Personal Tracking as Lived Informatics

John Rooksby, Mattias Rost, Alistair Morrison, Matthew Chalmers University of Glasgow

Personal Tracking

• Physical Devices

• Fitbit, Nike Fuelband, Jawbone Up, pedometers

• Mobile phone apps

• Runkeeper, MyFitnessPal

Quantified Self & Personal Informatics

• Quantified Self - Optimization

• PI: Finance, communication, photography, travel, etc

• Li et al:

• Preparation, collection, integration, reflection, action

• “choose what they are going to do with the newfound understanding of themselves”

Activity Tracking Research

• Research focused on researcher-supplied technology – not on technology people use

• Do people change behaviour because they use technology, or do they use technology because they want to change?

Method

• 22 Unstructured Interviews + follow-up interviews

• 10-90 minutes

Participants• 12M, 10F, 20s (11), 30s (8), 40s (3)

• UK, America, Europe, China, India

• Students, Admins, Finance, Nurse, Unemployed

• Able bodied, 7 runners, 2 training for marathons, 1 cross-country race, serious cyclist, 6 regular sports players, 8 no exercise but walking, 7 obese, 1 weight-loss surgery

• Most concerned about weight, all but two on a diet

Activities• Walking

• Physical exercise (running, cycling, swimming)

• Food and Drink

• Weight and size

• Sleep

• Nothing “pretty watch”

What to track with what

• Selective Tracking

• Switching between Trackers

Styles of tracking• Directive Tracking

• Documentary Tracking

• Diagnostic Tracking

• Collecting Rewards

• Fetished Tracking

Interweaving Trackers

• More than one tracker at once, including crossover functionality

• Often one tracker per activity

• Not to rationally organize their data

Using Data

• Some care about accuracy, others don’t mind

• Some shake their pedometers, some would not

Temporality of Data

• Mainly short term. (Should I go for a run?)

• Compare to previous measurement

• Some accrue long-term data, but rarely look at it

Social Tracking

• All said they did not share to social networks (but did among friends)

• Used as a co-present activity

• Symbol of shared outlook (concerned colleagues)

Lived Informatics

• Tracking is an emotional endeavour (c.f. Li et al.)

• Tracking is about where you are heading in life – not where you have been

• Not doing data analysis about their bodies – but doing something deeply emotional and often passionately focused on a future

Thanks

• http://www.softwarepopulations.com/

• @johnrooksby, @rrostt, @MorrisonAJ

• http://rost.me

Personal Tracking as Lived Informatics John Rooksby, Mattias Rost, Alistair Morrison, Matthew Chalmers

Design implications?• People are not rational data scientists -> look at app

use

• Social Tracking -> consider co-presence rather than social media sharing

• Support interweaving besides integration

• Evaluate more than improvements in activity -> consider emotionality, hope, and fun

• Attend to the physicality