Digital Coaching - An Exploratory Study on Potential Motivators

The objective of our study is to explore the importance of different sets of functionalities in a digital coaching system. Digital coaching is defined as systems providing the user with actionable advice and feedback to reach fitness goals. From previous research we identify five sets of functionalities likely to be important in the digital coaching context: mental support, exercise programs, goal setting, feedback and social functionality. We employ Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to understand users’ opinions of digital coaching. Our results highlight the importance of exercise programs and goal setting functionality, whereas feedback and social functionality are surprisingly not so important. Some gender-related differences emerge.