Understanding the wearable fitness tracker revolution

The goal of this study was to examine why individuals purchase wearable fitness trackers and explore their usage patterns. Four focus groups were conducted with 31 participants who shared their thoughts on their purchase intentions, fitness behaviors, and how they used their various fitness trackers. Several themes emerged from their discussions which shed light on this emerging technology. Aspects of gamification and the diffusion of innovation were evident in how participants chose to purchase and use trackers because of the need to compete with friends and family and hold themselves accountable when it came to being psychically fit. The importance of esthetics and virtual rewards were also influences that impacted users’ opinions of their fitness trackers. The findings suggest the importance of social pressure, personal accountability, and gamification when it comes to purchasing and using a wearable fitness tracker during leisure time activity.

[1]  Edward F. McQuarrie,et al.  Focus Groups: Theory and Practice , 1991 .

[2]  Brian Cugelman.  Gamification: What It Is and Why It Matters to Digital Health Behavior Change Developers , 2013, JMIR serious games.

[3]  Mor Naaman,et al.  Fitter with Twitter: Understanding Personal Health and Fitness Activity in Social Media , 2013, ICWSM.

[4]  Sebastian Deterding,et al.  The Lens of Intrinsic Skill Atoms: A Method for Gameful Design , 2015, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[5]  Nazaret Gómez-del-Río,et al.  Exploring the Benefits of Using Gamification and Videogames for Physical Exercise: a Review of State of Art , 2018, Int. J. Interact. Multim. Artif. Intell..

[6]  Fred D. Davis,et al.  Development and Test of a Theory of Technological Learning and Usage , 1992 .

[7]  David Stewart,et al.  Online Focus Groups , 2017 .

[8]  Juho Hamari,et al.  Does Gamification Work? -- A Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Gamification , 2014, 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[9]  Dong-Hee Shin,et al.  An acceptance model for smart watches: Implications for the adoption of future wearable technology , 2015, Internet Res..

[10]  Johnny Saldaña,et al.  Fundamentals of Qualitative Research , 2011 .

[11]  Ko de Ruyter,et al.  Gamification and Mobile Marketing Effectiveness , 2015 .

[12]  Fred D. Davis.  Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology , 1989, MIS Q..

[13]  Kenton O'Hara,et al.  Gamification. using game-design elements in non-gaming contexts , 2011, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[14]  Richard A. Krueger,et al.  Focus groups : a practical guide for applied research / by Richard A. Krueger , 1989 .

[15]  Gösta Samuelson,et al.  Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health , 2004 .

[16]  Joy C. MacDermid,et al.  Reliability of Zephyr Bioharness and Fitbit Charge Measures of Heart Rate and Activity at Rest, During the Modified Canadian Aerobic Fitness Test, and Recovery , 2017, Journal of strength and conditioning research.

[17]  E. Rogers.  Diffusion of Innovations , 1962 .

[18]  Joy A. Frechtling,et al.  Characteristics of the Discussion in Online and Face-to-Face Focus Groups , 2002 .

[19]  Leonard H. Epstein,et al.  Choice of interactive dance and bicycle games in overweight and nonoverweight youth , 2007, Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

[20]  Alexandre N. Tuch,et al.  Disassembling gamification: the effects of points and meaning on user motivation and performance , 2013, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[21]  Anastasis D. Petrou.  Review of “Persuasive technology: Using computers to change what we think and do by B. J. Fogg” Morgan Kaufmann, 2003 , 2003 .

[22]  James A. Landay,et al.  Design requirements for technologies that encourage physical activity , 2006, CHI.

[23]  Louis Leung,et al.  Multiple determinants of life quality: the roles of Internet activities, use of new media, social support, and leisure activities , 2005, Telematics Informatics.

[24]  Steven Landry,et al.  Wearables data integration: Data-driven modeling to adjust for differences in Jawbone and Fitbit estimations of steps, calories, and resting heart-rate , 2017, Comput. Ind..

[25]  Earl L. Taylor,et al.  The Diffusion of Innovation , 2013 .

[26]  Robin Wright,et al.  Wearable Technology: If the Tech Fits, Wear It , 2014 .

[27]  S. van Dulmen,et al.  Advantages of asynchronous online focus groups and face-to-face focus groups as perceived by child, adolescent and adult participants: a survey study , 2014, BMC Research Notes.

[28]  B. Fogg.  The ethics of persuasive technology , 2003 .