Happyinu: exploring how to use games and extrinsic rewards for consistent food tracking behavior

Consistent food tracking is important for weight loss. Many people struggle with forming and maintaining the habit because it is time consuming and generally un-enjoyable. We describe the design and initial field evaluation of HappyInu, a virtual pet-care game that we developed to promote consistent food tracking. HappyInu uses daily notifications to remind users to track, provides photo-based food tracking to make the process simpler and gives virtual and cash rewards for motivation. In our pilot study, users were excited about the game-based approach and they wanted more in-game tasks and rewards to be offered. Intrinsic rewards were more motivating than cash, particularly pleasure (fun) and the need to contribute to something meaningful. However, users played HappyInu on a casual (non-daily) basis, just as they did with other smartphone games. In this paper, we discuss users' perceptions on the role of games for behavior change and the implications on game design.

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