Thoughts on Wii Fit's weigh-in system and positive/negative reinforcement
I wrote this little mini-rant as part of a discussion on Wii Fit and positive/negative feedback. Just thought I might share it with everyone:
The problem isn't necessary negative reinforcement alone, but the fact that it's too easy to receive that negative reinforcement when you don't deserve it.
I've been using Wii Fit to weigh-in daily now for almost 10 months. I've lost almost 70 pounds in that time, but I still agree that Wii Fit is simply too quick to provide negative reinforcement.
For instance, if you gain over a pound, it always demands you enter a reason. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding for how human weight works. My weight can easily fluctuate 2-3 pounds in a day, and even if I weigh in two days in a row at the exact same time every day, I might have gained more than a pound. The human body is fickle like that. What matters far more is your overall trend - are you gaining or losing? And that's where Wii Fit tends to fail - it doesn't monitor long-term trends, only day-to-day weight and whether or not you've made your goal(s).
It's not really a BAD tool, but it's not nearly AS MUCH as it could be. It has the potential to be a truly powerful analysis took that monitors your long-term weight fluctuations and gives you positive or negative feedback based on THAT, rather than feedback based on solely on day-to-day values and your goals. For instance, if I randomly drop 2 pounds, it might claim I'll "make my goal at that pace", even though I obviously WON'T if you look at the long-term rate I am losing. The feedback would be far, far more useful if it said positive things at first like "You have gained a pound, but don't worry unless this trend continues for another couple of weeks. Keep it up!", and then EVENTUALLY triggered negative feedback if you continued to gain weight over the course of a week or two with no signs you were trying to improve.
As a very-accurate scale and graphing software, Wii Fit is quite useful, but I just don't understand why Nintendo balked at making the software as powerful as it truly could, and should, be.
The problem isn't necessary negative reinforcement alone, but the fact that it's too easy to receive that negative reinforcement when you don't deserve it.
I've been using Wii Fit to weigh-in daily now for almost 10 months. I've lost almost 70 pounds in that time, but I still agree that Wii Fit is simply too quick to provide negative reinforcement.
For instance, if you gain over a pound, it always demands you enter a reason. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding for how human weight works. My weight can easily fluctuate 2-3 pounds in a day, and even if I weigh in two days in a row at the exact same time every day, I might have gained more than a pound. The human body is fickle like that. What matters far more is your overall trend - are you gaining or losing? And that's where Wii Fit tends to fail - it doesn't monitor long-term trends, only day-to-day weight and whether or not you've made your goal(s).
It's not really a BAD tool, but it's not nearly AS MUCH as it could be. It has the potential to be a truly powerful analysis took that monitors your long-term weight fluctuations and gives you positive or negative feedback based on THAT, rather than feedback based on solely on day-to-day values and your goals. For instance, if I randomly drop 2 pounds, it might claim I'll "make my goal at that pace", even though I obviously WON'T if you look at the long-term rate I am losing. The feedback would be far, far more useful if it said positive things at first like "You have gained a pound, but don't worry unless this trend continues for another couple of weeks. Keep it up!", and then EVENTUALLY triggered negative feedback if you continued to gain weight over the course of a week or two with no signs you were trying to improve.
As a very-accurate scale and graphing software, Wii Fit is quite useful, but I just don't understand why Nintendo balked at making the software as powerful as it truly could, and should, be.