Design Opportunities in Three Stages of Relationship Development between Users and Self-Tracking Devices

Recently, self-tracking devices such as wearable activity trackers have become more available to end users. While these emerging products are imbued with new characteristics in terms of human-computer interaction, it is still unclear how to describe and design for user experience in such devices. In this paper, we present a three-week field study, which aimed to unfold users' experience with wearable activity trackers. Drawing from Knapp's model of interaction stages in interpersonal relationship development, we propose three stages of relationship development between users and self-tracking devices: initiation & experimentation, intensifying & integration, and stagnation & termination. We highlight the challenges in each stage and design opportunities for future self-tracking devices.

[1]  Clifford Nass,et al.  The media equation - how people treat computers, television, and new media like real people and places , 1996 .

[2]  Jodi Forlizzi,et al.  Personalization revisited: a reflective approach helps people better personalize health services and motivates them to increase physical activity , 2015, UbiComp.

[3]  Christian Koehler,et al.  Why we use and abandon smart devices , 2015, UbiComp.

[4]  Matthew Chalmers,et al.  Personal tracking as lived informatics , 2014, CHI.

[5]  Yeoreum Lee,et al.  Understanding the Roles and Influences of Mediators from Multiple Social Channels for Health Behavior Change , 2015, CSCW.

[6]  John Zimmerman,et al.  Designing for slowness, anticipation and re-visitation: a long term field study of the photobox , 2014, CHI.

[7]  David M. Pennock,et al.  Categories and Subject Descriptors , 2001 .

[8]  John Zimmerman,et al.  Virtual possessions , 2010, Conference on Designing Interactive Systems.

[9]  B. J. Fogg,et al.  Charismatic computers: creating more likable and persuasive interactive technologies by leveraging principles from social psychology , 1998 .

[10]  Ruth Mugge,et al.  The Design of Smart Product-Service Systems (PSSs): An Exploration of Design Characteristics , 2015 .

[11]  Johan Redström,et al.  Slow Technology – Designing for Reflection , 2001, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[12]  M. Knapp,et al.  Interpersonal communication and human relationships , 1995 .

[13]  Konrad Tollmar,et al.  Health Mashups: Presenting Statistical Patterns between Wellbeing Data and Context in Natural Language to Promote Behavior Change , 2013, TCHI.

[14]  Ron Wakkary,et al.  Unselfconscious interaction: a conceptual construct. Interacting with Computers , 2015 .

[15]  Mary Beth Rosson,et al.  Use and Adoption Challenges of Wearable Activity Trackers , 2015 .

[16]  David W. McDonald,et al.  Activity sensing in the wild: a field trial of ubifit garden , 2008, CHI.

[17]  Thomas Zimmermann,et al.  Persuasive technology in the real world: a study of long-term use of activity sensing devices for fitness , 2014, CHI.

[18]  Wanda Pratt,et al.  Understanding quantified-selfers' practices in collecting and exploring personal data , 2014, CHI.

[19]  R. Sabatelli.  The Social Psychology of Groups , 2000 .

[20]  Jodi Forlizzi,et al.  Understanding my data, myself: supporting self-reflection with ubicomp technologies , 2011, UbiComp '11.

[21]  Ron Wakkary,et al.  Unselfconscious Interaction: A Conceptual Construct , 2016, Interact. Comput..