Trackly:A Customisable and Pictorial Self-Tracking App to Support Agency in Multiple Sclerosis Self-Care

Self-tracking is an important part of self-care. However, predefined self-tracking approaches can impede people's agency in managing their health. We investigated a customisable and pictorial self-tracking approach in multiple sclerosis self-management by implementing and conducting a field study of Trackly: a prototype app that supports people in defining and colouring pictorial trackers, such as body shapes. We found that participants utilised the elements of Trackly designed to support agentive behaviour: they defined personally meaningful tracking parameters in their own words, and particularly valued being able to flexibly colour in and make sense of their pictorial trackers. Having been able to support their individual self-care intentions with Trackly, participants reported a spectrum of interrelated experiences of agency, including a sense of ownership, identity, self-awareness, mindfulness, and control. Our findings demonstrate the importance of supporting people's individual needs and creative capacities to foster mindful and personally meaningful engagement with health and wellbeing data

Organisational Overview: Institute for Design and Assessment of Technology, Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien)

International audienceThe Institute for Design & Assessment of Technology (IGW) is part of the Faculty of Informatics at the Vienna University of Technology and is historically comprised of two groups: Multidisciplinary Design and Human Computer Interaction, which also includes the Centre for Applied Assistive Technology. The institute is highly interdisciplinary, within a traditional computer science faculty. Members come from various backgrounds, enabling us to merge technical engineering and social sciences research with people-centred design. The Institute includes 35 employed faculty/researchers/students and over 10 associated PhD students, engaged in 30 projects funded by the EU and national funding agencies, and supported by administrative staff