What Does It Take? Developing a Smartphone App that Motivates Older Adults to be Physically Active

TL;DR

This study explores the development and testing of a standalone smartphone fitness app for older adults, highlighting usability, engagement, and design challenges to promote physical activity in real-world settings.

Contribution

It provides practical design recommendations and insights from real-world testing of a mobile fitness app tailored for older adults, addressing usability and social support challenges.

Findings

Older adults valued video demos and reminders for motivation.

Manual logging was frustrating for some users.

Social features like Facebook groups had mixed acceptance.

Abstract

Maintaining physical activity is essential for older adults' health and well-being, yet participation remains low. Traditional paper-based and in-person interventions have been effective but face scalability issues. Smartphone apps offer a potential solution, but their effectiveness in real-world use remains underexplored. Most prior studies take place in controlled environments, use specialized hardware, or rely on in-person training sessions or researcher-led setup. This study examines the feasibility and engagement of Senior Fit, a standalone mobile fitness app designed for older adults. We conducted continuous testing with 25 participants aged 65-85, refining the app based on their feedback to improve usability and accessibility. Our findings underscore both the potential and key challenges in designing digital health interventions. Older adults valued features such as video demonstrations and reminders that made activity feel accessible and motivating, yet some expressed frustration with manual logging and limited personalization. The Facebook group provided encouragement for some but excluded others unfamiliar with the platform. These results highlight the need for fitness apps that integrate flexible tracking, clear feedback, and low-barrier social support. We contribute design recommendations for creating inclusive mobile fitness tools that align with older adults' routines and capabilities, offering insights for future long-term, real-world deployments.