Abstract
The paper presents and discusses a participatory project of a transmedia application Muoviti! based on biofeedback data to be used both with smartphones and wearable devices aimed to help people practising a regular and moderate physical activity in order to stay healthy and motivated. The application has been co-design with users – both female and male, age 30-50 – using a participatory approach to understand the needs, aspirations and behaviours of this particular segment of people. Different human-centered design research methods have been adopted – such as co-design workshops, personas
& scenarios based user tests, open questions interviews, and surveys – to have deep insights according to different criteria included in the Behavioral Change Techniques taxonomy developed by Michie. The results of the experimental
phase – along with an extensive benchmark focused on commercial applications already shared on the mobile marketplaces, and an expert heuristic analysis – have suggested significant changes in the app’s features, user experience, and interface design, which have been assessed with users in a second design/user test iterative cycle. In particular, the people feedbacks and dislikes were addressed to the competition culture, and privacy issues. In a further stage of the research project, a pilot of the software will be tested by the users after a month-long use to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the app in the health behaviour-changing process.