MENTALICA
Mentalica therapist's thoughts
An independent research paper published in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies explored the "counterproductive effects of gamification'', i.e., cases when a gamification element does not encourage the intended behavior but rather the opposite (e.g., procrastination instead of getting things done).
Key features (free)
Access to the full app - gamified habit tracking and productivity tools
Mentalica user experience
Gamified habit building sounds liek a brilliant idea, and it is indeed fun to use, even if it is difficult to navigate and overwhelming at the beginning. Useful for habit tracking, but does not help with productivity - the little details and quests could fuel procrastination as also found by a research paper - which makes the use of the app counterintuitive.
Premium features
Boosters for your avatar
Credibility
Score
Weak
Company behind the solution
Founded in:
HabitRPG, Inc
2015
Where the solution operates:
global
The team behind the app
It is an open source project - the app is developed by small team and volunteers help out
Price (UK)
£5/month, discounts for 3/6/12 months
Safety and Privacy
Score
Weak
What happens if a mental health crisis is reported?
Not applicable
Is the mental health crisis support or referral working?
Not applicable
Are there controversies reported about the solution?
Not related to privacy or security. A published research paper found negative evidence for the effectiveness of the app/
Privacy policy's evaluation
Need to register with a username+password or could connect with your Google or Apple account. Policy states that they "may share or receive information about you with/from third parties". Also may connect geolocation and other identifiable data. With volunteers involved in the development of the app, further privacy issues may arise from that.
Language
English, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish
Effectiveness
Quality of evidence
Low
What does the existing evidence indicate?
yes