Wendy J. Nilsen, PhD

The mobile gamification of health is the new frontier. Too often when we talk with children about how to live healthy lives, we want to tell people what to do. Gaming can make it fun. Why can’t we enjoy being healthy? We’re competing with entire industries that are encouraging bad behavior. Gaming could allow us to take things that often are affecting our children in negative ways – such as advertising within mobile games – and use them to promote good behaviors.

This is not your mother’s behavioral intervention. This is not a counselor sitting there, talking to a client for an extended period. Take an example of casual gaming, such as Angry Birds. People play each game for 3 minutes at a time. I see kids playing Plants vs. Zombies, which teaches them about plants in a very bizarre way. They play for 10 minutes, and then they stop. Can we get kids to watch little videos that might influence health behaviors? Can we give them points for iTunes or Play Store rewards for reaching health-related goals in a game? There are all sorts of things we could be doing that are quick and brief. Some research projects are underway to design health-promoting mobile games and test their effectiveness.

The attention span in our instant-gratification, technological world is short. You’ve got to do it quickly, you’ve got to make it brief, and it’s got to be interesting. Can we build in competition and make a leaderboard? For example, as a teenager, my son spent hours talking to his friends while playing World of Warcraft, where one of the goals was to exterminate a rat from his "house," and he learned the value of keeping his place clean.

Instead of winning points for exterminating virtual pests, can we have children vying to be the most active? Bragging about it? Can it be cool? Nike knows how to make things cool. Why can’t we?

Can we start sharing health with the community in social apps like Gluco-Share, which leverages mobile devices to build support for healthy behaviors within the community of people who have diabetes ? We’re seeing it happen all over the place, but the scientists are not leading in this area. We’re watching industry lead the way with gamification and changing our children. Let’s think about how we can use these tools for health and improving the quality of life.

How do we use zombies? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used zombies to teach people about disaster preparedness. Zombies are fun. They’re cool. Let’s use them for other areas of health, too.

This is not stuff that clinicians and behavioral medicine specialists are used to doing. You’re going to need new partners, and you’re going to have to be really willing to listen. You’re going to be working with people who are half your age, but they grew up with gaming in ways that I can’t even imagine.

You’re going to compete against all the others – Facebook, FarmVille. Casual games are popping up everywhere you look. Did you know that McDonald’s probably paid a lot to have its logo on the FarmVille "farm" for a day? Why? Because it gave them exposure. I’ll bet you that we could use that strategy. I’ll bet FarmVille or Facebook would provide support for doing something healthy occasionally too. You’re going to have fun with it, because that’s what you’re competing with for children’s attention.

We need to take marketing techniques and say, how do we use these tools for health? How do we create brands that people are loyal to? Everybody who knows me will tell you that I am hooked on Starbucks. I’m not hooked on coffee. I’m not hooked on coffee shops. Instead, I am brutally loyal to Starbucks. They won my loyalty. They built up a brand to get people to become loyal to it. We need people to become loyal to the brands of health.

On the individual level of engagement, it’s about self-exploration. We don’t have to preach. Let kids learn things on their own through the games and sharing tools that we can create. On the level of community engagement, it’s about social interactions. We cannot underestimate the power of social interaction.

Our strategies for consumer gamification of health should start with defining the primary and secondary goals of a new game – how do the game’s goals relate to immediate and long-term health changes, and how can we measure that? Target group research can identify activities and rewards that appeal to the targeted group. We’ll need to find ways to integrate health "brands" into a game’s story line without alienating users. The game should be able to provide prolonged entertainment to captivate users. Design flexibility is crucial. You are never going to build something that works forever. Angry Birds works forever, sort of, but they’ll tell you now that it’s not gaining market share any more.

If we do it right, it will go viral. It will spread. What I want is for your kids to say, "I need that game!" We don’t need to shove health at people, we want them to grab it and take it.

At some point, kids are not going to have computers. Desktops are dying. Mobile phones are the way to reach them, especially in low-income and minority and rural communities.

We have the tools, we have the information, and we have the skills to make this happen. This is our goal in the 21st century.

Dr. Nilsen is a health scientist administrator at the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. She reported having no financial disclosures. Dr. Nilsen gave these comments at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in San Francisco. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the National Institutes of Health or any other author-affiliated organizations.

The mobile gamification of health is the new frontier. Too often when we talk with children about how to live healthy lives, we want to tell people what to do. Gaming can make it fun. Why can’t we enjoy being healthy? We’re competing with entire industries that are encouraging bad behavior. Gaming could allow us to take things that often are affecting our children in negative ways – such as advertising within mobile games – and use them to promote good behaviors.

This is not your mother’s behavioral intervention. This is not a counselor sitting there, talking to a client for an extended period. Take an example of casual gaming, such as Angry Birds. People play each game for 3 minutes at a time. I see kids playing Plants vs. Zombies, which teaches them about plants in a very bizarre way. They play for 10 minutes, and then they stop. Can we get kids to watch little videos that might influence health behaviors? Can we give them points for iTunes or Play Store rewards for reaching health-related goals in a game? There are all sorts of things we could be doing that are quick and brief. Some research projects are underway to design health-promoting mobile games and test their effectiveness.

The attention span in our instant-gratification, technological world is short. You’ve got to do it quickly, you’ve got to make it brief, and it’s got to be interesting. Can we build in competition and make a leaderboard? For example, as a teenager, my son spent hours talking to his friends while playing World of Warcraft, where one of the goals was to exterminate a rat from his "house," and he learned the value of keeping his place clean.

Instead of winning points for exterminating virtual pests, can we have children vying to be the most active? Bragging about it? Can it be cool? Nike knows how to make things cool. Why can’t we?

Can we start sharing health with the community in social apps like Gluco-Share, which leverages mobile devices to build support for healthy behaviors within the community of people who have diabetes ? We’re seeing it happen all over the place, but the scientists are not leading in this area. We’re watching industry lead the way with gamification and changing our children. Let’s think about how we can use these tools for health and improving the quality of life.

How do we use zombies? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used zombies to teach people about disaster preparedness. Zombies are fun. They’re cool. Let’s use them for other areas of health, too.

This is not stuff that clinicians and behavioral medicine specialists are used to doing. You’re going to need new partners, and you’re going to have to be really willing to listen. You’re going to be working with people who are half your age, but they grew up with gaming in ways that I can’t even imagine.

You’re going to compete against all the others – Facebook, FarmVille. Casual games are popping up everywhere you look. Did you know that McDonald’s probably paid a lot to have its logo on the FarmVille "farm" for a day? Why? Because it gave them exposure. I’ll bet you that we could use that strategy. I’ll bet FarmVille or Facebook would provide support for doing something healthy occasionally too. You’re going to have fun with it, because that’s what you’re competing with for children’s attention.

We need to take marketing techniques and say, how do we use these tools for health? How do we create brands that people are loyal to? Everybody who knows me will tell you that I am hooked on Starbucks. I’m not hooked on coffee. I’m not hooked on coffee shops. Instead, I am brutally loyal to Starbucks. They won my loyalty. They built up a brand to get people to become loyal to it. We need people to become loyal to the brands of health.

On the individual level of engagement, it’s about self-exploration. We don’t have to preach. Let kids learn things on their own through the games and sharing tools that we can create. On the level of community engagement, it’s about social interactions. We cannot underestimate the power of social interaction.

Our strategies for consumer gamification of health should start with defining the primary and secondary goals of a new game – how do the game’s goals relate to immediate and long-term health changes, and how can we measure that? Target group research can identify activities and rewards that appeal to the targeted group. We’ll need to find ways to integrate health "brands" into a game’s story line without alienating users. The game should be able to provide prolonged entertainment to captivate users. Design flexibility is crucial. You are never going to build something that works forever. Angry Birds works forever, sort of, but they’ll tell you now that it’s not gaining market share any more.

If we do it right, it will go viral. It will spread. What I want is for your kids to say, "I need that game!" We don’t need to shove health at people, we want them to grab it and take it.

At some point, kids are not going to have computers. Desktops are dying. Mobile phones are the way to reach them, especially in low-income and minority and rural communities.

We have the tools, we have the information, and we have the skills to make this happen. This is our goal in the 21st century.

Dr. Nilsen is a health scientist administrator at the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. She reported having no financial disclosures. Dr. Nilsen gave these comments at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in San Francisco. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the National Institutes of Health or any other author-affiliated organizations.

The mobile gamification of health is the new frontier. Too often when we talk with children about how to live healthy lives, we want to tell people what to do. Gaming can make it fun. Why can’t we enjoy being healthy? We’re competing with entire industries that are encouraging bad behavior. Gaming could allow us to take things that often are affecting our children in negative ways – such as advertising within mobile games – and use them to promote good behaviors.

This is not your mother’s behavioral intervention. This is not a counselor sitting there, talking to a client for an extended period. Take an example of casual gaming, such as Angry Birds. People play each game for 3 minutes at a time. I see kids playing Plants vs. Zombies, which teaches them about plants in a very bizarre way. They play for 10 minutes, and then they stop. Can we get kids to watch little videos that might influence health behaviors? Can we give them points for iTunes or Play Store rewards for reaching health-related goals in a game? There are all sorts of things we could be doing that are quick and brief. Some research projects are underway to design health-promoting mobile games and test their effectiveness.

The attention span in our instant-gratification, technological world is short. You’ve got to do it quickly, you’ve got to make it brief, and it’s got to be interesting. Can we build in competition and make a leaderboard? For example, as a teenager, my son spent hours talking to his friends while playing World of Warcraft, where one of the goals was to exterminate a rat from his "house," and he learned the value of keeping his place clean.

Instead of winning points for exterminating virtual pests, can we have children vying to be the most active? Bragging about it? Can it be cool? Nike knows how to make things cool. Why can’t we?

Can we start sharing health with the community in social apps like Gluco-Share, which leverages mobile devices to build support for healthy behaviors within the community of people who have diabetes ? We’re seeing it happen all over the place, but the scientists are not leading in this area. We’re watching industry lead the way with gamification and changing our children. Let’s think about how we can use these tools for health and improving the quality of life.

How do we use zombies? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used zombies to teach people about disaster preparedness. Zombies are fun. They’re cool. Let’s use them for other areas of health, too.

This is not stuff that clinicians and behavioral medicine specialists are used to doing. You’re going to need new partners, and you’re going to have to be really willing to listen. You’re going to be working with people who are half your age, but they grew up with gaming in ways that I can’t even imagine.

You’re going to compete against all the others – Facebook, FarmVille. Casual games are popping up everywhere you look. Did you know that McDonald’s probably paid a lot to have its logo on the FarmVille "farm" for a day? Why? Because it gave them exposure. I’ll bet you that we could use that strategy. I’ll bet FarmVille or Facebook would provide support for doing something healthy occasionally too. You’re going to have fun with it, because that’s what you’re competing with for children’s attention.

We need to take marketing techniques and say, how do we use these tools for health? How do we create brands that people are loyal to? Everybody who knows me will tell you that I am hooked on Starbucks. I’m not hooked on coffee. I’m not hooked on coffee shops. Instead, I am brutally loyal to Starbucks. They won my loyalty. They built up a brand to get people to become loyal to it. We need people to become loyal to the brands of health.

On the individual level of engagement, it’s about self-exploration. We don’t have to preach. Let kids learn things on their own through the games and sharing tools that we can create. On the level of community engagement, it’s about social interactions. We cannot underestimate the power of social interaction.

Our strategies for consumer gamification of health should start with defining the primary and secondary goals of a new game – how do the game’s goals relate to immediate and long-term health changes, and how can we measure that? Target group research can identify activities and rewards that appeal to the targeted group. We’ll need to find ways to integrate health "brands" into a game’s story line without alienating users. The game should be able to provide prolonged entertainment to captivate users. Design flexibility is crucial. You are never going to build something that works forever. Angry Birds works forever, sort of, but they’ll tell you now that it’s not gaining market share any more.

If we do it right, it will go viral. It will spread. What I want is for your kids to say, "I need that game!" We don’t need to shove health at people, we want them to grab it and take it.

At some point, kids are not going to have computers. Desktops are dying. Mobile phones are the way to reach them, especially in low-income and minority and rural communities.

We have the tools, we have the information, and we have the skills to make this happen. This is our goal in the 21st century.

Dr. Nilsen is a health scientist administrator at the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. She reported having no financial disclosures. Dr. Nilsen gave these comments at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in San Francisco. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the National Institutes of Health or any other author-affiliated organizations.