One of my favorite blogs is information aesthetics. They post some amazing visualizations of data and sites which do the same. One of their latest posts shows off a physical activity fishbowl which was used in a study recently.

The basic idea is that a virtual fish’s size and facial expressions are tied to the physical steps that a person takes. When the person reaches their goals or moves beyond it, the fish grows in side and is happy. The other side is when the goals aren’t matched, the fish is smaller and has sad expressions.

The study [pdf] goes thru the process and how it increased the activity of folks. This is a very interesting idea of how virtual things can influence how people act and what they do.

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