When Wii doesn't Fit
Lindsay Reynolds, Victoria Schwanda Sosik, Dan Cosley · 2013
This paper highlights the reactions of non-beginners to gamification in persuasive health technologies data from a month-long 15-person study of first time Wii Fit users. Participants represent beginners and non-beginners with respect to past fitness experiences and current goals, and we find that these starting points affect their experiences with the system. While beginners respond positively to gamified elements in Wii Fit, these same elements have a detrimental effect on non-beginners' experiences, leading them to abandon the system as a fitness tool. This suggests the need for gamification in persuasive systems to better consider the nuanced context of use, and we recommend ways in which tools like Wii Fit can use gamification to motivate users with varied levels of experience with the target behavior.