In an utterly inadvertent timing, I discovered an app offering a variety of practices and techniques that could be applied to our lives to help us become happier, healthier, perhaps less anxious and stressed. If you wonder how to find happiness in small moments, keep reading to the end. In this blog, I will share with you an emotional health tracking app called Happify and explore how this gamified app can benefit your mental health and wellbeing.

According to Deterding et al. (2011), gamification is the application of game-based elements for non-gaming contexts. Gamification encourage people to accomplish rough tasks in an engaging way and achieve their goal. Likewise, gamification is implemented in healthcare-related applications with the purpose of driving better clinical outcomes for participants.

I initially was sceptical about the benefit of Happify when it is promoted that it can help users improve happiness and develop positive habits while playing games. I still gave it a try because Johnson et al. (2016) state that “engaging with gamified applications can directly contribute to wellbeing by generating positive experiences of basic psychological need satisfaction such as relationships, status” and “gamified app also reduces anxiety and attrition rates” (Litvin et al. 2020).

The app consists of four main features:

1. My Track – displays progress, statistics, and a personality assessment test.
2. Instant Play – offers a wide range of activities, such as games, quizzes, meditations that help strengthen 6 basic skills including savour, thank, aspire, empathise, give and revive. For example, if you want to enhance the skills Aspire, the app will offer you the game Uplift which asks users to click on air balloons with positive affirmations to train their mind to accept positive thoughts only.
3. Happy Daily – motivates readers by sharing educational articles about mental health, positive life changes, life hacks and inspiring stories.
4. Community – encourages users to express their gratitude by taking photos and writing short journals about what they are grateful for and share it to the discussion forum.

Cheng et al. (2019) observe that progress bar, points, theme, and personalisation are the most common gamification elements used in mental health apps to build engagement with users. Accordingly, this app manifests itself in similar ways:

• Progress bar: measures how far users have built their skills which are known to help users become happier. Filling it will give users a rewarding feeling and motivation.
• Shareable progress results: encourage users to empower each other and give them a sense of belonging to the community.
• Points: give users a sense of achievement and drive user’s motivation to keep moving forward.
• Personalisation: gives users a sense of control by letting them set goals and decide which activities they will conduct throughout the day.

If you want to have more insights about Happify, watch my video below to understand how this app functions to help you bring the happiest of yourself to life and improve mental wellness.

I personally enjoy using the app because it somehow makes me discover more ways to reduce stress, reframe negative thoughts, and broaden my horizon with educational articles in Tracks section.

The app content is fun and doable, so it is appropriate for people who want to add positive habits to their routine but do not want to take much of their time. however, because its activities are easy and entertaining, I consider that sometimes they bring nothing but fun. Therefore, Happify might not be a “serious” mental health app for people who struggle with depression or mental disorders.

In short, is it beneficial to use this app? The answer is yes. If you want to find happiness in your life but do not know where to start, jump on board because this app could be a good kickstart to your quest.

But whether this app is enough for you to stay happy and live a wellbeing life in the long run?

Feel free to leave a comment because I love to hear more from your side 😊

Reference list

Cheng VWS, Davenport T, Johnson D, Vella K and Hickie IB (2019) ‘Gamification in Apps and Technologies for Improving Mental Health and Well-Being: Systematic Review’, JMIR Publications: Advancing Digital health & Open Science, 6(6), https://doi.org/10.2196/13717.

Deterding S, Dixon D, Khaled R and Nacke L (September 2011) ‘From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining “Gamification”’, Research Gate, accessed 19 April 2022. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rilla-Khaled/publication/230854710_From_Game_Design_Elements_to_Gamefulness_Defining_Gamification/links/00b7d5315ab1be3c37000000/From-Game-Design-Elements-to-Gamefulness-Defining-Gamification.pdf.

Johnson D, Deterding S, Kuhn Kerri-Ann, Staneva A, Stoyanov S and Hides L (2016) ‘Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature’, Science Direct, 6(28):89-106, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2016.10.002.

Pixabay (20 March 2017) Pile of Rock Near Lake [photo], Pexels, accessed 21 April 2022. Available under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). Pile of Rock Near Lake · Free Stock Photo (pexels.com).

Litvin S, Saunders R, Maier MA and Luttke S (2 September 2020) ‘Gamification as an approach to improve resilience and reduce attrition in mobile mental health interventions: A randomised controlled trial’, PLOS ONE, accessed 19 April 2022. Gamification as an approach to improve resilience and reduce attrition in mobile mental health interventions: A randomized controlled trial (plos.org).

I have never tried Duolingo until recently when I need to work on a campaign promoting Duolingo. To understand why Duolingo has been prevailing and widely used in the past few years, I need to have a hands-on experience of its service and find out what distinguishes it from other language-learning apps. Aside from the quality and easy-to-approach content, gamification elements also make a huge contribution to the reputation and success of this phenomenal app.

Gamification is predominant in education field because it can motivate and keep learners engaged during the learning process that make more and more learners access educational apps that ever before.

Duolingo offers free vocabulary practice in 38 languages making the app an accessible and affordable program for everyone. The main design is the so-called tree – which is the 6aggregation of mini-lessons, ranging from different levels for beginners to intermediate beginners. Each mini-lesson takes up to 5 minutes to finish. Once learners pass each of these lessons, they will reach the end of the tree and complete the language course.

However, like two sides of a coin, this app also has some pros and cons. “Duolingo is notorious for its constant notification bombardment” (Bilham 2021). This statement is strongly relatable to my experience. Although the original meaning of notification is to act as a friendly reminder to help users get back on track with learning, it does not feel right anymore when my phone is shrunk by tons of notifications.

I am into the app when it comes the lessons. I am allowed to redo exercises that help me reinforce my knowledge. The exercise supports me to improve my listening, reading, and writing skills because I need to the audio, complete the sentence and read the context to make sure my that my sentence makes sense. Also, Duolingo offers recording exercises where I can improve my speaking skills by speaking out loudly phrases or vocabulary that I have learned. Whereas the hindrance of these lessons is that all the topic is allocated in fixed places on the tree. If I want to learn a specific topic, I cannot access it until I accomplish all the former lessons. I think it would be more convenient if Duolingo allowed us to customise the tree with our preferable topics and decide what we want to learn first.

In general, Duolingo proves that gamification can help learners learn best and have fun while achieving their goals and targets. I will recommend you use this app because it does not cost an arm and leg; it fits in your busy schedule; it is informative and entertaining at the same time.

Let me know in the comment if you also love Duolingo! 🙂

Reference list

Bilham J (2 July 2021) Case study: How Duolingo utilises gamification to increase user interest, Raw, accessed 20 April 2022. Case Study: How Duolingo Utilises Gamification To Increase User Interest – Raw.Studio.

Huynh D, Zuo L and Iida H (2016) ‘Analysing Gamification of “Duolingo” with Focus on Its Course Structure’, International Conference on Games and Learning Alliance, 1(1):268-277, DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-50182-6_24.

Swift T (22 February 2021) Crop faceless woman using on laptop and smartphone at home [photo], Pexels, accessed 20 April 2022. Available under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). Crop faceless woman using on laptop and smartphone at home · Free Stock Photo (pexels.com).

We all know it is hard to keep up a good habit like walking every morning or drinking 2 litres of water a day when we live too busy with work and study. We need a little push to motivate and remind us to continuously maintain those positive habits. Therefore, the introduction of gamification breathed fresh air into the healthcare industry when it is able to boost behaviour change for health and wellbeing entertainingly. 

In this blog, I will take Fitbit as an example to analyse how a healthcare company uses gamification elements to engage us, keep us motivated, and helps us down the bumpy road of change. Fitbit is one of the early leaders in the wearables game. Fitbit is customized to measure heart rate, sleep quality, step counts, and food intake.

Fitbit Health & Fitness is the app aligning with the Fitbit watch. You can either connect your watch to track your daily habits, or you can sign up to just use the app only. This blog will only focus on how the app uses gamification elements to uplift the individual’s motivation and encourage users to engrain healthy habits toward better health-related outcomes. I am not owning a Fitbit smartwatch, so I cannot weigh up the pros and cons and help you decide whether it is the correct investment for you.

The app displays several main gamification elements corresponding with four tabs: Today Tab, Discover Tab, Community Tab, and Premium Tab. 

• Progress bar and Scores (in Today Tab): this allows you to set goals, tracks your daily habits, including exercise, food intake, step counts, water, and your mind, and rewards you with achievement badges and celebrates each milestone to give you a sense of achievement. 
• Personalisation (in Discover Tab): give you a sense of control by offering a variety of activities referring to workouts, mindfulness, nutrition programs, health and fitness stats, etc. You can feel free to decide what to watch, read and do within a day as long as it benefits your physical activity and mental wellness. 
• Shareability (in Community Tab): allows you to connect with your friends and interact with like-minded users. This feature is an excellent tool to help users stay on track because you find it is easier to do challenges, workouts, or yoga with your friends. Nothing is better if you can connect with someone going through the same struggles as you. Everyone can empower and motivate each other to keep up the fine work. 

Is it a good app? Yes, this app is good and makes the process of building healthy habits simpler. The app is an easy-to-use app, so even those who struggle with technology will be able to understand how this app functions. Fitbit app concentrates on providing users with straightforward techniques that help users engrain healthy habits into their lifestyle. The gamification elements used in this app are relatively simple because the app does not want to pressure users with a level-up system or make users feel obliged to accomplish the tasks. 

Reference list

Piacquadio A (17 February 2020) Fit athlete during training on running track [photo], Pexels, accessed 21 April 2022. Available under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). Fit athlete during training on running track · Free Stock Photo (pexels.com).

Subiyanto K (18 May 2020) Crop woman with fitness bracelet using smartphone [photo], Pexels, accessed 21 April 2022. Available under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). Crop woman with fitness bracelet using smartphone · Free Stock Photo (pexels.com).