Games for Health 2013 Quantified Self: Games & Gamification

1. Quantified Self:
Games & Gamification
Boston – June 28, 2013Alan Au
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2. Biomedical informatics postdoc
Game industry journalist
Not a fashion/art director
Not a quantified self expert
http://twitter.com/#!/Alan_Au
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3. What am I playing?
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4. What is this talk about?
Quantified
Self
Games &
Gamification
+ = Games for
Health?
1 2 3
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5. Sense
Think
Act
5

6. Sense
Think
Act
HOW
WHY
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7. There’s data everywhere!
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8. What is data used for?
• Identity
• Research
• Commerce
• Health
• Curiosity
• Entertainment
• Understanding
• Improvement
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9. Quantified Self (QS)
1
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10. 10
Self-tracking is the cool new thing…

11. … but self-tracking isn’t really new.
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12. What do people self-track?
• Diet
• Exercise
• Mood
• Sleep habits
• Work habits
• Energy levels
• Personal performance
• Decision-making
• Happiness
• Overall health
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13. How do people self-track?
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14. Sense
Think
Act
HOW
WHY
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15. Why do people self-track?
• How late can I drink coffee and still sleep well?
• What’s contributing to my headaches?
• Am I allergic to my laundry detergent?
• Which type of pollen is making me sneeze?
• Experiment (N=1): Does X cause Y?
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http://quantifiedself.com/self-experiment/

16. 16
http://quantifiedself.com/conference/San-Francisco-2013/
Quantified Self -> Community

17. Sense
Think
Act
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Quantified
Self

18. Self-
tracking
Self-
discovery
Experiment
(N=1)
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Quantified
Self

19. Quantified Self = Self-tracking?
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Experiment (N=1)

20. Games & Gamification
2
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21. What is a game?
“A game is a series of interesting choices.”
– Sid Meier
"A game is a system in which players engage in
an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that
results in a quantifiable outcome."
– Katie Salen & Eric Zimmerman
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22. Choices -> Quantifiable outcome
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23. Interesting choices = Engagement
Flow Channel States from "The Art of Game Design" by Jesse Schell
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24. Sense
Think
Act
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Games

25. Goals &
outcomes
Understand
rules
Gameplay
engagement
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Games

26. Games for Health (maybe?)
3
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27. The future of health?
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28. Both QS and games utilize data
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29. Can games support Quantified Self?
• QS is about personalized experiments
• Few games enable personalized experiments
• QS is about community and lifestyle
• Many games promote community and lifestyle
• Maybe no, maybe yes
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30. Self-tracking ≠ Game
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31. Self-tracking ≠ Quantified Self
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32. QS + Games = Games for Health?
• Games are entertaining
• Entertainment drives engagement
• Engagement generates data
• Data make tracking easier
• Tracking informs outcomes
• Are those outcomes meaningful to health?
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33. Sense
Think
Act
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Games for
Health

34. Implications for health
Sense = Outcomes, metrics, goals, rewards
Think = Knowledge, understanding
Act = Behavior, activity, intervention
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35. Healthy
outcomes
Healthy
knowledge
Healthy
behavior
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Games for
Health

36. We’re back where we started…
Quantified
Self
Games &
Gamification
+ = Games for
Health?
1 2 3
36

37. … but with greater understanding.
Self-
Discovery
Choices &
Rewards
+ = Healthy
Outcomes?
1 2 3
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38. Thank you!
Ben Sawyer
Beth Bryant
Games for Health 2013

39. Additional information
• http://quantifiedself.com/
• http://social-qs.net/sqs/
• http://digitaltrends.com/gaming/game-on-the-two-trends-driving-
wearable-fitness/
• http://guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/mar/27/nike-fuelband-
google-glass-quantified-self
• http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/24/worlds-a-game/
• http://techland.time.com/2013/03/11/south-by-southwest-sxsw-
quantified-self/
• http://theregister.co.uk/2013/03/29/feature_the_quantified_self/
• http://venturebeat.com/tag/quantified-self/
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