Innovative Solutions: Ruckus Nation

Innovative Solutions: Ruckus Nation

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Ruckus Nation is HopeLab’s program to develop fun, effective products that increase physical activity in tweens (11 – 14 year olds) to help address the devastating effects of obesity by getting kids to move more. Ruckus Nation began as an idea competition that tapped into the power of the global community — including kids– to generate new ideas for products to get kids moving. More than 400 entries were submitted by teams representing 37 countries and 41 U.S. states. Winners were announced in March 2008. HopeLab is now moving ahead with the best ideas from the competition to assess their technical feasibility, potential development costs, and desirability to our target audience based on direct feedback from tweens.

Target: Obesity

HopeLab has chosen to focus on physical activity in tweens in particular because:

  • Sedentary behavior is harming kids’ health and quality of life
  • Regardless of weight, physical activity improves health
  • Physical activity improves mental and physical well being
  • Physical activity levels often decrease significantly in the tween years 1

Read the Ruckus Nation Physical Activity Research Summary to learn more.

Research & Product Development

Ruckus Research

Prior to initiating product development, HopeLab conducted in-depth interviews with tweens across the U.S. to better understand the drivers and barriers to physical activity in their everyday lives. The results provided distinct profiles of tween behavior and core design principles that are now informing our work. This work was supported in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and CIGNA Healthcare.

gDitty

The first physical activity product in development at HopeLab is gDitty (working title). gDitty is a specially designed activity monitor optimized to record tween movement, combined with a website where kids redeem activity points for rewards they choose. gDitty was conceived by a HopeLab researcher while developing a tween-friendly activity monitor for use in the evaluation of Ruckus Nation product prototypes. The concept was enhanced based on ideas generated in the Ruckus Nation competition and our Ruckus Research results. A first-generation gDitty prototype is now being evaluated in small-scale pilot studies. This work is supported in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

1 Philip R. Nader; Robert H. Bradley; Renate M. Houts; Susan L. McRitchie; Marion O’Brien. Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity From Ages 9 to 15 Years. JAMA. 2008;300(3):295-305.