Abstract
Personal health technologies, such as smartwatches and mobile applications, can inform people about aspects of their health in real-time, making them a popular way to gain personal health knowledge. Such technologies are therefore relied upon to support people in lifestyle changes. However, these devices prioritize objective health indicators and do not account for or reflect the influence of people’s individual values and the context of their day-to-day life on how they experience and build their health, nor their health identity. This lack of understanding of health identity in personal health technologies can limit uptake and long-term use. To explore the integration of people’s health identity in building health and wellbeing through personal health technologies, a transdisciplinary design research methodology was developed to engage people in participatory activities that provided opportunities to reflect on experienced health, personal values and daily life. Over a three-month period, 13 participants from various demographic backgrounds participated in sequential individual sessions that used hands-on methods which led to personalized health and wellbeing goals and activities. Throughout the research, each participant experienced, applied and interacted with the research activities in different and unexpected ways that expressed how they identify with their health. Overall, the research methodology allowed for reflection on what health means for different people and brought forth insights that were highly personalized including contextual reasons for, and reflections on, health habits. This co-created knowledge can inform both the use and design of more personalized health technologies in the future.
Presenters
Naomi Van StralenPhD Candidate, Interaction Design Group, Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of Twente, Overijssel, Netherlands
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Health and Wellbeing, Health Identity, Human-Centered Design, Participatory Design, Values
