Guided by Lights: Stimulating Physical Activity through an Outdoor Interactive Light System

Increasing physical inactivity and its subsequent health concerns have made promoting healthy and active lifestyles an important endeavour for many governing agencies. In this paper we focus on the influence of the environment to encourage people to move more. As a second iteration of an existing ‘Smart Exercise Route’, a 1.8 km walking and running path consisting of LED tiles in a public park, we designed a system that supports runners or walkers to set personal goals and gain intrinsic motivation to be physically active. The design focuses on aspects that positively impact motivation and/or performance: personalization, goal setting, and feedback mechanisms. An initial evaluation of a prototype placed in three public parks, showed that participants (N=35) appreciated the personalization of the route and its goal-setting opportunities. While one third of participants indicated the prototype as directly motivating, these positively experienced features are expected to indirectly increase motivation to be more active even further.