Exploring user profiles for healthy gamification

Gamification in healthcare is still not widespread. One way to facilitate application of gamification is to understand the user via user profiles. This study introduces an easier way to categorize the user profiles in three groups instead of six (Hexad). Most of the survey's to categorize user groups are done with adolescents or students. This study takes a much more realistic sample of 274 Dutch households. The results show that designing within gamified mechanics based on a user profiles main motivation is an effective strategy for personalization. Based on these findings we propose a new user profiles model with three user profiles for healthcare that are mainly autonomy driven (Blue), competence driven (Red) and purpose driven (Green). Furthermore, the results indicate a more generic path towards including essential elements to create a basic understanding, get users involved, and provide them with content fitting their motivations. Further study is needed to show if the model can be used in various environments. The first test at an energy provider shows positive results.