Technology-based interventions for promoting health behavior-change frequently leverage multiplayer game mechanics such as group-based competitions. However, health interventions successful for groups writ large may not always translate to successful behavior change at the individual level. In this paper, we explore the tension between group and individual success, based on an empirical study on a long-term real-world deployment of a pervasive health game for youth. We report five distinctive player types along the dimensions of motivation, behavior, and influence on others. Based on the findings, we provide design suggestions to help game designers integrate group-based mechanisms that maximize intervention effectiveness.

Technology-based health behavior change interventions involving passive on-body sensing and feedback interfaces show promise for increasing participation in physical activity. However, the majority of prior studies are small-scale interventions that heavily rely on research teams for programmatic support. In larger-scale deployments, participants may have to take over setup and maintenance tasks. In this paper, we examine the "hidden work" involved with the large-scale deployment of a behavior change application in American schools. We offer insight into the coordination required to maintain such deployments, and identify unique challenges that arise when schoolchildren are the target of a behavior change intervention. Our findings highlight the behind-the-scenes coordination and management work required of adult facilitators in order to support pervasive health interventions for children in school environments. We offer advice to researchers and project managers attempting integration of technology-based health behavior change applications for children.

Active video games (AVG) have become widespread as more physical interfaces are introduced in video games. Lab based studies have indicated that AVGs can increase the amount and intensity of physical activity compared to non-active games and TV, however, the long-term effectiveness of AVGs has yet been established. In fact, most of the existing studies show a reduction of interest and participation over time. This paper presents our findings from a long-term, multi-site deployment of a pervasive health game, the American Horsepower Challenge (AHPC). Similar to previous studies, our findings also show reduced effectiveness of the game, but on a much larger scale. Moreover, we analyze reasons for this and report what kind of game related online and offline activities happened during the deployment. We argue that a shift of evaluation metrics and design goals is required to make real-world sustainable behavior changes. Based on empirical data, we propose three goals for AVGs---sustainability, adaptability and sociability. Behavior-changing games can learn how to achieve these goals from existing game genres, such as alternate reality games, location-based games, family games, and multiplayer online games etc.

With rising concerns about obesity and sedentary lifestyles in youth, there has been an increasing interest in understanding how pervasive and ubiquitous computing technologies can catalyze positive health behaviors in children and teens. School-based interventions seem like a natural choice, and ubiquitous computing technologies hold much promise for these interventions. Yet the literature contains little guidance for how to approach school-based ubicomp deployments. Grounded in our analysis of a large-scale US school-based intervention for promoting youth physical activity, we present an approach to the design and evaluation of school-based ubicomp that treats the school as a social institution. We show how the school regulates students' daily lives, drawing from work in the sociology of schools to create a framing for planning, executing and analyzing school-based ubicomp deployments. These insights will assist other researchers and designers engaging in deployments of ubiquitous computing systems in settings with established institutional structures.

This paper discusses an experiment carried out in an AR test bed called “the pit”. Inspired by the well-known VR acrophobia study of Meehan et al. [18], the experimental goals were to explore whether VR presence instruments were useful in AR (and to modify them where appropriate), to compare additional measures to these well-researched techniques, and to determine if findings from VR evaluations can be transferred to AR. An experimental protocol appropriate for AR was developed. The initial experimental findings concern varying immersion factors (frame rate) and their effect on feelings of presence, user performance and behavior. Unlike the VR study, which found differing frame rates to affect presence measures, there were few differences in the five frame rate modes in our study as measured by the qualitative and quantitative instruments, which included physiological responses, a custom presence questionnaire, task performance, and user behavior. The AR presence questionnaire indicated users experienced a high feeling of presence in all frame rate modes. Behavior, performance, and interview results indicated the participants felt anxiety in the pit environment. However, the physiological data did not reflect this anxiety due to factors of user experience and experiment design. Efforts to develop a useful AR test bed and to identify results from a large data set has produced a body of knowledge related to AR evaluation that can inform others seeking to create AR experiments.