Description
Living a healthy lifestyle is becoming increasingly relevant for contemporary society. As a result, health and lifestyle apps are on their way to become the dominant technological tool in supporting such a healthy lifestyle. For that reason, it becomes essential for app developers to understand what exactly consumers consider a healthy lifestyle, in order to design apps that satisfy user needs and ensure enduring success in the health and lifestyle app market. The present study identifies the key activities and goals consumers associate with a healthy lifestyle and assesses to which degree the five health and lifestyle apps, MyFitnessPal, Runtastic, Seven, Sleep Better and Headspace facilitate them. To this end, primary data was obtained by conducting a survey, in which respondents, among other questions, were asked to provide their associations with a healthy lifestyle. The results were compared with qualitative secondary data about the five different health and lifestyle apps. In addition, the apps were matched with a taxonomy of behavioural change processes. The results show that consumers’ understanding of a healthy lifestyle is much more varied and complex than the literature suggests. Moreover, findings showed which parts of a healthy lifestyle are well matched by current apps and which are not. Also, it was seen that current apps should integrate more behaviour change techniques that enhance motivation. In conclusion, these findings are relevant for app developers in designing successful health and lifestyle apps that meet different consumer needs in order to ensure engagement and retention.| Period | 7 Feb 2019 |
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| Held at | Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics |
| Degree of Recognition | Master |