Motivation and Personality Theories in a Gamified Mobile Application for Walking

Paper Title

Motivation and Personality Theories in a Gamified Mobile Application for Walking

Publication Info

• Topic area: Personalized gamification for walking motivation
• Keywords: Gamification, walking, Self-Determination Theory, Regulatory Focus Theory, personalization, health behavior, motivation, mobile application, physical activity, behavior change

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Existing gamified walking applications often fail to sustain long-term motivation, as they typically adopt a one-size-fits-all approach that does not account for individual differences in motivational profiles.
• Significance: Walking is a highly accessible form of physical activity with significant health benefits, yet maintaining consistent walking habits remains a public health challenge.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research has shown that gamification can enhance motivation for physical activity, but its effects are often short-lived and heterogeneous. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is widely used in gamification but lacks personalization for individual motivational strategies. Regulatory Focus Theory (RFT) offers a complementary framework to address individual differences but has not been applied to gamified walking interventions.

Solution

• Proposed approach: PADME-G, a personalized gamified mobile application for walking, integrates SDT and RFT to tailor gamification elements to users’ motivational profiles (promotion-focused, prevention-focused, or neutral).
• Novelty:
  1. A design framework combining SDT and RFT to map psychological needs and motivational framing onto gamification elements.
  2. Implementation of personalized gamified features (e.g., points, goals, progression, badges, challenges) in the PADME-G app.
  3. Evaluation of the app’s impact on motivation, engagement, and walking performance in a 28-day in-the-wild study with 37 participants.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Personalized gamification elements (e.g., color schemes, progress metaphors) were designed to align with users’ regulatory focus.
  • Walking goals were dynamically adapted using a percentile algorithm.
  • Gamified mechanisms included points, challenges, badges, and a "Health Score" gauge tailored to motivational profiles.
  • A 4-week randomized study compared the personalized and non-personalized versions of the app.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Intrinsic motivation declined in the control group but remained stable in the personalized group.
  • Personalized gamification improved perceived persuasiveness, task support, and effectiveness, particularly for promotion-focused users.
  • Step progression increased significantly in the first week but declined in subsequent weeks across all groups, with no sustained behavioral differences between conditions.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Promotion-focused users in the personalized condition reported higher task support, perceived persuasiveness, and motivation compared to the control condition.
  • Prevention-focused users often preferred the neutral version over the prevention-adapted version, suggesting challenges in designing for this group.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Participants (n=34 after exclusions) were randomly assigned to personalized or control conditions.
  • Walking performance (step counts), motivation (EMAPS), and perceived persuasiveness (PPQ) were measured.
  • Mixed ANOVAs assessed the effects of personalization and regulatory focus.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Small sample size and baseline differences in motivation and activity levels limit generalizability.
  • The 28-day duration may be insufficient to observe long-term behavior change.
  • Future work should refine prevention-oriented designs and incorporate volitional scaffolding (e.g., planning prompts, coping strategies).

Summary

This study introduced PADME-G, a personalized gamified walking app grounded in Self-Determination Theory and Regulatory Focus Theory. A 28-day evaluation showed that personalization enhanced perceived support, persuasiveness, and intrinsic motivation, particularly for promotion-focused users, but did not sustain increased walking performance. Prevention-focused designs require careful refinement to avoid unintended negative effects. The findings highlight the potential of motivational personalization in gamification but emphasize the need for volitional support to translate motivational gains into sustained behavior change.