On this page, you can find the abstracts of the students projects within the Active2Gether project that took place in the academic year of 2012-2013.
The transition from adolescence to adulthood is a critical period where the decline of physical activity seems to accelerate and in which students represent a substantial segment. Because of the growing smartphone popularity, the usage of mobile technology to increase physical activity is a promising strategy. The purpose of this study was to explore how students use, appreciate and prefer different features of a physical activity smartphone application and to explore whether the exposure to this application could change potential personal and social determinants.
This study provided an explorative insight in the preferences of students for a physical activity smartphone application. Almost all smartphone applications, including physical activity applications, are enjoyable only for a short time. However, if the application is satisfying the users’ needs and if added value is experienced, the participants are more eager to continue to use it. Therefore, a smartphone application must be tailored to the user. Preferred features to be included in an application are ranking features, a coaching feature in which they are motivated during the exercise and get feedback afterwards, and the possibility to set goals and to work with a schedule. In addition, a website should be added to the application to provide clear overviews about their results and progress. A well-oriented and easy to use design must be developed, with the option to customize the application. There is less need for a sharing feature to post results on social media.
This thesis was transformed into a scientific article, that was published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity under the title "What features do Dutch university students prefer in a smartphone application for promotion of physical activity? – A qualitative approach".
Physical inactivity is an increasing worldwide problem. Physical inactivity causes heart diseases, obesity and depression. Therefore, it is important to understand which barriers and facilitators influence this behaviour. This exploratory study attempts to identify the most important barriers and facilitators for physical activity among Dutch university and applied sciences students. The results showed that the main factors that influence physical (in)activity of Dutch students are: feelings, health, social support, time and weather. This is comparable to the findings of other studies. However, differences in results, such as goal setting, a fresh start, a lack of skill and the availability of transport could indicate that Dutch students have different barriers and/or facilitators compared to the other studies mentioned in the literature. This study served as the first step towards understanding barriers and facilitators of physical activity among Dutch university and applied sciences students. This could be interesting and useful for physical activity promotion in the Netherlands. However, further research is needed to confirm the findings of this study, and to get more insight in the relationships of the barriers and facilitators.
Because society currently has to deal with a serious obesity epidemic, interventions that promote people to exercise regularly is a prior item on society’s agenda. A promising trend in intervention strategies is Wellness Applications using Persuasive Technology.
In this thesis, I made recommendations and suggestions about the UI design and evaluation for the app of Active2Gether. I really hope that parts of the design elements and ideas will be used, especially because usability and utility scores were on average (really) good. Not any of the created design elements I would discourage to use. Only some improvement of the clarity of the icons and terminology would be valuable. This holds especially for the start screen. Moreover, navigation between screens can be facilitated when it would be possible to always swipe in the menu bar. Clearly, all choices that have been made during the project are not the only ones that could work for the app in this project. However, for the design part I tried to make suggestions that are as unique as possible for now. Wellness Applications are becoming more and more popular, so being exclusive in what you offer is important. Also Wellness Applications that encourage activity are popular, such as Virtuagym, Nike+ Running App, MyFitnessPal, Instant Heart Rate, Nexercise, and more. Not any of those apps has an intelligent coach, that can adapt coaching strategies to its user. That will be the most important component to focus on when uniqueness is desired.