I have been thinking about the plethora of fitness apps that are available and contemplating which ones work and why. Invited by Patricia Lange, I wrote a blog post on zombies, stories, motivation and fitness for the CASTAC blog – the official blog of the Committee on the Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Computing – on my favourite running app, Zombies, Run!
I made a few points along the way, but the end point of the post was: if you try a training app make sure you pick a story that suits your imagination, no matter how fanciful. If want to gamify your health, pick a good storyline that compels you. Getting fitter wasn’t enough for me, I needed an apocalypse and a purpose.
