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Prototyping en usability testing van een persoonlijke coach (Obesity case)

Goos, J. (2015) Prototyping en usability testing van een persoonlijke coach (Obesity case).

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Abstract:Background: Adolescence is an important phase of life in which adolescents begin to make their own choices also relating to their eating behavior and sport activities. As a consequence, one of the biggest health problems of adolescents in Europe is obesity. Obesity is a consequence of a combination of unhealthy diet and insufficient physical activity. There are various methods to work against this problem, one common way nowadays is to monitor health and relating behavior with eHealth. However, in order to design such effective technologies that work against obesity in adolescence it is important to have a good insight into the wishes and needs of adolescents. Objective: The objective of this study is therefore to get more insight into the wishes and needs of obese adolescents in order to get a better idea how a personal coach needs to look like. Therefore this paper provides some sketches of how a personal coach is advised to deal with adolescents with obesity. These sketches were evaluated with potential users. Method: Based on a literature study, persona’s and scenario’s were designed. By means of these persona’s and scenario’s and elements of the persuasive system design model different variations of sketches of a personal coach for adolescents with obesity were developed. For the evaluation of this sketches interviews with potential users were conducted. Results: In sum nine adolescents participated in the evaluation. The results indicate that adolescents think that a clear structure is important. Therefore the use of images in combination with text is useful. Additionally, the following persuasive elements were perceived as stimulating: similarity, praise, feedback/self-monitoring, personalization, reminders, social comparison/competition, cooperation and tunneling. Furthermore the evaluation has revealed that adolescents have a preference for a coach which is human-like. Appropriate feedback is very important. Further adolescents value gamification elements which are an additional and pleasant motivation and help to get more knowledge about food and activities. Discussion & Conclusion: The results are consistent with those of the literature. This study gives some important insights into the wishes and needs of obese adolescents. This is useful for the further course of development of the personal coach. In further studies it would be useful to have a sharper focus on adolescents with low social economic status and lower education. These adolescents are at risk of getting obese but within this evaluation this was not an inclusion criteria. In addition to this in the future it would be possible to make use of new technologies which open new possibilities for monitoring and coaching.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology BSc (56604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/68325
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