02.25.2013, by Christian
http://www.newlyswissed.com/staying-on-top-of-your-health-with-dacadoo/
Staying On Top of your Health with dacadoo
It is hard to open a paper or new website without being bombarded by news of the ails of many of the world’s leading economies. Most economists would agree that the costs of healthcare are amongst the highest. In order to maintain longevity and fiscal well-being, these costs are most in need of being addressed.
Fortunately, focusing on health has become a growing trend for these economies. This is partly due to media making people aware of health risks associated with poor diets and inactivity, among others.
with a team of specialists, Ohnemus set about to create a platform that accurately depicts the user’s state of health.
How dacadoo Works
The platform works on many Interestingly enough, techno- different levels to inspire its logy and social media have users to live healthier lives. also played a role. Welcome Upon registration, users supdacadoo!
Users can even add informa- also enabled FitBit devices to tion on their medical histo- track your daily steps (at least ry, blood pressure and pulse, 10‘000 being the goal). blood fats and blood sugar. This platform truly brings together most of your controllable health indicators. Another added bonus is that dacadoo works with a series of external measurement devices
A Real Time Health Tracker
dacadoo AppDacadoo is the name of the award winning health platform from Switzerland. The idea for dacadoo came from Peter Ohnemus who was concerned with the fact that there was no way of tracking people’s health in real time and seeing the growing rates of obesity all around the world. Ohnemus thought that the answer was an interactive and fun way to track and improve our wellbeing. Together
ply various pieces of health information to the platform which then starts to calculate a dacadoo Health Score of 1 1000. Not just a user’s physical activity and well-being are measured, but also their emotional and mental state (through a series of questionnaires).
like smartphones and GPS watches for tracking distances and speed during activities, the Withings Scale for your weight, and heart rate monitors. Realizing that exclusively using your smartphone for tracking your health is a large drain on the battery, they have
Using Gamification
Visually displaying your health as well as providing a score is a great way of gamifying our health. In a 2010 TEDx talk, Seth Priebatsch talks about how gamification is the next step in technology and how it can be used for the better. Of course, gamification does not mean that social media is gone. It, too, remains an integral part of dacadoo and will continue to be an important technology. Gamification works on us as we want to maintain a high score. The higher the score, the healthier you are — quite a simple motivator. The algorithm behind dacadoo makes it harder for users to keep a high score. This means that one cannot simply do a week of Seite 1
02.25.2013, by Christian
regular sport and have a high score for a month if they stop. Health is lived. Setting goals is important to success, and dacadoo allows users to do just that. Finally, it provides visualized feedback on how close the user is to achieving their goals.
http://www.newlyswissed.com/staying-on-top-of-your-health-with-dacadoo/
up the motivation.
Media and Industry Recognition
the full range of health indicators it takes into account — the most of any fitness tracking system I have used to date. One thing I would like to see is a cross-platform import feature, so that I do not lose all the runs I have logged on other platforms.
Dacadoo AppSince the launch of dacadoo (previously QUENTIQ) in December 2011, the platform has won numerous awards like the Health Media Award 2012 in CoCompete With Your Fri- logne, Germany, or a bronze dacadoo - ChristianAt the moends medal for the „Best of Swiss ment, dacadoo allows for users to import single workouts over When simply trying to keep Web Awards 2012“. the GPX file standard. Having your own score high for the been tracking my workouts for sake of a high score gets three years now, I can attest to boring, this is where the sothe health benefits of being cial network element comes aware of your progress. in. See how your friends are doing: „John just did an 11 km Last year, I ran 2500 km, and run“ - maybe I should get out this year I have set a goal of there again, too. Or set up a 3000 km. I am already 500 challenge: „Who can bike the km into that goal and am still most kilometers this month?“ It has now been nominated for motivated, thanks in part to You can improve your he- the „Best Swiss App Award“. dacadoo. alth with your friends and Others have clearly discoAt present, dacadoo is free even strangers, motivating vered dacadoo before I did. for 60 days. After that, there and challenging each another along the way. Achieving new My Experience with da- are different subscription options for users. milestones in workout distancadoo ce and time is recognized by I have been using dacadoo I personally think that the dacadoo, which in turn provifor a little over a month now ability to monitor my health des valuable feedback to keep and am very impressed with
is worth investing in. Some others may find the challenges, in which prizes including cash can be won to be the bigger motivator. full range of health indicators
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