Inspiring Change

I’m obsessed with numbers. I'm a runner and sometimes triathlete who recently dipped my toe in the world of relays. I wear this behemoth, even though it adds several ounces of weight to my run.

After each race, I lose myself for hours, glued to the results page dissecting the numbers and where I stand in the world of amateur triathletes and runners. I love seeing how I compare to my peers and how far I've come since the last race. So it's only natural that visual stats and social networking would entice me into using fitness apps such as Fitbit and Dailymile. Designing for behavior change, otherwise known as persuasive design, hinges on understanding what makes your users tick. Persuasive design requires designers first to know what motivates users, and then to carefully design around that. Done well, this pulls in users, changes their lives, and keeps them loyal. The foundation of persuasive design is information. However, data alone is not enough. Strong persuasive design:

• Attracts and engages users,
• Gets users started with small steps, and
• Provides users with tips and just-in-time knowledge

A persuasive designer’s toolbox includes dashboards, future projection, social networking, tips, and incentivizing games. Frequent, timely visual feedback related to goals helps users form new habits, which keeps them engaged and motivated. Fitbit and Dailymile exemplify persuasive design done well. Fitbit encourages users to walk 10,000 steps a day. This goal of walking 5 miles is just challenging enough for people like myself who sit in front of a computer all day, but not too difficult to attain. In my effort to reach this goal, I find myself taking the stairs instead of taking the elevator, or walking up my 17% grade hill even when what I really want to do is take the bus at the end of a long day. But reaching, or exceeding, the 10,000 steps feels really good, so I keep at it. The Fitbit’s industrial design is constantly evolving too, so it’s become a sleek accessory. Another magnetic aspect of the Fitbit is the Food Log. Logging what I eat increases my awareness of what I put in my body so I don’t absentmindedly eat an entire bag of Milano cookies in one sitting. When I was using this feature regularly, I lost eight pounds. I use Dailymile to log my workouts and read about my friends’ workouts. I love using it because, like the Fitbit app, it is cleanly and beautifully designed. Entering my workouts is a joy. It has never felt cumbersome. Instead of going separately to Gmaps Pedometer, I can map my run directly in Dailymile, or select previous runs. Dailymile is centered around social networking. The main screen shows a feed of your workouts and your friends’ workouts. Seeing my friends work out gets me to kick my butt into gear. Yet the app is still designed with the primary use case of adding a workout in mind. Seeing ‘0 miles / week’ under my name on the top of the app also reminds me to rearrange my priorities each week. Analytics are a fascinating way to review my performance, both recent and over my lifetime. It just feels awesome to know that I’ve propelled myself over 552 miles with my own two feet and burned 247 donuts. Strava, another contender in this very busy space, goes one step further by integrating itself into your workout and capturing data automatically for you. I just gave it a try this week and was blown away by the magic. All I have to do is open the app, select 'Record a Run', and hit the record button. When I finish the run and hit the stop button, Strava has dutifully mapped my run, recorded my splits, taken into account the times I was inactive, and compared my performance to that of other people who run that segment. The ratio of interesting data to effort expended (notwithstanding the physical effort) is, happily, very high. It looks like it's time to toss my Garmin watch. It’s easy to fall off the fitness wagon. I’ve lapsed in my usage of both Fitbit and Dailymile several times. When I forget to wear the Fitbit one day, that can easily snowball into not wearing it for a full week, a month, two months. I joke that there's no point in walking if I’m not tracking it, and then I get used to being without it. However, I always come crawling back when the Fitbit comes up in conversation with fellow Fitbit aficionados. Also, seeing my friends staying active on Dailymile inspires me and helps me go that extra mile. Fitbit, Dailymile, and Strava have each changed my behavior in some way. I eat more conscientiously, run more often, and sometimes even shirk the shortest path. These apps inspired me to be healthier by figuring out what drives me, and reinforcing that with data and visualizations, packaged together in a tailored interface.