Health gamification: Lose It! Mobile app
In April 2013, Marketdata Enterprises, Inc published its biennial report (that is, once every two years!) “The US Weight Loss and Diet Monitoring Market (12th Edition)”. According to the study, 108 million Americans diet. That’s more than a third of the total population of the United States. Marketwise, the Weight Loss market grew 1.7% in 2012 with revenues of R $ 61.6 billion in 2012 compared to $ 60.6 billion in 2011.
Strictly speaking, the 1.7% growth is pretty flat, but there are 2 factors to put into perspective:
The first is that the market value is still huge (we’re talking billions of dollars here) and industry revenue is still forecast to grow 2.6% in 2013. The main market shift will be seen in the consumer behavior, with the rise of online diets and the generation of people doing DIY diets. Online diet income is estimated at $ 1.1 billion, but it is growing 8% per year, which is quite fast compared to the overall growth of the market. We are talking here about websites like Sparkpeople.com, Fitday.com and myfitnesspal.com.
The second trend regarding DYI dieters is obviously tied to the hundreds of mobile apps that help people lose weight. Today we are going to review the free Lose it! through the prism of healthcare gamification, which is one of the most popular apps with over 20 million estimated downloads on the Appstore and Google Play Store.
Lose it! describes itself as helping you set a “daily calorie budget, track your eating and exercise, and stay motivated to make smarter decisions and achieve your goal. We believe it is the best and smoothest calorie loss system. weight available “.
As of December 2013, Lose It! claims it helped people lose 26 million pounds (nearly 12,000 tons). That’s a pretty impressive figure (the equivalent weight of over 7,500 cars!).
There are several great features available in the app; We’ll take a look at 5 of them and see how they are using game mechanics to make it a successful example of healthcare gamification.
Progression dynamics
It all starts with setting a goal for yourself. Enter information about yourself so that the application defines your metabolism, defines how much weight you want to lose, and then the application calculates a personalized program for you.
After setting the weight loss goal, a chart is displayed to provide the user with a simple visual representation of their goals by using the app.
Fixed Interval Rewards Schedules
Every 24 hours, users receive a daily calorie budget (the virtual currency of the application) and must manage it through nutrition, exercise, exercise, etc. The goal is to have a ‘green day’, which means you need to control your calorie budget.
Achievements
No wonder Lose It! gamifies the use of the application through badges. Although the designs are a bit dated, they are actually quite well thought out and reward the user for achieving different things:
– Just log in (congratulations on logging in, etc.)
– Short-term performance (First weight loss, etc.)
– Long-term performance (use of the last 4 weeks)
Complementary games
Lose it! integrates with the most popular health and fitness devices and apps available – we’re talking wireless scales, pedometers, workout apps, and more – to deliver a truly seamless and connected experience. For example, users can sync Lose It! with their NikeFuel Band that allows them to integrate the application with their other devices.
Real-time feedback
Lose it! allows users to connect with friends, family, colleagues, etc. You can motivate your teammates and support players who are less active on the app. It’s kind of a support group, but what it does is it uses the community as a way to generate repeat use of the app.
Despite a very competitive environment, Lose It! he manages to play his cards well thanks to a very well thought out application that puts himself in the shoes of the user. The design of the application takes advantage of relevant game mechanics that make the experience personal, engaging and highly motivating. We consider it a great example of health gamification.