The Gauntlet: The Design of a Community Challenge Platform

Abstract

Many people in present culture have a desire to improve themselves in some way, be it increased physical fitness, healthy eating, better sustainable practices, etc. Yet it can often be difficult to follow through with self-improvement goals. To address this, we designed the Gauntlet, a platform for creating and sharing user-generated challenges that can be carried out in real-world settings. We describe the participatory design activity we used to inform our design followed by the final design of the Gauntlet user interface. We also propose how this platform can be used to support personal goal and community improvement.