Personalizing gameful applications is essential to account for interpersonal differences in the perception of gameful design elements. Considering that an increasing number of people lead sedentary lifestyles, using personalized gameful applications to encourage physical activity is a particularly relevant domain. In this article, we investigate behavior change intentions and Hexad user types as factors to personalize gameful fitness applications. We first explored the potential of these two factors by analyzing differences in the perceived persuasiveness of gameful design elements using a storyboards-based online study (\(N=178\)). Our results show several significant effects regarding both factors and thus support the usefulness of them in explaining perceptual differences. Based on these findings, we implemented “Endless Universe,” a personalized gameful application encouraging physical activity on a treadmill. We used the system in a laboratory study (\(N=20\)) to study actual effects of personalization on the users’ performance, enjoyment and affective experiences. While we did not find effects on the immediate performance of users, positive effects on user experience-related measures were found. The results of this study support the relevance of behavior change intentions and Hexad user types for personalizing gameful fitness systems further.

个性化游戏应用程序对于解决游戏设计元素的感知中的人际差异至关重要。考虑到越来越多的人过着久坐的生活方式，使用个性化的游戏应用程序来鼓励体育锻炼是一个特别相关的领域。在本文中，我们调查了行为改变的意图和Hexad用户类型，这些因素是使游戏性健身应用程序个性化的因素。我们首先使用基于情节提要的在线研究（\（N = 178 \），通过分析游戏设计元素的感知说服力差异来探索这两个因素的潜力）。我们的研究结果显示了关于这两个因素的几个重要影响，因此支持它们在解释感知差异方面的有用性。基于这些发现，我们实现了“ Endless Universe”，这是一种个性化的游戏应用程序，可鼓励跑步机上的体育锻炼。我们在实验室研究（\（N = 20 \））中使用该系统来研究个性化对用户的表现，娱乐和情感体验的实际影响。虽然我们没有发现对用户即时性能的影响，但对与用户体验相关的措施却产生了积极影响。这项研究的结果支持了行为改变意图和Hexad用户类型对于进一步个性化游戏性健身系统的相关性。