So, if you are interested in or in the business of helping people have a really great experience when they are physically active, then whether you realized it or not, looks like you too have been doing some EX-UX Design. Which now leads me nicely onto ExerGaming. It got me thinking as to whether or not “good” ExerGames are EX-UXD’d? Is ExerGaming about designing exercise to fit around people rather than try to get people to do things that don’t appeal to them and are just not a good experience.

Last night I had an experience of a “digital dream” in which I was a fugitive being pursued through a digital landscape. The best way I can describe it is something like Logan’s Run meets Second Life. I managed to dodge my pursuers across a bizarre digital landscape with several narrow escapes. Finally I made a bid for freedom by clambering aboard the last train to leave the digital world. I was awoken from my slumber just as the train pulled into my stop. It was a great feeling to be back in the real world. But I wonder, what would have happened if I had missed my stop?

Whilst I am not going to attempt to attribute any meaning to the dream, I would consider to have significance as a sign of the blurring of the boundary between physical and digital worlds. Why does any of this matter? Well, if you are trying to understand human behavior and only pay attention to the influences present in the physical world and neglect to consider the influences that arise in digital worlds, then you are not going to get the complete picture.

Okay, first the competition. A round figure for a cost of a video game is $30 and on average will hold interest for 30 days. So you can have an engaging interactive experience for $1 per day.

In terms of promoting a physically active lifestyle, the current target is one hour per day, 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year. Do some rough calculations, it seems that a Dollar a Day for every man, women and child might just be enough to provide enough facilities and opportunities for the whole population to be physically active. A dollar a day doesn’t seem much and would be small price to pay in terms of the savings on future health care costs.

The problem comes when you start to multiply up the number. For a school say of 500 pupils, over a school year of 200 days that amounts to $100,000 per school. Now some of that money will already be invested in physical infrastructure and facilities, but where is the rest of the money going to come from? Our own pockets? One less soda?

I began to tire and switched to playing “Guess the Trolley Owner”. In this game, whenever you spot trolley coming round a corner or one that has been temporarily abandoned, you a have a split second to guess the appearance of the owner. This is not as difficult as it may seem as the relative amounts and composition of “healthy” and “unhealthy” foodstuffs can be quite revealing. We are after all to a large extent what we eat.

At the checkout the music was interrupted by an advert for a new ExerGame that will give you a high quality work out and have you looking great in now time. Nothing wrong with that, but I couldn’t help but wondering if the problem was a little closer to home. What if the store turned shopping into an ExerGame by mixing up all the items so that you had to wander round the store and hunt them down? But maybe then by spending more time in the store, people would buy more stuff and negate the increased calorie burn. But hold on, don’t supermarkets do that anyway?

I have just been conveyed to Singapore by Lufthansa including a connecting flight and stop over at Frankfurt airport. The whole journey was a testament to German efficiency including what seemed like my own personal security screening line, copious amounts of in-flight fluid including pre-prandial drinks, frequent tops-ups during the meal and even post-prandial liqueurs for those who wished them. The in-flight entertainment also included a rather eclectic jazz channel which helped smooth the ride along with the understated grey interior finish.

In contrast, having negotiated the vagaries of London’s Heathrow airport, my recent flight across the Atlantic to Boston (to attend the Games for Health conference) with Virgin Atlantic was quite different. On boarding the plane, the red decor with silver finishing made an altogether different impression. To me it had a more holistic, personal feel including 21st century eco-techno, two fingers to British Airways establishment and a bit of eighties retro-chic thrown in for good measure (due to the airline celebrating 25 years of operation) and which I found somewhat appealing.

It got me thinking about the contrasting “brand” styles and the slew of new consumer technology releases (including big-ticket ExerGames). Is technological progress all about enhancing functional efficiency, or has it now reached a such maturity that technology is becoming more of a tool to create experiences?

For me it is creating experiences is where things ought to be at, in that they will have the potential to change behavior. For example, should I happen to be heading to Boston in the near future, would I go for the steady and reliable Lufthansa option via Frankfurt, or would I take my chances with London Heathrow and opt for an altogether different experience? Choice: Efficiency or Experience?

Note: any mention of branded products or services should not be construed as any form of endorsement.

Such freedom and apparent invincibility from perils (or simply the ability to pick yourself up and brush yourself down) where a feature of my childhood in the north of Scotland. Interestingly, the taxi driver remarked that he was aware at the time (several decades ago), that when mixing with boys from the city they had a markedly lower level of fitness and all round physical ability.

The conversation continued and we found much common ground on the question as to why children these days have a greater need to be entertained rather than create their own playful amusement. Perhaps there always have been dangers, it is just that now as a whole society is more aware of them?

It got me thinking as to what where the key elements at play and I began to focus on a sense of adventure and of having confidence in one’s abilities. I then began to think about how exploration and the development of ones skills and abilities is very much a feature of many video games. Perhaps there is a way that ExerGames could be developed that would make this form of exploration, adventure and skill development more transferable to real life?

Overall, I found the Games for Health conference quietly reassuring. There was not the excitement and novelty that I experienced last year, but instead a real willingness to ask questions and to seek answers. In addition, there was a real sense that whatever “ExerGaming” is and for that matter whatever “Games for Health” are, they are much bigger phenomena than they first seemed. In fact it appears that we know even less about them than was first apparent, but at least now people are beginning to ask searching questions and are beginning to undertake significant exploration. To me this would suggest a growing maturity of the field and bodes well for the future.

In thinking about the use of social media in a health context, I would like to develop the concept of “Citizen Narration” as a narrative approach that makes use of social media to document and reflect on an individual’s or groups own particular health and/or social circumstances and experiences. Storytelling has long been an important part of human culture and is recognized as providing engaging learning experiences and reflective practice is increasingly being used in personal and professional development.

Obviously there are privacy concerns in terms of the degree and extent of personal disclosure, issues of ownership that need to be addressed and also the need to develop social media literacy. I have no doubt that these issues can be overcome and see “Citizen Narration” utilizing social media as have the potential to become a real grass-roots approach to health promotion and empowerment.

In terms of the medium, it soon became apparent that there are many barriers that need to be overcome on the health service side if social media is to be utilized effectively. In contrast, arts groups with a social remit are much smaller and more focused organizations that appear much more able to embrace social media.

Significant concern was expressed about “institutionalizing” social media for health purposes and the impact that this would have on its effectiveness. In some ways this represents the difference between prevention versus treatment and also health “monitoring” versus empowerment.

There was also recognition of the problem of the “digital divide” could be further exacerbated by use of social media, however I was a little surprised about the lack of concern about the emerging divide with “Generation Y” due to a lack of engagement on their terms.

Finally, it was encouraging to here some individuals from such a diverse set of backgrounds talking about health-related issues and there was a real sense that “health” in its broadest sense was not the sole responsibility of the health service.

Twenty minutes is not long when you are trying to convey the potential of game-based activities combined with social media to promote positive health behavior. Not only do I hope that I can get the audience excited about playing games, but also that I can find common ground in my quest to create engaging interactive experiences by having a dialogue around performance and interactive arts.

Perhaps I could get the discussion started by quoting Jane McGonigal

“Games are the ultimate happiness engine.”