Understanding the exergame user experience : users' motivation, attitude and behaviour in a location-aware pervasive exergame for adolescent children
Abstract
The benefits of physical activity for adolescent children are well understood. Despite
this, within much of the Western World, children fail to achieve the recommended
guidelines for physical activity participation, spending too much time on sedentary
activities. Thanks to recent progressions in ubiquitous technologies, exergames -
exercise video games - have emerged as a potential solution to the problem. By
facilitating physical activity, and encouraging behavioural change within an enjoyable
and motivating context, exergames have the potential to remove some of the barriers
preventing many adolescents from sufficient physical activity participation. There
are, however, few studies of exergame systems that have looked at the impact of the
system over time. Additionally, many systems are not evaluated within ecologically
valid contexts. The result of this is a lack of real understanding on the efficacy of
exergame systems and their feasibility as a valid solution.
This thesis investigates the design, development, and evaluation of a locationaware
exergame for adolescent children: iFitQuest. Through analysis of two prolonged
use school-based evaluations, this research provides evidence on the ability of
exergames to facilitate physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour, when targeted
at adolescent children within a school context. The results of two evaluations
suggest that iFitQuest was enjoyable, motivating, and physically demanding, with
the ability to promote physical activity of all intensities in players with a range of
attitudes towards physical activity, their own physical activity abilities, and physical
activity participation backgrounds. The primary contribution of this thesis is the indepth
evaluation of the exergame user experience. Looking beyond the general success
of the system, the experience of individual players was analysed through the lens of
Bandura's theory of self-efficacy. Through a mixed-methods case study analysis, self-efficacy was established as an accurate method to explain and understand in-game
behaviour, in particular with respect to goal setting and game selection habits.
By influencing and moderating the players' motivation, attitude and in-game behaviour,
self-efficacy was established as a useful tool for future exergame practitioners.
Guidelines on the application of self-efficacy are provided, with respect to both analysis
and design. Additionally, through a naturalistic and prolonged evaluation, a
number of logistical and contextual lessons for the evaluation of exergames were established.
In particular, the use of a user-centred design approach for the development
of similar systems is validated through a series of design guidelines, which account for
the importance and influence of the evaluation context.