Over the last three months I’ve incorporated a variety of different gamification applications into my life, some I’ve looked into before, others I researched just to see what’s new in the world of gamification fitness applications. This blog covers two commercial applications Strava and Samsung Health, a look into commercial applications tied to these apps and just some of the research into community and gamification.

Strava

Strava is massive, its functionality is great and it does really what it says on the tin. It gamifies fitness. With its Points, challenges, clubs, etc, it’s one of the largest usages within the gamification application landscape. Of specific interest is the Segments functionality which allows users to compete over various parts of a map in various exercises, most notably running and cycling. These segments are created by users and allow others to race to complete the segment in personal bests, and competitively against other users. With the addition of various sensor extra elements can be tracked, such as heart rate, cadence in cycling, etc. Strava takes the principles of gamification to heart and the positive outcomes for users can be seen in research by Harris(2019). Harris took a group of cyclist and had them track usage via Strava, positive outcomes were witnessed by many of the participants. More rides completed, better tracking meant the participants used time more efficiently and more time was spent engaged in cycling.

I’ve seen similar circumstantial evidence in watching similar results, via Social Media, in the rucking challenges posted online by companies such as All Day Ruckoff and Go Ruck. Both have used the Strava application to allow participants to log their workouts around a community built on rucking – where participants carrying a weighted rucksack exercise by walking, or running to increase effort will complete various challenges, often 5k timed in real life and simulated events. At the heart of these challenges, and I would posit the real success, both the real world and simulated camaraderie of community building, so much so that Go Ruck has built its business in terms of community creation.

Samsung Health
Samsung Health, which I’ve previously written about here, is again very widespread. It’s main appeal being that it is tied to the Samsung android system, and thereby comes default installed on the platform. Again like Strava, it has various ‘Together” challenges allowing users to ‘race’ against one another and tracks themselves versus a wider community. Beyond that, it has built-in features allowing users to track Calories consumed, weight gain/loss, sleep cycles, heart rate, etc. The discover segment of the application allows users to explore various exercise programs, along with much broader articles on health, nutrition, and various fitness programs, podcasts for sleep and meditation, etc. The gamification elements stand out particularly because of the choice of graphic style and the stylized elements

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The real need for community
In both these applications and ones, I have previously discussed, to me the real stand out in both my usage and in what I have seen via research is the community aspects. I think a real distinction between the long term successes and failure of any gamified application in fitness rally comes down to the harnessing of an online community. I’ve previously noted the success of the US Army’s recruitment exercise program in real-world community building through its recruitment schemes compared to the British and Australian Armies gamified yet non-communal efforts in gamifing fitness applications which at times seemed like mere token elements.

Harris'(2019) works in the usage of Strava in competitive cycling, and Barratt’s(2017) research in more general fitness, point to the need for real community participation if business or governments what to harness the power of gamification. With this community involvement pushing it is much harder to ignore doing the right thing. No matter what kind of player you are, no matter what kind of rewards you’re seeking the challenges come alive when you are not only challenging yourself but when you involve others.

References:
Intro/Outro music was Elevator Music by Kevin Macleod the song is permitted for commercial use under license “Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)“ http://www.orangefreesounds.com/elevator-music/

Barratt, Paul 2017, ‘Healthy competition: A qualitative study investigating persuasive technologies and the gamification of cycling’, Health & Place, vol. 46, July 2017, pp. 328-336.

Harris, Marc Ashley 2019, ‘Maintenance of behaviour change following a community-wide gamification based physical activity intervention’, Preventive Medicine Reports, vol. 13, March 2019, pp. 37-40.