GameBus

What?

GameBus is an academic platform designed to prototype and evaluate digital health interventions with persuasive mechanics (including gamification). It enables researchers to design, deploy, and test behavior change strategies in real-world settings. Participants engage in health-related activities, earning points and rewards that foster motivation and adherence. The platform supports personalized goals, social interaction, and data collection for scientific analysis. GameBus thus bridges experimental research and practical deployment in digital health.

Evolution

Early versions of GameBus required technical expertise to set up different study arms or adapt the user experience for specific groups. While anyone could define gamification rules, only technical staff at Eindhoven University of Technology could modify the interface. Over time, the platform evolved to let third parties adjust page layouts and even create versions without gamification or social features. Still, GameBus is designed to support personalized, social, and community-driven health promotion. Researchers can even compare such engaging setups to more traditional, clinician-led approaches in terms of user engagement and staff workload.

Why?

The European population is aging. Moreover, family and friend circles are compromised by the busy schedules of working citizens. It is already challenging balance between professional goals and duties, personal fitness and leisure activities as well as family (i.e., quality) time, especially involving multiple generations. The expected mobility of the active workers puts additional pressure on this. At the same time, there is economic need and corresponding political pressure for keeping the elderly longer at home, independent of managed care. Unless we provide new ways to empower European citizens, the anticipated economic benefits will be hindered by a too high pressure on families and home care organizations.

Scientific Basis?

The platform background and design rationale has been documented in the following article, which in turn cites a variety of studies that leveraged the platform for specific studies on health promotion:

Pieter Van Gorp and Raoul Nuijten. 2023. 8-year Evaluation of GameBus: Status quo in Aiming for an Open Access Platform to Prototype and Test Digital Health Apps. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 7, EICS, Article 171 (June 2023), 24 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3593223