Fitness trackers : understanding how user experience impacts motivation

Fitness trackers have become a popular technology for the fitness industry within the wearable market. Fitness trackers provide a unique user experience in that they are ubiquitous and provide instantaneous biometric data to users. However, the market is oversaturated with many devices ranging from fitness trackers strictly used for tracking biometric data, and smartwatches that are an extension of a mobile device. Furthermore, despite their popularity, users are quick to abandon fitness trackers. There is little research that understands how the user experience of fitness trackers assists in creating positive exercise routines for users and why users adopt these devices for long term. The goal of this thesis is to understand how the usability, design, and social features provided by fitness trackers affects the user experience, which of these factors drive users toward long-term adoption or abandonment of their devices, and provide recommendations for fitness tracker designers and product developers to improve the user experience.