Project Title: 
Co-designing a Physical Activity Intervention with Graduate Students Using Emerging Technologies and Gamification Principles to Support Motivation and Long-Term Engagement

Project Description:
Physical inactivity among graduate students is a persistent public health concern shaped by academic workload, fatigue, limited time, and restricted access to fitness facilities. Unlike undergraduate students, graduate students face distinct structural and motivational barriers that make sustained physical activity difficult to initiate and maintain. While fitness applications, wearable technologies, and virtual reality platforms have been explored as tools to support physical activity engagement, existing solutions are largely designed for general consumer audiences and do not adequately address the specific needs and realities of graduate student life. This exploratory research aims to support sustained physical activity engagement among graduate students by designing technology-supported solutions using design methodologies, gamification principles, and emerging technologies. 

The first step of this research was building insight into the barriers to physical activity among graduate students, existing fitness tools and technologies, motivation theories, and gamification strategies through background studies. Next, this research investigated the main challenges graduate students face in maintaining regular physical activity and how they envision technology and gamification principles to better support them in staying active, by engaging them directly in the research and design process. To achieve this goal, the study took advantage of participatory design and design exploration. Twenty graduate students participated in this study and shared their experiences and challenges related to physical activity. Through the co-design process, participants developed eight concepts envisioning how emerging technologies such as virtual reality, AI, and gamification principles could support sustained physical activity engagement. 

The findings revealed that academic workload and fatigue were the most dominant barriers to physical activity, followed by low motivation, environmental constraints, and limited access to fitness facilities. Participants envisioned virtual reality and AI as a tool for social engagement, accessibility, and personalized immersive experiences. Social Influence and Relatedness and Development and Accomplishment were the most frequently selected gamification drives, highlighting the importance of social accountability and visible progress in sustaining motivation. These insights informed the development of five design criteria: fitting physical activity into users' schedules and energy levels, reducing access and environmental barriers, supporting social accountability and connection, enabling adaptive and personalized engagement, and supporting accomplishment through visible progress and meaningful rewards. These criteria guided the development of the proposed design concept ActiveU, a comprehensive platform combining a mobile application, a VR fitness marketplace, AI-driven smart planning, and a gamification layer designed to make physical activity flexible, accessible, socially connected, and meaningful within the demands of graduate student life.

Committee Members:
Liz Sanders (Advisor), Shadrick Kuteh, Scott Swearingen

Keywords:
Physical activity, Virtual reality, Gamification, Graduate student

Exhibition Artifact: 
ActiveU App (Reimagining fitness for university students)

Artifact Description:
Physical inactivity among graduate students is a persistent public health concern. Despite recognizing the importance of staying active, graduate students face distinct barriers including academic workload, fatigue, limited time, and restricted access to fitness facilities that make sustained physical activity difficult to maintain.

ActiveU is a physical activity platform co-designed with 20 graduate students through participatory design workshops. Participants shared their experiences and collaboratively envisioned how technology could better support them in staying active. Their insights directly shaped every feature of ActiveU.

The platform combines a mobile application, a VR fitness marketplace, AI-driven smart planning, and a gamification layer. Users receive personalised weekly workout plans tailored to their academic schedule and local weather, connect with workout partners, join campus fitness classes and challenges, explore immersive VR fitness experiences, and earn real-world campus rewards called ActivePoints for staying active.

ActiveU is not intended to replace real-world physical activity but to support and complement it, ensuring students always have an option to stay active regardless of time, weather, or location constraints.

Technical Description:
A video of Figma prototype with live caption — less 5 minutes, HD mp4