-Despite the numerous health benefits provided by physical activity, people struggle to meet healthy activity levels. There are numerous apps aiming to support the physical activity of adults. However, it is unclear whether and at what extent is the end user been involved in the development process. In addition, there is a lack of research which examines which functional, quality and emotional goals are preferred and expected by the user of physical activity app. To address this issue, do-be-feel workshops were carried out with 38 adults and the results were combined into goal model. These results offer a good overview of the expectations of end user which can be used in further development.
The positive impact of physical activity on mental, social and physical health are widely recognized [1], [2]. Countries make efforts to support and promote healthy physical activity levels among their citizens. It has been shown that if all inactive people became active, more than 5 million deaths per year could be avoided [2]. Recent research indicates that every move counts as health benefits occur even when physical activity is below the international recommended levels [1], [3]. At the same time, higher physical activity levels and reduced sedentary time substantially reduces the risk for premature mortality [4]. Despite the facts and research reassuring the positive influence of physical activity on health, a lot of people struggle to achieve healthy physically active levels as third of adult population do not meet the physical activity recommendations by World Health Organisation [5]. According to the literature reviews, the most common barriers for physical activity reported by adults are lack of time, motivation and self-discipline [6], [7]. This indicates that a tool supporting the motivation and selfdiscipline could have beneficial effects on physical activity levels of adults.
The rapid advantages in information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their extensive use worldwide make ICTs valuable tools in health promotion, including supporting physical activity. There are numerous apps available in app stores for physical activity. However, it has been shown, that their effect on physical activity behaviour is modest [8]–[10]. It could be partly explained by the fact that the involvement of end user during the development process seems to be modest or even non-existing as no physical activity app has reported users involvement during the development process [11]. In addition, to the best of our knowledge there is no study describing the involvement of the end user during the requirements elicitation phase of physical activity app. At the same time end user is a crucial stakeholder who should be involved in the development process. Early identification of the needs, preferences and problems of end users helps to address them during early development phase and thereby ensure the acceptance and usability of the end product. The findings about the features that adults would like to have in a physical activity app are sparse. According to a qualitative study [12] young adults prefer physical activity apps that coach and motivate them, provide tailored feedback, enable to set personal goals and allow competition with friends. User-friendliness and flexibility has also been reported [8]. Most published data focus on describing existing apps, trying to identify most effective and/or most frequently used features [9], [11], [13]– [15]. For example, it has been found that giving feedback, setting goals, receiving rewards, social sharing and competition can positively influence the physical activity of adults [13]. These studies mostly focus on functional requirements, but in addition to functional requirements it is important to consider the quality and emotional requirements which also influence the acceptance and usability of end product [16]. Therefore, knowledge of quality and emotional requirements needed by the end user can increase the effectiveness and attractiveness of the app.
The aim of current study is to find out the needs and expectations of adults for an app that would support their physical activity. In addition, we combine the elicited requirements into hierarchical goal model to give a good visual overview of gathered requirements.
To identify the functional, quality and emotional goals of an app that would support the physical activity of adults, nine online workshops with a total of 38 adults (22 female, 16 male, aged 35-45) were conducted. The participants were recruited through the requirements elicitation course of the university. The workshops were carried out online due to the COVID-19 situation and to reduce the personal contact. The do-be-feel method was used in the workshop. At first the participants were given a following description: “It is advised by World Health Organisation that adults should accumulate 10 000 steps per day or 150 minutes of moderate activity per week in order to stay healthy. If there would be an app that helps you to fill these activity goals, what would it be like?” The participants were asked to think on four aspects: 1) what should such app do? (functional goals), 2) what should such app be like? (quality goals), 3) how should such app make you feel? (emotional goals). In addition, the participants were asked to think which roles are associated with the app. The answers were all gathered in one table where participant could add additional ideas. The results from nine workshops were divided into subthemes and combined into one summary table presented in Results section. The frequency of goals mentioned by different workshop groups was also added to the table to identify the most popular needs.
In order to give a good visual and systematic overview of gathered requirements agent-oriented goal model [17]–[21] was created. In this hierarchical goal tree, the functional goals are presented in tilted rectangles. Roles, quality and emotional goals are attached to the functional goal that they are associated with. The roles are presented as stick man, quality goals with clouds and emotional goals with heart symbols. Goal modelling was used as it presents early functional, quality and emotional requirements in a holistic and coherent way, which can be further developed into user stories [22]. User stories in turn are often used in agile software engineering [23], [24]. In addition, it has been shown that goal models are also helpful when there is a need to involve or communicate with nontechnical stakeholders or experts [25].
Measuring activity and making reports were two functional goals that were mentioned by all groups (Table 1).
A variety of indicators for measuring physical activity by the app was mentioned – for example, the number of steps, heart rate, time, velocity, distance and activity minutes. In addition to the possibility that the app itself tracked the activity, it was important that activity data could be imported from watches and activity trackers. As for the reports, different input variables, such as activity minutes, steps, activity types, and time periods, such as day, week, month, was mentioned. The goal setting was considered an important feature. All groups wanted to set personal goals and some groups preferred the app to make suggestions for next goals based on previous goals and activity. Together with goal setting, the participants wanted to get notification and praise for meeting the goal.
Reminders, motivating tips and messages were considered as encouraging and motivating which help them to meet goals and overcome barriers. The participants also considered notifications that would remind activity in case of prolonged passive periods useful. Another popular features were possibility to participate in challenges and share and compare your progress with others within app or in social media.
Participants were interested the app to suggest nearby tracks for different activities, such as hiking, orienteering, running etc.
FUNCTIONAL, QUALITY AND EMOTIONAL REQUIREMENTS IDENTIFIED WITH DO-BE-FEEL WORKSHOPS
To-do () – number of groups who mentioned this requirement. Presented if N > 1.
To-be Safe (7) Intuitive (6) Modern (6) Simple (5) User friendly (5) Precise, accurate (5) Reliable (5) Compatible (4) Motivating (3) Free (3) Reasonably priced (3) Energy-saving (3) Inspiring (2) Playful (2) Adaptive (2) Comfortable (2) Fast (2) Spectacular Innovative Unnoticed Practical Interesting Realistic Adds-free
To-feel Healthy (9) Satisfied (7) Motivated (6) Happy (6) Inspired (4) Self-confident (4) Aware (4) Proud (3) Victorious (3) Proud (3) Informed (2) Addicted (2) Supported (2) Recognised (2) Cared for (2) Positive (2) In control Hopeful Success Amused Special Belong to Active Excited Energetic Guided
Roles User (9) Friend (9) Sponsor (5) Doctor (3) Scientist, Health expert (2) Athlete (2) Sport psychologist Sport club Coach Safety, simplicity, user-friendliness, accurate measurements and reliability were most frequently mentioned quality goals. As for emotional goal, the participants wanted to feel healthy, satisfied, motivated and happy when using the app.
The gathered requirements were transformed into goal models which give a good visual of the most popular needs of adults who want to be physically active with the help of an app (Fig. 1).
There is a limited evidence in scientific literature about the needs and expectations of adults who use physical activity app. In current study we addressed this knowledge gap and identified functional, quality and emotional requirements for such app with the help of do-be-feel workshops.
Most common behaviour change techniques such as measuring activity, setting goals and getting feedback [11], [14], [15] were mentioned by most of our workshop groups. Being aware of one’s activity levels can be considered a prerequisite for evaluating the sufficiency of physical activity. In addition, it helps to increase the awareness of actual activity levels and review the changes over time [26]. According to studies, these three features have a potential to increase the effectiveness of the app [27]. For our participants it was equally important to use the app for performing activity measurements as well as importing the data from watch or activity tracker. As different sporting disciplines can make restrictions on the measurement device, it would be useful to ensure compatibility and connectivity with a variety of devices. As for feedback, only one group mentioned the possibility to consult a coach although personalised feedback has been identified one factor that encourages PA change [9]. Our participants preferred to get feedback and view progress over time with graphical and numeric reports.
Another quite popular behaviour change techniques that are used in existing physical activity apps and which were mentioned several times by our participants, were providing rewards and enabling social comparison [9], [13], [14]. Although rewards have a potential to support engagement in physical activity, they have to be aimed at intrinsic motivation, which supports long term changes [28]. Caution should be taken when incorporating social comparison feature to the app as the scientific findings are contradictory – some people find motivating comparing with more active people, whereas the others demotivating [12].
Our participants also pointed out the need to invite a friend to training session and share your results with friends or in social media. Social support and enjoyment have been reported as one of the main motives for physical activity [6] and being able to train with a friend will certainly support these motives. Being active with friends helps to fulfil abundance of emotional goals which emerged from our workshops. For example, supported, cared for and recognised are only few of them.
Possibility to create challenges and participate in them was favoured by half of our workshop groups. Similarly, participating in challenges has been previously reported by young adults [12]. However, not all people are competitive and interested in challenges [13], thus this feature should be kept optional.
Interestingly a possibility to find activity has not been mentioned in previous studies with adults or in existing apps, whereas this feature was reported by almost half of the workshop groups. Previously a shortage of facilities has been reported as one of the barriers for physical activity [6]. In some cases, there could be a lack of information about different opportunities for in- and outdoor physical activity. In such cases, including a possibility to search or get suggestions about nearby tracks and facilities can help to overcome this barrier. This feature would also be beneficial in a case of a holiday or a trip to a new and foreign surrounding.
Safety was the most highly valued quality goal by our participants. Participants wanted to share their personal data as it enhances user experience and improves personalisation. As the privacy and security of existing physical activity apps has been rated as low [11], [29], developers should pay extra attention to meet this requirement.
Motives for being physically active are health benefits, social support [6], [7] and enjoyment [6]. These are in line with emotional goals reported by our participants. A. Limitations
One limitation of our requirements elicitation method is that the workshops were online which could have hindered some co-creation that would have emerged during face-toface meetings. However, we believe this effect was minimal as all participants participated actively during the workshops and due to the prolongation of COVID-19 restrictions people have become more familiar, experienced and comfortable with online meetings.
Another limitation of our model is, that it presents the viewpoint of one stakeholder group – the end user. Inclusion of health and behaviour experts could also be beneficial to ensure the correctness and safety of the content, and longterm usage of the app which in turn supports healthy and lifelong physical activity. Despite the benefits of experts involvement, experts are rarely involved during the development process [11], [14], [29], [30]. We have previously created goal models for supporting the physical activity of adolescents [25]. These goal models were based on the literature review and inclusion of health experts and overall resulted in similar themes as in current study with adults. Therefore, we could argue that in an early requirements elicitation phase the involvement of experts might not be that urgent. At the same time, we agree that behavioural and physical activity experts should be involved in later development phases and during validation of the early requirements in order to create an evidence-informed mobile app [30]. Such expert help to ensure that suggestions and information provided to the users is healthy and evidencebased and presented in a way that they support intrinsic motivation. This in turn supports the long-term behavior change [28].
When interpreting the results, it should be kept in mind that participants aged 35-45 were involved in the workshop and their present physical activity levels are unknown. Whether and to what extent created goal model apply to younger or older end users warrants further investigation.
Do-be-feel workshops conducted with adults helped to discover the needs and preferences that adults have for physical activity app. These findings are valuable input for developers who want to improve their existing app or develop a new one.
We thank all the participants of workshops for their valuable input and time.
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