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Healthcare Gamification: Lose It! Mobile app

In April 2013, Marketdata Enterprises, Inc released its biennial report (that’s 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 entire population of the United States. Regarding the market, the weight loss market grew by 1.7% in 2012 with revenues of R$61.6 billion in 2012 compared to $60.6 billion in 2011.

Strictly speaking, 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 change in the market is seen in the consumer behavior, with the rise of online diets and the generation of self-dieters. Online diet revenue is estimated at $1.1 billion, but it’s growing at 8% per year, which is pretty fast compared to overall market growth. We’re talking about websites like Sparkpeople.com, Fitday.com, and myfitnesspal.com.

The second trend that refers to DYI dieters is obviously related to the hundreds of mobile applications that help people lose weight. Today we are going to review the free app Lose it! through the prism of health gamification, which is one of the most popular applications with more than 20 million estimated downloads in the Appstore and Google Play store.

Lose it! describes himself as someone who helps you set a “daily calorie budget, track your food and exercise, and stay motivated to make smarter decisions and achieve your goal. We think it’s the easiest and best system available weight loss.

According to December 2013, Lose It! claims he helped people lose 26 million pounds (nearly 12,000 tons). That’s a pretty impressive figure (the weight equivalent of over 7,500 cars!).

There are several great features available in the app; We will take a look at 5 of them and see how they are using gaming mechanics to make it a successful example of gamification in healthcare.

progression dynamics

It all starts with setting a goal for yourself. You enter information about yourself for the app to define your metabolism, define how much weight you want to lose, and then the app calculates a personalized program for you.

After setting the Weight to Lose goal, a graph is displayed to provide the user with a simple visual representation of their goals throughout their use of the app.

Fixed interval reward 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 have to watch your calorie budget.

achievements

Not surprisingly, Lose It! gamifies the use of the application through badges. Although the layouts are a bit dated, they are actually quite well thought out and reward the user for accomplishing different things:

– Simply logging in (Congratulations on logging in, etc.)

– Short-term performance (First weight loss, etc.)

– Long-term performance (last 4 weeks of use)

Complementary games

Lose it! integrates with the most popular health and fitness devices and apps available (we’re talking wireless scales, pedometers, training apps and more) to deliver a truly seamless connected experience. For example, users can sync Lose It! with their NikeFuel Band that allows them to integrate the app 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 in the app. It’s kind of a support group, but what it does is it uses the community as a way to generate repeat usage of the app.

Despite a very competitive environment, Lose It! manages to play its cards well thanks to a very well thought-out app that puts itself in the user’s shoes. The app’s design leverages relevant gameplay mechanics that make the experience personal, engaging, and highly motivating. We consider it a great example of gamification in health care.

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