MoveMore Sheffield

About MoveMore Sheffield Android App

The project supports the tackling a huge global social problem - physical inactivity. This is one of the most important contributors to poor health and wellbeing from cradle to grave. Being physically active also supports creation of wealth for individuals, businesses and populations. But accurate measurement of physical activity levels is difficult, and self-reported data is very unreliable and hugely over estimates real levels, reducing motivation for behavioural change. We have developed a smart phone app able to generate an objective measurement of activity, educate people about their activity levels and achieve large-scale behavioural change. The app is composed of a mobile app tracking the individual and a server side program performing data cleaning and visualisation. Our app is designed to support people in adopting a healthier lifestyle. It is designed to be fun and to generate a sense of city cohesion. It is also distributed for free. The app tracks the activity of a person (still, walking, running, cycling, etc.), the associated timing (e.g. you walked for 20 minutes starting from 12:23 on 20.12.2015) and location. The app enables users to monitor their personal lifestyle, including through the provision of directed and customised messages. Aggregated and anonymysed data will be used for studies both in terms of social health and mobility as well as in terms of advancing the field of computer science/wellbeing. The location associated to the activity will also enable to understand how different parts of the city (and hence social strata) react to health messages via MoveMore or other sources (e.g. government or city council). Similarly it will enable understanding mobility patterns over time (how people move and in what ways) and hence to evaluate the impact of mobility measures (e.g. a change in parking regulations) in terms of impact on the health of the population. The activity is carried out in collaboration with Sheffield’s Move More initiative http://www.movemoresheffield.com/