Learn how to create challenges and set targets for your community. You can easily create a challenge using our ready-set challenge templates or create your own.
First, we recommend you to visit our HeiaHeia Academy and take advantage of our Best Practice concepts. In the Academy, you will find copy/paste message templates, as well as good tips and ideas for planning and implementing your own challenge.
In autumn 2022, we launched new types of gamified challenge templates, such as To the Moon, Around the World and Mount Everest. Contact us if you want to try these out!
Content of the article:
A. Ready-set challenge templates
B. Creating your own challenge
Challenges are created in the Admin tools under Run challenges. This is also where you will later find all your ongoing challenges and edit them if necessary.
There can be several challenges running in the community at the same time!
A. Ready-set challenge templates
First you should decide what you would like to achieve with the challenge? What could be a good goal for your organisation? Then consider, what type of challenge would work best for your community and serve your goal?
Following challenge types are available for the ready-set challenge templates:
1. Common goal: All members work together to reach the joint target and everyone can contribute to the "pot". The challenge ends when the goal is reached.
Templates:
- Around the world: Collect kilometres together by being active.
- SOS-Lapsikylä Charity Challenge: Log together 1000 hours of any activity and raise money for charity (SOS-lapsikylä only operates in Finland).
- Low-carbon work commute: collect together 300 low-carbon commutes by walking, running, riding an electric bike or a traditional bicycle to work.
2. Personal goal: Each member has the same individual target.
Templates:
- Try out 10 different sports.
- From Hanko to Utsjoki: Collect 1371 km by being active.
- Step millionaire: take 1 million steps in 6 months.
3. Team race: Teams are set up in the community to compete against each other.
Templates:
- Collect Wellbeing points: Which team collects the most Wellbeing points per member by small everyday activities (sleeping, steps, wellbeing actions eg.)
- Most different sport types: Which team logs the most different sports types wins. No per member divers used.
- Forward - march! Team step challenge: Which team takes the most steps by member.
Launching a challenge
Ready-set challenge templates are easy to launch with just a few mouse clicks!
1. Click on the challenge of your choice and take a closer look at its content.
2. On page 1/3 you can view the challenge settings. The correct settings are ready set up for your challenge. If necessary, you can unlock the settings in the top right corner.
Conversion: some challenges use conversion, which converts a measured unit into another unit, e.g. time into kilometres, as in this Around the World challenge. This means that activities (e.g. gym) that cannot measured in distance, will be converted and in this way included in the challenge.
3. On page 2/3, select the start date and - depending on the challenge - also the end date for your challenge. If you wish, you can edit the background image, the target amount and add a challenge info. The info will be displayed in the app in the challenge details, see image below. The most active members of the challenge are also displayed on the same page if you allow this. Show leaderboard is on as default setting. Members of your community can adjust their visibility in the challenge also by themselves if they do not want to appear in the list.
4. Team race settings (applies to team races only):
- Normally all teams participate in the race. To select the participating teams separately, click on the All teams button and select the participating teams.
- How to measure the team result: Total result or Per member?
The total result adds up all team's entries that are collected in the challenge = team result. Per member result calculates the team result as an average per member. We recommend using the per member result if the team size varies a lot.
5. Preview and launch the challenge
6. Last but not least, we recommend to consider the following before starting the challenge:
- Would you like to reward the participant in some motivating way for their activity/participation? See here for some ideas for rewarding.
- Communication on the launch of a new challenge: In the HeiaHeia Academy you will find a copy/paste message template for each of our ready-set challenges. All you need to do is just fill in the challenge and community specific information and send your message to your community. You can also find other useful tips for communication in the Academy.
7. Once you have launched your challenge, you can follow its progress and see the results in the statistics anytime:
B. Launching your own challenge
If you did not find a suitable challenge template, you can always create your own. Click Create your own challenge.
You should start by considering what you wish to achieve with the challenge. Which type of challenge would best serve your goal?
1. Start by choosing the challenge type.
Challenge types:
- Common goal: All members work together to reach the common goal and everyone can contribute to the "pot". The challenge ends when the goal is reached.
- Team race: teams are set up in the community to compete against each other, for example in collecting steps or earning wellbeing points.
- Open goal: The goal is to log as many activities as possible for the challenge, for example, physical activity hours or certain wellbeing actions. The challenge does not have a predefined target amount.
- Individual goal: Community members have their own individual goal, which each of them, in their own way, is aiming for. For example, members may have a goal of logging 15 physical activities in a given period.
2. What would you like to measure?
Next step is to decide, what would be the best way to get to the goal. Choose on of these four inputs:
Physical activity. To reach a goal physical activity is counted. You can either count all physical activity or just the certain sport types. For just certain sport types, choose these from the drop down menu All sports. For example, you can select only different cycling sports. Or if you want to exclude certain sport types, select them from the Sports to Exclude.
Wellbeing tasks. Different wellbeing tasks count towards a goal or team outcome - as with physical activity, you can choose the wellbeing tasks you want to include or exclude. Wellbeing tasks as input for the challenge work well for forming new habits focusing on a few tasks at a time. For example, tasks that help forming healthier habits or to improve team spirit at work. You will find a list of different well-being tasks in the drop-down menu "All types".
Activity and wellbeing. This input combines total physical activity and wellbeing tasks.
Wellbeing Score. The community members collect wellbeing points (as a common goal or team race). The points measure holistic wellbeing. You can read here how to earn points.
Steps. Daily steps are counted usually from a wearable, phone's health app or logged manually.
3. Choose the unit for measuring.
Activity can be measured by many different criteria.
Consider, which measurement unit would be best for your community and for your goal. For example:
- kilometres/miles
- hours,
- steps,
- amount of sports types,
- amount of exercises,
- avg hours/week
- days over target.
If you use steps as a unit, the daily target is the number of steps per day.
Measuring wellness tasks:
- amount of tasks,
- amount of different tasks.
4. Target amount or type.
To continue define the target amount or type.
For the common goal, please enter target amount the your overall goal. For example, if you have chosen only cycling sports to count for the goal, you can set the total amount in distance (km /miles), total time spent on the sports or number of training sessions, depending on the measurement unit you have chosen.
In a team race, you choose the type: either total or per member. The total is, for example, the number of steps or the number of hours that the team has collected together. The total works if the teams are of the same size. The per member type is works well for teams of different sizes. The team's outcome is shown as average per member.
Days over target can be measured in steps or distance. The target is set per day, for example 5 000 steps daily. Enter as target amount how many days over the target you would like to collect together.
The open goal challenge does not have a target amount at all, members try to collect as many activities as possible within a given timeframe.
5. Challenge time period and other settings
Give your challenge an inspiring title. It will show in the challenge meter.
Choose a start and - depending on the challenge - also an end date. The start date is the Monday of the week you choose. A common goal challenge will end when the goal is reached, for other challenge types it is possible to choose an end date.
If you wish, you can edit the background image and add challenge info. The info will be displayed in the app on the challenge details page, see image below.
6. Preview and launch the challenge
7. Last but not least, we recommend to consider the following before starting the challenge:
- Would you like to reward the participant in some motivating way for their activity/participation? See here for some ideas for rewarding.
- Communication on the launch of a new challenge: In the HeiaHeia Academy you will find a copy/paste message templates and useful tips for communication.
8. Once you have launched your challenge, you can follow its progress and see the results in the statistics anytime: