Do Wearable Devices Change Behavior? A Study of Smart Fitness Trackers

Purpose The study focuses on the physical activity behavior change effect of smart wristband, which is the most popular type of fitness tracker nowadays. The purpose of the research is to investigate how people's workout behavior may change after wearing a smart band and examine what kind of role persuasive design plays in behavior change. Design/Methodology/Approach This research employed an experimental study to examine whether the user's workout behaviors changed after using wristband from the "Behavior Wizard" perspective. A representative smart wristband from a major vendor was selected as the objects of experimental study. In the experiment, by comparing users' workout behavior before and after using the wristband, behavior changes of all the experiment participants were classified into one of the 15 behavior change types. Users perceived persuasive design characteristics were measured and group differences were tested among different behavior change groups. Findings This research found that nearly half of the participants changed their workout behavior while half retained their workout status or no exercise status. Half of the participants who did not do exercise in their spare time started walking in the experiment. Results also showed that participants who started working out perceived higher levels of persuasive design devised into the smart band than participants who preserved no exercise status, except for facilitation and reward strategies. Participants who retained workout and those who increased workout frequency perceived no difference in smart band persuasive design.