Steptacular: An incentive mechanism for promoting wellness

Abstract—This 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 3,000 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 each of these features in encouraging physical activity.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2012
• Where: COMSNETS
• Authors: Naini Gomes, Deepak Merugu, Gearoid O'Brien, Chinmoy Mandayam, Jia Shuo Yue, Berk Atikoglu, Adrian Albert, Norihiro Fukumoto, Huan Liu, Balaji Prabhakar, Damon Wischik
• Keywords: COMSNETS 2012, Incentive System, Monetary Rewards, Social Component