Let them play:  Experiences in the wild with a gamification and coaching system for young diabetes patients

Rieks op den Akker; Randy  Klaassen; Kim Bul; Pam Kato; Gert-Jan  van der Burg; Pierpaulo di Bitonto

Let them play: Experiences in the wild with a gamification and coaching system for young diabetes patients

Rieks op den Akker
, Randy Klaassen
, Kim Bul
, Pam Kato
, Gert-Jan van der Burg
, Pierpaulo di Bitonto

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

Abstract

In this paper we describe a platform that integrates gaming and
coaching for adolescent patients with type 1 diabetes and results
from user evaluations of the platform. The purpose of the
platform is to support patients in diabetes self-management
through educational game playing, monitoring and motivational
feedback, and to support patients’ care givers. We
describe the design of the platform referring to principles from
health care, persuasive system design and game design. The
virtual coach is a game guide that can also provide personalized
feedback about the user’s daily care related activities
which have value for making progress in the game world. We
report about user evaluations in the wild which revealed that
some assumptions made about how users are connected to the
platform were not satisfied in reality, resulting in less optimal
user experiences. We discuss challenges with suggestions
for further development of integrated pervasive coaching and
gamification platforms.

Original language	English
Pages	1-10
Number of pages	11
Publication status	Published - 23 May 2016
Event	11th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare - Barcelona, Spain Duration: 23 May 2017 → 26 May 2017 Conference number: 11 http://archive.pervasivehealth.org/2017/show/accepted-papers

Conference

Conference	11th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare
Country/Territory	Spain
City	Barcelona
Period	23/05/17 → 26/05/17
Internet address	http://archive.pervasivehealth.org/2017/show/accepted-papers

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

gamification
digital coaching
diabetes education
user evaluations
self-management

Cite this

@conference{5f766fadb39340e1853b354254d81469,

title = "Let them play: Experiences in the wild with a gamification and coaching system for young diabetes patients",

abstract = "In this paper we describe a platform that integrates gaming and coaching for adolescent patients with type 1 diabetes and results from user evaluations of the platform. The purpose of the platform is to support patients in diabetes self-management through educational game playing, monitoring and motivational feedback, and to support patients{\textquoteright} care givers. We describe the design of the platform referring to principles from health care, persuasive system design and game design. The virtual coach is a game guide that can also provide personalized feedback about the user{\textquoteright}s daily care related activities which have value for making progress in the game world. We report about user evaluations in the wild which revealed that some assumptions made about how users are connected to the platform were not satisfied in reality, resulting in less optimal user experiences. We discuss challenges with suggestions for further development of integrated pervasive coaching and gamification platforms.",

keywords = "gamification , digital coaching, diabetes education, user evaluations, self-management",

author = "\{op den Akker\}, Rieks and Randy Klaassen and Kim Bul and Pam Kato and \{van der Burg\}, Gert-Jan and \{di Bitonto\}, Pierpaulo",

year = "2016",

month = may,

day = "23",

language = "English",

pages = "1--10",

note = "11th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare ; Conference date: 23-05-2017 Through 26-05-2017",

url = "http://archive.pervasivehealth.org/2017/show/accepted-papers",

}

TY - CONF

T1 - Let them play

T2 - 11th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare

AU - op den Akker, Rieks

AU - Klaassen, Randy

AU - Bul, Kim

AU - Kato, Pam

AU - van der Burg, Gert-Jan

AU - di Bitonto, Pierpaulo

N1 - Conference code: 11

PY - 2016/5/23

Y1 - 2016/5/23

N2 - In this paper we describe a platform that integrates gaming and coaching for adolescent patients with type 1 diabetes and results from user evaluations of the platform. The purpose of the platform is to support patients in diabetes self-management through educational game playing, monitoring and motivational feedback, and to support patients’ care givers. We describe the design of the platform referring to principles from health care, persuasive system design and game design. The virtual coach is a game guide that can also provide personalized feedback about the user’s daily care related activities which have value for making progress in the game world. We report about user evaluations in the wild which revealed that some assumptions made about how users are connected to the platform were not satisfied in reality, resulting in less optimal user experiences. We discuss challenges with suggestions for further development of integrated pervasive coaching and gamification platforms.

AB - In this paper we describe a platform that integrates gaming and coaching for adolescent patients with type 1 diabetes and results from user evaluations of the platform. The purpose of the platform is to support patients in diabetes self-management through educational game playing, monitoring and motivational feedback, and to support patients’ care givers. We describe the design of the platform referring to principles from health care, persuasive system design and game design. The virtual coach is a game guide that can also provide personalized feedback about the user’s daily care related activities which have value for making progress in the game world. We report about user evaluations in the wild which revealed that some assumptions made about how users are connected to the platform were not satisfied in reality, resulting in less optimal user experiences. We discuss challenges with suggestions for further development of integrated pervasive coaching and gamification platforms.

KW - gamification

KW - digital coaching

KW - diabetes education

KW - user evaluations

KW - self-management

M3 - Paper

SP - 1

EP - 10

Y2 - 23 May 2017 through 26 May 2017