Abstract
Digital physical activity applications employ various motivational mechanisms to encourage exercise, yet research on the complex relationship between their visual aesthetics and motivation for physical activity is still limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how three different visual images, such as those representing health, fitness, and social benefits, respectively, can motivate peo-ple to engage in physical activity in a digital service environment. To investigate this, 50 participants evaluated these images in the survey. The results showed that out of the three categories, fitness images had the most significant impact on motivating physical activity, suggesting that stimuli that directly evoke thoughts of physical activity help to increase motivation. In addition, motivation for physical activity and aesthetic appeal were found to be strongly related (r = 0.64, p < 0.001, n = 148). These findings provide new evidence that visual aes-thetics in digital applications notably enhance physical activity motivation.
Keywords
aesthetic experience; physical activity; motivation; motivational image
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.727
Citation
Jung, Y., Kim, C., Lee, K., and Kim, H. (2024) Exploring the relation between aesthetic experience and physical activity motivation, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.727
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Exploring the relation between aesthetic experience and physical activity motivation
Digital physical activity applications employ various motivational mechanisms to encourage exercise, yet research on the complex relationship between their visual aesthetics and motivation for physical activity is still limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how three different visual images, such as those representing health, fitness, and social benefits, respectively, can motivate peo-ple to engage in physical activity in a digital service environment. To investigate this, 50 participants evaluated these images in the survey. The results showed that out of the three categories, fitness images had the most significant impact on motivating physical activity, suggesting that stimuli that directly evoke thoughts of physical activity help to increase motivation. In addition, motivation for physical activity and aesthetic appeal were found to be strongly related (r = 0.64, p < 0.001, n = 148). These findings provide new evidence that visual aes-thetics in digital applications notably enhance physical activity motivation.