The gamification of sleep : a case study on user engagement with SleepTown in everyday(night) life
(2020) MKVM13 20201Media and Communication Studies
Department of Communication and Media
- Abstract
- Sleep is a crucial part of our lives, as we spend about one-third of our lives sleeping. In a digital age, mobile apps on smartphones play an important role in self-improvement regarding sleep. Gamification techniques can be particularly employed by app designers to strengthen users’ motivation and participation. This thesis aims to take an empirical focus examining the ways in which gamification is adopted by mobile apps as a strategy to regulate users’ sleep and affect their everyday(night) life. A case study on a mobile app - SleepTown is conducted to take a closer look at how people engage with sleep-regulating apps and make sense of their sleeping/gaming practices in the physical and virtual space, in the sleeping and waking world.... (More)
- Sleep is a crucial part of our lives, as we spend about one-third of our lives sleeping. In a digital age, mobile apps on smartphones play an important role in self-improvement regarding sleep. Gamification techniques can be particularly employed by app designers to strengthen users’ motivation and participation. This thesis aims to take an empirical focus examining the ways in which gamification is adopted by mobile apps as a strategy to regulate users’ sleep and affect their everyday(night) life. A case study on a mobile app - SleepTown is conducted to take a closer look at how people engage with sleep-regulating apps and make sense of their sleeping/gaming practices in the physical and virtual space, in the sleeping and waking world. The study is theoretically informed by the sociological perception of sleep, the interdisciplinary study of gamification, Foucauldian notions of governmentality and surveillance, media engagement theory, and Actor-Network Theory.
Through semi-structured interviews with twelve users, the author creates an understanding that the gamification strategy enacts a mode of governmentality, as users are recruited as willing participants who submit to monitoring in a gameful setting. The game mechanism of SleepTown creates a fun environment for users to regulate their sleep patterns under self- and mutual surveillance. Digital technologies have the agency to delimit the scope within which apps are designed with rules, while users can use their autonomy when engaging with the app in daily life. Their engagement with SleepTown varies in forms and in intensity. Users not only adapt to the game rules in varying degrees but also develop different tactics to satisfy their needs, constantly negotiating their relationships with the app, sleep routine, and daily routine. The interplay between the technological affordances and human users shapes the app function as well as the meaning of sleep. In the deep mediatized context, users’ online and offline practices inspired by SleepTown construct sleep as an attractive experience associated with entertainment, social networking and consumption, and a task highlighting productivity and efficiency. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9009216
- author
- You, Yukun LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MKVM13 20201
- year
- 2020
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- gamification, sleep, mobile app, user engagement, SleepTown, digital technology, governmentality, surveillance, Actor-Network Theory
- language
- English
- id
- 9009216
- date added to LUP
- 2020-06-16 07:41:50
- date last changed
- 2020-06-16 07:41:50
@misc{9009216,
abstract = {{Sleep is a crucial part of our lives, as we spend about one-third of our lives sleeping. In a digital age, mobile apps on smartphones play an important role in self-improvement regarding sleep. Gamification techniques can be particularly employed by app designers to strengthen users’ motivation and participation. This thesis aims to take an empirical focus examining the ways in which gamification is adopted by mobile apps as a strategy to regulate users’ sleep and affect their everyday(night) life. A case study on a mobile app - SleepTown is conducted to take a closer look at how people engage with sleep-regulating apps and make sense of their sleeping/gaming practices in the physical and virtual space, in the sleeping and waking world. The study is theoretically informed by the sociological perception of sleep, the interdisciplinary study of gamification, Foucauldian notions of governmentality and surveillance, media engagement theory, and Actor-Network Theory.
Through semi-structured interviews with twelve users, the author creates an understanding that the gamification strategy enacts a mode of governmentality, as users are recruited as willing participants who submit to monitoring in a gameful setting. The game mechanism of SleepTown creates a fun environment for users to regulate their sleep patterns under self- and mutual surveillance. Digital technologies have the agency to delimit the scope within which apps are designed with rules, while users can use their autonomy when engaging with the app in daily life. Their engagement with SleepTown varies in forms and in intensity. Users not only adapt to the game rules in varying degrees but also develop different tactics to satisfy their needs, constantly negotiating their relationships with the app, sleep routine, and daily routine. The interplay between the technological affordances and human users shapes the app function as well as the meaning of sleep. In the deep mediatized context, users’ online and offline practices inspired by SleepTown construct sleep as an attractive experience associated with entertainment, social networking and consumption, and a task highlighting productivity and efficiency.}},
author = {{You, Yukun}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The gamification of sleep : a case study on user engagement with SleepTown in everyday(night) life}},
year = {{2020}},
}