The Results of an Iterative Evaluation Process of an Mhealth Application for Rewarding Healthy Behaviour Among Older Adults

It is a challenge to find effective ways for supporting older adults to increase their levels of physical activity and develop habitual physical activity behaviours. Within the GOAL project, an mHealth intervention to motivate older adults to be active was developed, by blending the iterative design and the evaluation activities. The aim of this paper is to present the results of the iterative evaluation process of this mHealth intervention. Evaluation end-points were usability, user experience and potential effect. In total, four cycles of evaluation and redesign of GOAL were conducted in order to create value-adding technology, and demonstrate its impact. Each cycle contained test-weeks, weeks for data analysis, and time for technical modification. In total, 28 participants (students and older adults) interacted with GOAL for a total of 476 days and provided their feedback. During the process, various usability issues were solved to improve GOAL. The users rated the usability of GOAL as acceptable. Older adults were positive about the idea to encourage a healthy lifestyle by using GOAL. During the final evaluation cycle, GOAL encouraged older adults to be more active and motivated them to reach their daily goal.

Keywords: Older adults; eHealth; mHealth; Games; Rewards; Iterative design; Usability testing; Evaluation