Building Community and Commitment with a Virtual Coach in Mobile Wellness Programs

Stephanie M. Lukin, G. Michael Youngblood, Honglu Du, Marilyn A. Walker

Abstract: FittleBot is virtual coach provided as part of a mobile application named Fittle that aims to provide users with social support and motivation for achieving the user’s health and wellness goals. Fittle’s wellness challenges are based around teams, where each team has its own FittleBot to provide personalized recommendations, support team building and provide information or tips. Here we present a quantitative analysis from a 2-week field study where we test new FittleBot strategies to increase FittleBot’s effectiveness in building team community. Participants using the enhanced FittleBot improved compliance over the two weeks by 8.8% and increased their sense of community by 4%.