tried several approaches, e.g., clicking and dragging the whole information bar, until they found out, how the placing in this game works. Participant 1 reasoned her failed placing trials with inexperience in playing digital games, but thinks that other people with more experience would have known that directly.

Participant 5 asked for the purpose of the pet’s gym after completing task 3, and after receiving an answer, he recognized that the customer satisfaction display had increased. In this context, he suggested to animate the ﬁtness equipment to make the gym view more dynamically, because in his opinion, it looks static.

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Task 4 - Trade a good Four of five participants had no problem with trading a good, because they realized directly that they had done this process before while buying a room and fitness equipment. For that reason, the average solution time for this task is 00:58 min. Participant 5 represents an outlier with 02:40 min, because he got his wires crossed. He did not know, where he can trade goods, although he had done it before all the time to receive the required goods for buying a room and fitness equipment. After one minute, he understood that he had traded goods before. Since he knew, how to do this process, he had no problems to solve the task then.

Task 5 - Simulation of Multiplayer Mode Participant 1, 3 and 5 found the friends view directly by clicking on the phone, because they had explored its function before. In contrast to that, participant 2 and 4 looked first into the other views in order to find the possibility of connecting with a friend, until they clicked on the telephone. Both participants, 2 and 4, said immediately that they would not associate an old telephone with friends and suggested to change it to a smartphone. Another idea of an icon or furniture did not come into their minds. After teaming up with a friend, I explained all participants the multiplayer mode by pretending to be their connected friend. I showed them that they receive the double amount of goods, if they start the same activity simultaneously with their connected friend. Furthermore, I demonstrated that the shared room is now unlocked. All participants understood the concept of the multiplayer mode and four of them would use the game in collaboration with a friend, because they appreciate the possibility of social interaction. Participant 2 would not use the game at all, because he does not see any relation between a game or fitness application and sports, wherefore he would also not use it in collaboration with another person. The average solution time for this simulation of multiplayer mode is 02:06 min.

5.4.3 Evaluation Semi-Structured Interview Within the semi-structured interview, eleven questions determined in advanced in combination with meanwhile occurring questions were asked in order to ﬁnd out how the game was perceived by the ﬁve participants.

Like In general, the game was very well received and appreciated by all participants. Only participant 2 did not like the game concept, because he does not see any relation between doing sports and using an application. But he has this problem with all ﬁtness applications and not only with the tested prototype in particular. In his opinion, he does not need to boost his motivation to do physical activity, because the motivation should come from

98 5.4. User Tests of Functional Prototype himself. Furthermore, he thinks that you can also cheat in the game, if you just start an activity without exercising in real life. To cheat is possible in the prototype, but it is supposed to be counteracted in the final game by implementing accelerometers, which can track precisely, if the users performs correctly the right fitness exercise. And if they do not track any fitness activity, then consequently, users will not receive any goods and the pet will not become healthy and happy. Apart from that, the other test persons liked the game concept, because the game shows them directly their sport performance reflected in the health and mood state of the pet. Indeed, participant 3 asked herself, if it would make any difference, if only a health bar would be displayed without a pet and said in the first moment “No”. But then she came to the conclusion that it would affect her, if the pet would get very sad. Therefore, she would get attached to the pet, as well as test person 4, who liked that she has to work out in order to help the animal to be happy and healthy. Furthermore, test person 4 said that the pet and the development of the gym would motivate her more to physical activity than just having a number of kilometres, which she has ran on the day. All participants liked the graphics, design and the clear way, how Spox is built. Participant 1 thought that the comic style of the graphics fits into the context of a Tamagotchi and participant 3, 4 and 5 understood all metaphors, because they are good and logically selected for them, e.g. the backpack for inventory or the phone for friends. Test person 5 thought that the health bar is interesting, because it decreases so quickly, and because of only one tracked activity, it increases to 100%. He could not comprehend that, but understood that it is set like that for demonstration purposes in the prototype. Furthermore, all test persons except participant 2 appreciated the multiplayer feature and would play the game therefore in collaboration with another person, because then the activity can be seen as something, which they do together with a friend, and because they benefit of the collaboration. Participant 3 mentioned as an example Runkeeper, which motivates her a lot to do sports, because she can see, when a friend has done physical activity, and can comment on that. Test person 5 even said that there is practically no usage for the single player mode, because if you want to proceed fast in the game, then you are dependent on the multiplayer mode. Each participant mentioned different examples as the best thing in Spox. Participant 1 liked that she had to think about a strategy and tactic while trading goods, because she needs the goods afterwards. Participant 3 liked the gamification way of having a concrete goal, doing an exercise, in order to gain a virtual good, which makes her able to buy an item or room. To develop a gym and get attached to the pet, although it is not a human, was the best thing for test person 4. She thought this aspect is interesting and participant 1 agreed on that, because for her, the pet seems like a mascot, which takes her hand and says “Hey, let’s do sports”. Test person 1 expressed that this pet is more playful than a human avatar would be. In her opinion, this is important in sports, because instincts instead of intellectuality and exercitation are addressed in physical activity, wherefore you can act out and let off steam. She combines doing sports and playfulness with being a child, and therefore she liked that the game pursued a cute

99 5. User Tests

approach. In the ﬁrst moment, participant 1 also meant that the target group of Spox would be children because of the design, but after she had played it, she did not think this anymore. Participant 5 thought that customization and making is own choice were the best things in Spox, e.g. that he can choose which ﬁtness equipment he buys and where he places it afterwards. Furthermore, he liked that he can create and design his own gym without having any other person restricting him in his thinking process.

Dislike Participant 1 did not like that she felt that it took her longer than others to understand, which buttons she has to press and how everything works, and that she needed help to understand the interaction, e.g. placing a fitness equipment. She meant that others would have been faster than her in solving the tasks, if they would have more experiences in playing games. However, participant 3 and 4 encountered this difficulty in the navigation in the beginning as well, because they did not know, where to press and how the placing of the fitness equipment works. Test person 3 did not understand by herself that the door forwards her to the pet’s gym. But she did not know to which icon or furniture the door could be changed in order to understand this link better. Participant 4 did not like that it was not explained, where she has to click. The problem of not knowing and understanding the navigation and interaction of the game will be solved by implementing an interactive tutorial, where users learn, which elements link them to which view, as well as how the first steps in the game are. A tutorial was already planned, but not implemented in the prototype because of the limits of the master’s thesis. Test person 2 did not like something in particular, because the graphical user interface and interaction was good and he knew, where to push all times. But it took him a while to understand, what he actually has to do, because he did not understand the tasks. Furthermore, he did not understand the metaphor of the telephone, so that he is forwarded to the friends view by clicking there. After he thought of it in the interview, he said he might have understood it, but he does not associate a telephone with his friends, especially not an old one. For that reason, the old telephone will be replaced by a smartphone in order to make this metaphor of calling friends more obvious. Participant 3 did not like that she had to complete several steps from the actual exercise until she could gain her reward. If she wanted to buy a room or fitness equipment, she had to trade, which took some time, because she had to figure out first, what she needs. Instead, she would have wanted to be done with the trading and to get directly her reward. The game flow will not be changed of Spox, but this problem is supposed to be solved by adding a tutorial in the beginning and changing the amount of goods to buy the first room. So that it will become easier for users to do their first purchase in the game than it is now. Test person 5 did not like the gym view, because it is not clearly understandable in the beginning. After he unlocked the first room, he comprehended the concept and it was fine for him. Furthermore, he thought that the game contains too

100 5.4. User Tests of Functional Prototype little animations and content in order to communicate the feeling of a real game. But he understood that this is caused by the fact that he tested a prototype and not the ﬁnal game. Because of the little animations, participant 5 noted that the game seems too static, especially in the gym, because nothing is moving. Additionally, he did not like that he could not move the ﬁtness equipment after he has placed it once. The problem of static views will be solved by adding more animations in the game. Furthermore, the feature of changing the position of an already placed item will be also implemented. More animations were already planned, but not implemented in the prototype because of the limits of the master’s thesis.

Improvement The most frequently mentioned improvement is adding an interactive tutorial, which explains and provides a possibility to experience the interaction and the flow of the game. Although all participants did not encounter any problems after orienting themselves in the game, they would have wished to see directly which items are clickable by highlighting or animating them in the beginning. Adding a tutorial is planned to implement in the final game revision, but is not implemented in the prototype because of the limits of the master’s thesis. The second most frequently mentioned improvement is adding more animations than currently implemented in the game. Participant 4 suggested to show the animated pet doing the same sports in the tracking view, as the user currently exercises, or to display the pet trading and buying the item, the user has purchased. Furthermore, participant 5 suggested to add animations in the gym view, so that the fitness centre looks more vivid than it is in the prototype, e.g. the fitness equipment is moving. Additionally, he added that it would be cool, if his friend’s pet would be displayed in the tracking view, if he would do physical exercises with his friend. Furthermore, test person 5 would have liked the pet to motivate him by saying “Let’s do sports together!”. During the interviews, good suggestions for missing animations were found, which are supposed to be implemented in the final game revision. Furthermore, the analogue telephone as metaphor for friends was not understood by all participants, wherefore they suggested to change this to a smartphone or a text message. Since this item evokes problems in understanding, it has to be changed to a smartphone. In this context, test person 3 suggested as well to add more social features, e.g. commenting on other activities, visiting friends’ pets and seeing a scoreboard of the pet’s gym. Additionally, she mentioned challenges, which can be sent to other people to compete with them, yet receiving the benefit of collaboration. Leaderboards are planned for the final game revision, as well as visiting the friends’ pets. The commenting feature will not be implemented, because it would not enhance the game experience. Instead it would counteract the dynamics of Spox. Challenging people is a nice idea to motivate others to do sports, wherefore this suggestion has to be considered for the final revision. Another improvement, which was mentioned by participant 1 and 5, is providing more

101 5. User Tests

different sport types to track than the five already existing types. Test person 1 suggested as possible sport types badminton and table tennis, because she thinks, these sport types are also suitable for playing in a team. To provide more than five sport types is planned to implement in the final game revision. For the prototype, the amount of selectable sport types was restricted for demonstration purposes. Furthermore, in this context, participant 3 and 5 would improve the game by adding a history view of previous tracked activities in order to be able to see, which sport types they have done, if alone or together and how many goods they have received and traded. Moreover, it was suggested to adjust the decrease and increase of the health bar, so that it does not increase directly to 100% after one activity. Also this is planned to adjust more precisely, but for demonstration purposes, it was chosen to show extreme changes in the health bar. Another improvement by participant 5 is to design the rooms in the gym in three- dimensions and in different colours, so that they are looking more like rooms as they do currently in the prototype. For him, it was a little bit difficult to understand the meaning of the squares in the beginning, but after he had unlocked the first one, the concept of a room was clear. In this context, he asked, what happens after unlocking all six rooms, if it is possible to go to right and left to unlock more rooms. In this case, the idea is that more than six rooms are available, so that users always have a drive to proceed in the game. Test person 5 also asked, if he could disconnect with his friend and connect with a new person, and if he does, what would happen with his shared room. On the one hand, resetting the room has the advantage of making the concept and overview easy and clear, but on the other hand, making it possible to have several shared rooms with different people would enhance the drive to play and do sports with more than one person. Since the goal of the game is to engage people to exercise, especially together, the approach of connecting with more than one person would benefit the achievement of this goal. Test person 2 suggested to remove the amount of goods and replace them by money, because otherwise there are so many steps to complete until you receive a reward, in her opinion. After a while playing the game, special valuable goods could be added, which can be gained by exercising over a long time period or by trying out new sport types. The amount of goods will not be changed in the final game, because the idea behind this amount is that users are working together. All types of pets can collect all goods, whereby two of them in an increased amount. If users exercise together, then they receive the double amount of goods, wherefore they can also collect a higher amount of goods than the two they are good at. Test person 5 agreed that that the amount of available goods is not too high. In fact, he would add more purchasable items, which are difficult to get, where he, e.g., needs 100 water or 100 steel to be able to buy them. Furthermore, he would like to be able to trade goods directly in the store, because the trading process was a little bit tedious for him. This problem could be solved by opening directly the trade dialogue, when it is clicked on the missing required goods in the store. Participant 2 could not find any improvements for the game, because he does not like

102 5.4. User Tests of Functional Prototype

ﬁtness applications at all.

Usage The results of the semi-structured interviews show that Spox would motivate four of five participants to do physical activity in collaboration with a friend. Participant 2 would be not engaged at all, because he cannot see any relation between sports and fitness applications because of missing interaction with his actual training. Therefore, he does not use any apps of this kind and thus would also not use Spox in real life. He meant that he tried once a fitness application, which showed him how to do exercises correctly, and that he could maybe see there a connection between the app and sports, but otherwise there is no relation for him. Furthermore, test person 2 said that he is not into Tamagotchis, wherefore he also would not use the game. But if the purpose of the game is to bring people together, then in his opinion, Spox fulfils its goal. However, participant 1, 3, 4 and 5 would definitely use the complete final game with all features in their daily life, whereby the multiplayer mode is significantly more attractive to them than the single player mode. All of them stated that they would use Spox in combination with a friend, because then it is an activity, which you do with your friend, and you can only proceed fast in the game, if you work together with someone. Test person 3 would be motivated to play the game especially in the beginning, because she would like to develop the gym and to know, what happens further in the game, but she does not know, if Spox would engage her for long-term. To know that, she would have to test it for a longer period than half an hour in order to see, if she would forge feelings for the pet. But since she uses Runkeeper because of the social aspect and the stats, she could definitely imagine to use such game as well. Participant 4 meant she would probably get hooked on the game, if a friend would recommend it to her, whereas test person 3 would recommend Spox to her friends while playing badminton in order to receive more points in the game. Test person 5 doubted a little bit in the beginning, if the game would motivate him to do physical activity, because he is not easily motivated and he does not know, if the app could manage to engage him. But during the think-aloud study, he was really into it and continued exploring the game, although he had completed all tasks. He wanted to find out, how the gym looks, when he has more fitness equipment. This behaviour shows that he was interested into the game and would have liked to play with it more. Additionally, participant 5 meant that he would maybe be so engaged to look into the game once a day and start an activity.

5.4.4 Summary The results of the user study showed that Spox was very well appreciated by four of ﬁve participants. Especially, the multiplayer mode was well received, because the test persons like the social aspect and to interact with other people, particularly when they beneﬁt of the collaboration. Furthermore, the game concept of having a pet and doing

103 5. User Tests

sports to make it happy was well received, as well as gaining goods in order to be able to buy something. Therefore, four of five participants could think of using the game in a complete final version in their daily life in collaboration with a friend. The game concept of Spox was not appreciated by one test person, due to the fact that he does not like fitness applications at all, because he cannot see any relation between sports and apps. However, he liked the design and solid structure of the game and thought that the game serves its purpose of motivating people to sport, if the persons like fitness applications and Tamagotchis. It became clear during the user study that test persons with digital game experiences found their way in the game, as well as understood the game concept and mechanics easier and quicker than the ones without any experiences. Nevertheless, all participants did not encounter any difficulties after the first step of orientating. Still an interactive tutorial has to be implemented in the beginning of the game to provide the possibility of understanding and getting to know the navigation and interaction of Spox, as well as the concept and goals. An interactive tutorial is chosen, because the participants stated that they can learn better, if they are doing the activity directly instead of watching a video. The results of the user study showed that certain suggestions of improvements are already planned to implement, but were not realized because of limits of the master’s thesis and limited testing time during the user study. These improvements are, e.g., a tutorial in the beginning of the game, which explains the interaction and goals of Spox, a precise adjustment of the health bar, leaderboards and a history view, where users can see their statistics and information about their previous tracked training. Other mentioned improvements, which are important to implement to enhance the game experience, are more animations than the currently available ones to make the game exciting and dynamically, and to change the old telephone, which forwards users to the friends view, to a smartphone. Furthermore, the design of the gym has to be changed by drawing the rooms in three-dimensions, because the participants encountered difficulties in the beginning while understanding that the squares in the gym represent rooms.

104 CHAPTER 6 Conclusion and Future Work

This thesis ends with a short summary of the results of the research and design process and a conclusion from these results. Then, a personal resume and recommendations about future work ﬁnalize this chapter.

6.1 Summary

The aim of the master’s thesis was to investigate if exergames can motivate people to physical activity. Therefore, within an extensive literature review, different theoretical fields were examined in order to gain first an overview and then a deepened knowledge about motivation, fitness applications, exergames, avatars, digital pets and game mechanics. Special attention was paid on social game mechanics to be able to answer the research question, Does a good game mechanic/gameplay exist to implement collaboration and competition in a mobile social digital pet exergame? If yes, how does it look like?. The results of the literature research showed that different game mechanics, especially social game mechanics, exist, whereby both collaborative and competitive game mechanics have their advantages and disadvantages. Since in the literature, no game mechanic was stated as the best and most successful one in order to implement social interaction, it was decided to implement a collaborative game mechanic. The reason for this is that people can become frustrated and demotivated while competing, which is not the case while collaborating. However, the enjoyment of the different kinds of multiplayer modes is depending on the individuals’ preferences [63]. The collaboration was implemented in the exergame in form of a business simulation game. Trying that the own digital pet becomes the owner of the best and most successful gym in the game, ensuring that the pet is happy and healthy, and proceeding faster by working together seems a good combination to support social interaction in a game. Furthermore, it was decided to implement a digital pet as a users’ representation, because a pet is more engaging for players to complete tended tasks than representations of the actual-self [6, 50].

105 6. Conclusion and Future Work

After the literature review, a human-centred design process was performed by applying various research methods, such as sketches, wireframes, mock-ups, personas and scenarios. After each applied method, feedback from three different people was gathered in order to design an adapted game to the users’ needs and requirements. Subsequently, based on the feedback and the results of the literature review, a functional prototype, called Spox, was implemented as a single-page application and compiled into an Android application. Finally, the functional prototype was tested within a user study, where five test persons participated a think-aloud study and a semi-structured interview. In the recruiting process of the participants, it was paid attention to find five people, who both did not know the idea and game concept of Spox and also have not seen the prototype before in order to avoid biases in understanding and interacting with Spox. The results of the user study showed that Spox was well appreciated by four of five participants. Especially, the multiplayer mode was well received, because the test persons liked the social aspect and to interact with other people. Furthermore, the game concept of having a pet and making it happy by exercising was well received, as well as gaining goods in order to be able to buy fitness equipment and rooms. The test persons liked to have a digital pet as a character, because it invoked in them a feeling of responsibility and care. According to Chen et al. (2013), the sense of taking care for other creatures is much more pronounced than taking care of yourself. Therefore, the relationship between owner and pet benefits task, which the owner does not want to do, e.g. exercising [6]. Four of five participants stated that they could think of using a final version of Spox in their daily life in collaboration with a friend. Therefore, the research question, Can the concept of a mobile social digital pet exergame motivate people to improve their physical activity?, respectively Can exergames motivate people to physical activity?, can be answered with yes within this study, whereby short-term curiosity and long-term motivation are not taken into account. These statements of the test persons confirm the results of the literature research, where socializing was mentioned as the main extrinsically aspect for exercising [2, 15]. Interacting with other people and feeling belonging to a community can lead to a higher engagement to sports than self-motivation [2]. However, to ensure that people keep doing sports, it has to be aimed to arouse intrinsic motivation in the persons. The results of the user study, especially of the semi-structured interview, showed that Spox made four of five participants curious to play the game, even though it is linked with doing physical activity in order to proceed in the game. One test person even did not stop playing the game during the interview, because he was interested in what else he can do in the game. The fifth participant of the user study did not appreciate Spox, because he does not like fitness applications at all. In his opinion, he does not need to boost his motivation to do physical activity by using an application, because the motivation should come from himself. Therefore, it can be said that the integrated extrinsically motivating features of the game were not engaging enough for him and he would have rather wanted to have game mechanics, which aim more on his intrinsic motivation. But he also stated, that

106 6.2. Future Work

Spox fulfils its goal by bringing people together and that the implementation of the game by itself is well made. It is clear that Spox cannot satisfy everyone, but if it fulfils its purposes and is appealing to people, who like fitness applications and digital pets, then it can be seen as a success. Furthermore, the results of the user study showed that the integrated social game mechanic, collaboration within a business simulation game approach, was well appreciated, because the test persons like to interact with other people, especially if they benefit of this collaboration. The fact that the different abilities of the various digital pets in the exergame complete each other would engage the test persons to play in a team, because they would be stronger together as alone. This assertion is corroborated by Rocha et al. (2008) by stating that the complementing and synergy between capabilities engages users to play together by making them proceeding faster and more powerful in the game, as if they would master the game on their own [64]. The social aspect was recognized as one of the crucial parts of the game and as one of the incentives to play it. This outcome answers the research question, How is the integrated social game mechanic appreciated?.

6.2 Future Work

One of the most important future steps of the master’s thesis is to implement a final version of Spox in order to provide a real-life game experience and to be able to conduct further user tests. Therefore, it is essential to implement a database, which can save all users and their game states globally, so that users can continue playing their current game after closing it. Furthermore, during the user study, it became obvious that a tutorial is significant for the game to understand its functions and goals. Although it is stated in the literature that manuals, tutorials and long instructions should be avoided [13, 33], an interactive tutorial would enhance the usability and game experience of Spox, as well as avoid misunderstandings and irritations. Additionally, during the semi-structured interview of the user study, it was also mentioned several times to implement more animations than the currently available ones in order to make the game more exciting and dynamically. Therefore, another step is to implement more animations, especially in three-dimensions, to enhance the game experience and to make Spox look more realistic. Interactions with the digital pet have to be improved and complemented as well. By implementing more interaction possibilities in the game, a deepening of the relationship between user and digital pet is aimed, as well as an increase of the feeling of responsibility to take care for the digital pet. In this context, more research has to be done about the close relationship between owner and pet. The correlation between this relationship and the engagement to tasks, which the owner does not want to do, contains significant elements that have a need for research. Important aspects for the motivation theory could be derived from these insights. Another significant prospective aspect is the implementation of a tracking history in

107 6. Conclusion and Future Work

Spox, because two of five participants in the user study and reviewers of the mock-ups were interested in seeing their previous tracked activities. The test persons would have wanted to look up, which sport types they have done, if alone or together, and how many goods they have received and traded. Monitoring user specific tracking data is one of the main features of fitness applications [9, 22, 24], wherefore the implementation of self-monitoring and a profile showing the users’ development would make the exergame more serious and eventually less gamelike. In my opinion, this exercise history feature is important to implement, because it would engage another group of people than the main target group to use Spox. Furthermore, it can be also interesting for non-athletic people to see, how much they have worked out. However, it is important to investigate, if the provision of a tracking history has influences on the motivation of people to do physical activity. Further steps to enhance the game experience of Spox are the implementation of more selectable sport types and digital pets, and the implementation of all functions in the gym view. For example, in the gym view, customers are supposed go to the digital pet’s gym and to exercise, wherefore they need goods and fitness equipment to be satisfied. Additionally, the implementation of leaderboards in order to enhance the feeling of competition [61] and the implementation of anti-cheating mechanisms, such as accurate tracking and fair allocation of goods, are prospective steps in the design process of Spox. Finally, it is important to conduct a user study about the long-term motivation of exergames in order to be able to determine, if these games can motivate people, especially non-athletes, to physical activity for long-term. This long-term motivation could be tested, e.g., in a period of two months, where the participants are supposed to play Spox and write down their experiences and frequency usage in a diary.

6.3 Resume

My personal resume of the master’s thesis is that it was a good project in consideration of the existing knowledge and resources. The limits of the thesis restricted the extent of the research process, the development of the mobile social digital pet exergame prototype, as well as the user study, wherefore, for example, not all desired game mechanics could be implemented. The prototype contains only a small fraction of the whole game concept. However, the three research questions could be answered and the results of the user study showed that the exergame was well appreciated. Four of five participants of the user study would have wanted to play the final version of Spox, which I see as a great success of the game concept, its implementation and exergames in general. However, it has to be considered that the small amount of participants, as well as the test persons’ background lead to a limited significance of the answers to the research questions. Therefore, general statements about the incentive effects of the developed game concept cannot be given in no case. To be able to add more significance to the results of this thesis, a larger group of more than five people has to test the prototype, whereby a diversity in the participants’ origin, education, health state and age has to be ensured.

108 List of Figures

2.1 Original model of the flow state [11] ...... 9 2.2 Current model of the flow state showing its eight reachable mental states [11] 9 2.3 The diagrams show the percentage of population per gender and region for overweight and obese people [18] ...... 12 2.4 Extended model of dual flow state for exergames [12] ...... 16 2.5 Digital representation of a human being in the game Sims 4 [46] ...... 22 2.6 Humanoid creature in the game World of Warcraft [47] ...... 22 2.7 Left: Smart virtual animal from the educational game My-Pet v2 [6]. Centre: Digital pets from the games Petz and Dogz [41]. Right: The game Tamagotchi [56]...... 25

3.1 The human-centred design process from ISO 13407 [65] ...... 36

4.1 Sketches of the first concept for the prototype. Left: main game view, which displays a living room of the pet’s home. Right: fighting mode, where the player’s pet can fight against other players’ pets...... 45 4.2 Sketches of the second concept for the prototype. Left: gym mode with locked rooms. Users have to do activities in order to gain goods, which are missing for buying rooms in the gym. Right: gym mode unlocked, where users can place fitness equipment in the different rooms...... 46 4.3 A picture of Jane Tender, the primary persona [76] ...... 47 4.4 A picture of Mark Balberg, the secondary persona [77] ...... 48 4.5 A picture of Jennifer Gothan, the non-persona [78] ...... 50 4.6 Scenario 1: Jane using Spox while walking home ...... 55 4.7 Scenario 2: Mark and his friend David using Spox simultaneously while playing football ...... 58 4.8 Three wireframes of the first idea of the mobile social digital pet exergame. Left: main game view. Centre: tracking view, where users can choose a particular sport type to start a tracking. Right: fighting view, where the own digital pet can fight against another user’s pet...... 59

109 4.9 Three wireframes of the final idea of the mobile social digital pet exergame. Left: main game view, which displays the living room of the pet. Centre: tracking view, where users can choose a particular sport type to start a tracking. Right: gym view unlocked, where users can place fitness equipment and have to increase the customer satisfaction of the pet’s gym...... 60 4.10 Three mock-ups of the mobile social digital pet exergame. Left: main game view, which displays the living room of the pet. Centre: tracking view, where users can choose a specific sport type to start an activity. Right: gym view, where users can place fitness equipment in already unlocked rooms...... 61 4.11 An extract of the file structure of Spox ...... 64 4.12 Left: view, which is displayed, when users enter the game for the first time. Centre: game view, when users have not done any physical activity for a while. Right: game view, when users have completed currently a tracking...... 66 4.13 Left: tracking view before an activity is started. Right: tracking view, while an activity is tracked...... 68 4.14 Left: gym view, where all rooms are locked and therefore empty. Right: gym view after playing Spox for a while...... 70 4.15 Left: store view of Spox. Right: backpack view with an opened trade dialogue. 71 4.16 Left: friends view, where the user is connected with another person. Right: game view, when the player has lost and it is game over...... 73

5.1 Left: Game view of version 1 of wireframes. Right: Create-a-pet view of version 1 of wireframes...... 78 5.2 Left: Tracking view of version 2 of wireframes. Right: Gym view of version 2 of wireframes...... 83 5.3 Left: Game view of mock-ups. Right: Tracking view of mock-ups...... 87 5.4 Set-up of the user study with a partcipant using Spox ...... 95

110 List of Tables

4.1 Representation of tracking parameters for each available sport type in Spox . 67 4.2 Representation of which pet collects which goods most frequently ...... 68

111

Acronyms

bpm beats per minute.

CSS Cascading Style Sheets. e.g. exempli gratia. et al. et alii. etc. et cetera.

GPS Global Positioning System.

HTML5 HyperText Markup Language 5. i.e. id est.

IT Information Technology.

JS JavaScript. kcal kilocalorie. kg kilogramme. km kilometre.

KTH Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan.

LCD Liquid-Crystal Display. m metre.

MP3 Moving Picture Experts Group Layer-3 Audio.

RP Redeemable Points.

113 TV TeleVision.

XP Experience Points.

114 Bibliography

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122 Appendix

Sketches Appendix

Version 1

123 124 Version 2

125 Wireframes Appendix

Version 1

126 127 128 Version 2

129 130 131 Mock-ups Appendix

132 133 User Tests Appendix

134 135 136 137 138 139