JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Sleep games are an emerging topic in the realm of serious health game research. However, designing features that are both enjoyable and effective at engaging users, particularly university students, to develop healthy sleep habits remains a challenge.

Objective:

This study aimed to investigate user preferences for three sleep game prototypes—Hero’s Sleep Journey (HSJ), Sleep Tamagochi (ST), and Sleepland (SL)—and to explore their popularity and perceived utility in promoting sleep health.

Methods:

A mixed-method approach was employed in this study. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a co-design workshop involving 47 university students. Participants were presented with storyboard cards of game features and were asked to provide an overall rating on each game, as well as ratings for individual features. They were also encouraged to provide free-form comments on the features and suggest improvements. Additionally, participants were asked to express their preferences among the three games regarding which game they would most like to play and which one they found most useful for promoting sleep health.

Results:

Surprisingly, while HSJ was the most popular choice among participants, ST was perceived as most beneficial for improving sleep health. Relevance emerged as an overarching theme in the qualitative data analysis, with three interconnected dimensions: psychological relevance to users’ personal lives, logical relevance to sleep health, and situational relevance to users’ circumstantial context. We discussed how the three dimensions of relevance address the autonomy and relatedness constructs outlined in the self-determination theory and proposed three design recommendations.

Conclusions:

Our serious sleep game prototypes demonstrated potential in engaging university students to develop healthy sleep hygiene. Future sleep game designs should aim to create a sense of relevance to users’ personal lives, sleep health goals, and situational contexts. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, it is essential to develop a wide range of game genres and features to cater to diverse users. Aligning game features with sleep health goals and educating users on the design rationale through sleep knowledge are also important. Furthermore, allowing users to customize their game experience and manage technology boundaries is necessary to nurture a sense of control and autonomy in the process of forming good sleep hygiene.