Tracking in the wild: exploring the everyday use of physical activity trackers

As the rates of chronical diseases, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes continue to increase, the development of tools that support people in achieving healthier habits is becoming ever more important. Personal tracking systems, such as activity trackers, have emerged as a promising class of tools to support people in managing their everyday health. However, for this promise to be fulfilled, these systems need to be well designed, not only in terms of how they implement specific behavior change techniques, but also in how they integrate into people’s daily lives and address their daily needs. My dissertations provides evidence that accounting for people’s daily practices and needs can help to design activity tracking systems that help people get more value from their tracking practices. To understand how people derive value from their activity tracking practices, I have conducted two inquiries into people’s daily uses of activity tracking systems. In a fist attempt, I led a 10-month study of the adoption of Habito, our own activity tracking mobile app. Habito logged not only users’ physical activity, but also their interactions with the app. This data was used to acquire an estimate of the adoption rate of Habito, and understanding of how adoption is affected by users’ ‘readiness’, i.e., their attitude towards behavior change. In a follow-up study, I turned to the use of video methods and direct, in-situ observations of users’ interactions to understand what motivates people to engage with these tools in their everyday life, and how the surrounding environment shapes their use. These studies revealed some of the complexities of tracking, while extending some of the underlying ideas of behavior change. Among key results: (1) people’s use of activity trackers was found to be predominantly impulsive, where they simultaneously reflect, learn and change their behaviors as they collect data; (2) people’s use of trackers is deeply entangled with their daily routines and practices, and; (3) people use of trackers often is not in line with the traditional vision of these tools as mediators of change – trackers are also commonly used to simply learn about behaviors and engage in moments of self-discovery. Examining how to design activity tracking interfaces that best support people’s different needs , my dissertation further describes an inquiry into the design space of behavioral feedback interfaces. Through a iterative process of synthesis and analysis of research on activity tracking, I devise six design qualities for creating feedback that supports people in their interactions with physical activity data. Through the development and field deployment of four concepts in a field study, I show the potential of these displays for highlighting opportunities for action and learning.À medida que a prevalência de doenças crónicas como a obesidade, doenças cardiovasculares e diabetes continua a aumentar, o desenvolvimento de ferramentas que suportam pessoas a atingir mudanças de comportamento tem-se tornado essencial. Ferramentas de monitorização de comportamentos, tais como monitores de atividade física, têm surgido com a promessa de encorajar um dia a dia mais saudável. Contudo, para que essa promessa seja cumprida, torna-se essencial que estas ferramentas sejam bem concebidas, não só na forma como implementam determinadas estratégias de mudança de comportamento, mas também na forma como são integradas no dia-a-dia das pessoas. A minha dissertação demonstra a importância de considerar as necessidades e práticas diárias dos utilizadores destas ferramentas, de forma a ajudá-las a tirar melhor proveito da sua monitorização de atividade física. De modo a entender como é que os utilizadores destas ferramentas derivam valor das suas práticas de monitorização, a minha dissertação começa por explorar as práticas diárias associadas ao uso de monitores de atividade física. A minha dissertação contribui com duas investigações ao uso diário destas ferramentas. Primeiro, é apresentada uma investigação da adoção de Habito, uma aplicação para monitorização de atividade física. Habito não só registou as instâncias de atividade física dos seus utilizadores, mas também as suas interações com a própria aplicação. Estes dados foram utilizados para adquirir uma taxa de adopção de Habito e entender como é que essa adopção é afetada pela “prontidão” dos utilizadores, i.e., a sua atitude em relação à mudança de comportamento. Num segundo estudo, recorrendo a métodos de vídeo e observações diretas e in-situ da utilização de monitores de atividade física, explorei as motivações associadas ao uso diário destas ferramentas. Estes estudos expandiram algumas das ideias subjacentes ao uso das ferramentas para mudanças de comportamento. Entre resultados principais: (1) o uso de monitores de atividade física é predominantemente impulsivo, onde pessoas refletem, aprendem e alteram os seus comportamentos à medida que recolhem dados sobe estes mesmos comportamentos; (2) o uso de monitores de atividade física está profundamente interligado com as rotinas e práticas dos seus utilizadores, e; (3) o uso de monitores de atividade física nem sempre está ligado a mudanças de comportamento – estas ferramentas também são utilizadas para divertimento e aprendizagem. A minha dissertação contribui ainda com uma exploração do design de interfaces para a monitorização de atividade física. Através de um processo iterativo de síntese e análise de literatura, seis qualidades para a criação de interfaces são derivadas. Através de um estudo de campo, a minha dissertação demonstro o potencial dessas interfaces para ajudar pessoas a aprender e gerir a sua saúde diária

On psychological growth and vulnerability: basic psychological need satisfaction and need frustration as an unifying principle

Humans have a potential for growth, integration, and well-being, while also being vulnerable to defensiveness, aggression, and ill-being. Self-determination theory (R. M. Ryan & E. L. Deci, 2000, Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development and well-being, American Psychologist, Vol. 55, pp. 68–78) argues that satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness both fosters immediate well-being and strengthens inner resources contributing to subsequent resilience, whereas need frustration evokes ill-being and increased vulnerabilities for defensiveness and psychopathology. We briefly review recent research indicating how contextual need support and the experience of need satisfaction promote well-being and different growth manifestations (e.g., intrinsic motivation, internalization), as well as a rapidly growing body of work relating need thwarting and need frustration to ill-being, pursuit of need substitutes, and various forms of maladaptive functioning. Finally, we discuss research on differences in autonomous self-regulation and mindfulness, which serve as factors of resilience

From persuasion to negotiation in health promoting technology

Over recent years, designing technologies to promote health-related behavioural change has been an area of growing interest in HCI. Given the prevalence of self-monitoring and social facilitation in emerging designs, the assumption appears to be that increasing an individual’s awareness of his or her behaviour and the behaviour of others will promote behavioural change. This thesis argues that while this is true to some extent, this represents a somewhat naive view of how individuals come to make decisions regarding their health-related behaviours. Three qualitative studies within distinct health domains illustrate the complex nature of health-related behavioural change. Weight Management was an inherently social activity, albeit subject to selective disclosure and incremental participation. Individuals were generally motivated by appearance rather than health, implementing change based on exposure and orientation to alternative strategies. In Families at Risk, caregivers were highly motivated by a desire to safeguard the health of their children but were restricted by a lack of financial and strategic resources. Lack of trust and a transient community contributed to social isolation, thus inhibiting opportunities for collaboration. In Cardiac Rehabilitation, behavioural change efforts were prompted by an acute health crisis and guided by health professionals. However, behavioural change efforts were sometimes restricted by a desire to return to normal, tensions arising when what was considered normal was composed of risk behaviours. Family involvement varied greatly, ranging from disregard to facilitating change, and a desire for independence and ownership of the rehabilitation sometimes restricted the active involvement of peers. Informed by the findings of these studies this thesis highlights the strengths and limitations of current technological approaches to promoting behavioural change, provides implications for design, and supported by the sociomedical literature, identifies alternative avenues of technological innovation. The thesis reflects on technology’s role in health-related behavioural change and considers associated ethical implications. Overall, the main contribution of this thesis is a reframing of the problem of promoting health-related behavioural change as more than a matter of behavioural awareness and personal motivation. While it is understandable that technologists would look to the clinical domain to inform initial investigations in this area, this thesis argues that technologists should be cautious about blindly adopting its prescriptive paradigm. As an alternative to persuasion, this thesis offers negotiation as a potential model for future innovations in this area

From automated to data-driven large-scale dietary assessment

Ph. D. Thesis.Dietary assessment surveys are an important tool for measuring and/or monitoring the nutritional profile of a population. The analysis of data that is collected in these surveys helps to develop health care guidelines and policies that minimise the risk of diet related diseases on a national scale. For years these surveys had to be conducted in a form of an interview by trained researchers with a nutritional background. The emergence of systems that automate interviewer-led protocols and transform these interviews into online surveys has addressed financial limitations and brought scalability into dietary assessment studies. In the meantime, online dietary assessment surveys mostly copy the interviewer-led procedures and inherit some of their methodological issues that lead to misreporting of dietary intake and lower the accuracy of assessment. This thesis primarily focuses on the issues related to human-memory, motivation of respondents to take part in dietary assessment studies, and the usability of survey interfaces. This work pinpoints the elements of automated dietary assessment systems, where these issues affect the accuracy of results. This analysis is then translated into three research questions of this thesis. Challenges related to human-memory are then addressed by developing and evaluating a recommender system for prompting omitted foods in online dietary assessment surveys. This work also explores short retention intervals (i.e. time between an intake and recall) as another method for recall assistance. As a way to motivate respondents to take part in dietary assessment surveys this thesis explores tailored dietary feedback provided to respondents at the end of a survey. Usability and performance of new methods are analysed in real-life dietary assessment surveys using a usability framework developed for this research. Acceptance of the methods is analysed using thematic analysis of transcribed interviews with respondents. Research activities conducted during this work provide some support to hypotheses defined in the research questions.School of Computing, Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering of Newcastle Universit

Urban sprawl and its impacts on land use change in Central Ethiopia

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