Keeping track of your daily intake of food and fluids can be a hassle, even if there’s a handy mobile app to help you. But what if that app contains game elements? What if keeping track feels like playing a game rather than paperwork?

It stands to reason this would increase the accuracy, or actually the frequency of data input by the user. To find out if it really works like this, Utrecht University student Chris Verbeek is conducting an interesting research project, DietCare. In his own words: “The goal of the experiment is to provide an answer to the following research question: What gamification aspects would serve as stimulus to record fluid intake in a health coaching app?

One baseline and three gamified prototypes are being tested in order to assess and compare their performances. Here, performance is defined as the degree to which a gamified prototype stimulates participants to measure (keep track) of their daily fluid intake compared to the baseline, non-gamified prototype.”