Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Exergaming for Health & Utilitarian Goals PhD Defense - Tuomas Kari

Tuomas Kari's recent thesis defense titled "Exergaming Usage: Hedonic and Utilitarian Aspects" from the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) was just released online and in PDF form.

It is an excellent example of the manuscript format preparation for a Ph.D as it summarizes several foundational papers that laid the groundwork for the overall goal of analyzing how exergames can be used for health outcomes yet utilitarian goals.

This is the second PhD defense in the past month as Pooya defended his last month in analyzing a swimming exergame (Xbox Michael Phelps).

Congrats Dr. Kari and I look forward to hearing more from you in the future.

https://twitter.com/TuomasKari



















There is a growing demand for information systems (IS) that could advance
 desirable health behaviours among people. While digital gaming has generally
 been perceived to increase individuals’ sedentary time, gaming can also act as a
 medium to promote health, for example, by increasing individuals’ levels of
 physical activity. Exergaming, a form of digital gaming that combines games
 with physical activity, has been mentioned as potential means of influencing
 physical activity levels. Previous research on exergaming has been dominated
 by a very device-centric perspective, focusing more on its technological and
 physical aspects, than a more user-centric perspective that focuses on the users
 and the different aspects of usage. Such user-centric focus is greatly needed to
 achieve the recognised yet unreached potential of exergames, for example, to
 enhance the population’s levels of physical activity. The importance of
 researching IS usage has been continuously stressed in the field of IS, and
 increasing the understanding of IS use is important for both scholars and
 practitioners alike. Considering the identified research gap and the importance
 of the topic, this thesis takes a user-centric approach with aim to explain
 relevant aspects throughout the entire use cycle of exergames: intention to use,
 adoption and usage habits – as well as the reasons for not using – and use
 continuance after exergaming experiences. This thesis also examines the ability
 of exergames to promote physical activity and physical fitness. To investigate
 these aspects, relevant studies are carried out using both quantitative and
 qualitative research methods. This thesis demonstrates the perceptions of
 exergames and how they differ in different phases of the use cycle. The results
 highlight the importance of hedonic enjoyment perceptions behind usage
 intentions and the actual use of exergames; however, for the continued use of
 exergames, the perceptions of utilitarian benefit also have an important role.
 The theoretical contribution comes from providing valuable new knowledge to
 the scientific community and increasing the theoretical understanding of
 exergaming. The findings also pose several practical implications for different
 stakeholders, ranging from the developers and marketers of exergames to the
 public sector and the users



Via ScienceDaily

1 comment:

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