title: Impact of Game-Inspired Infographics on User Engagement and Information Processing in an eHealth Program.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Online interventions providing individual health behavior assessment should deliver feedback in a way that is both understandable and engaging. This study focused on the potential for infographics inspired by the aesthetics of game design to contribute to these goals.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We conducted formative research to test game-inspired infographics against more traditional displays (eg, text-only, column chart) for conveying a behavioral goal and an individual's behavior relative to the goal. We explored the extent to which the display type would influence levels of engagement and information processing.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between-participants experiments compared game-inspired infographics with traditional formats in terms of outcomes related to information processing (eg, comprehension, cognitive load) and engagement (eg, attitudes toward the information, emotional tone). We randomly assigned participants (N=1162) to an experiment in 1 of 6 modules (tobacco use, alcohol use, vegetable consumption, fruit consumption, physical activity, and weight management).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the tobacco module, a game-inspired format (scorecard) was compared with text-only; there were no differences in attitudes and emotional tone, but the scorecard outperformed text-only on comprehension (P=.004) and decreased cognitive load (P=.006). For the other behaviors, we tested 2 game-inspired formats (scorecard, progress bar) and a traditional column chart; there were no differences in comprehension, but the progress bar outperformed the other formats on attitudes and emotional tone (P<.001 for all contrasts).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Across modules, a game-inspired infographic showed potential to outperform a traditional format for some study outcomes while not underperforming on other outcomes. Overall, findings support the use of game-inspired infographics in behavioral assessment feedback to enhance comprehension and engagement, which may lead to greater behavior change.
authors.affiliation: School of Media and Journalism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States. comello@email.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Maria Leonora G
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7430-6668
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Comello
authors.forename: Xiaokun
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2944-4564
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Allison M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3526-3938
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Deal
authors.forename: Kurt M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3318-8524
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Ribisl
authors.forename: Laura A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8702-4624
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Linnan
authors.forename: Deborah F
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4915-5308
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Tate
keywords: eHealth; game design; infographics; personalized feedback; visuals