Steptacular: an incentive mechanism for promoting wellness

By Naini GomesDeepak MeruguGearoid O’BrienChinmoy MandayamJia Shuo YueBerk AtikogluAdrian AlbertNorihiro FukumotoHuan LiuBalaji PrabhakarDamon Wischik
web.stanford.edu
2012

The paper describes Steptacular, an online interactive incentive system for encouraging people to walk more. A trial offering Steptacular to the employees of Accenture-USA was conducted over a 6 month period. Over 5,000 employees registered for the program and close to 3000 participants wore USB-enabled pedometers; from time to time they plugged their pedometer into a computer to upload hourly step counts to a website;  and the website had a range of features to encourage more walking. These features included monetary rewards which were randomly redeemable through a simple game, and a social component. We describe the system and present preliminary findings about the effectiveness of these features in encouraging physical activity.