About this Research Topic
There is today a great variety of smartphone applications, online services and gadgets that are used for self-tracking, training and wellness purposes. People use them on an everyday basis to learn more about themselves, their bodies and their behaviors. Collected data can often be shared with others, making it a collaborative activity. Additionally, these technologies are also being adopted into healthcare, especially as tools for self-care. Expectations are that they can help patients to monitor their medical status and support self-management activities. The examples of use are many and include a broad variety of chronic-illness management as well as cognitive behavior therapy.
It is often argued that these technologies can empower people as they will learn more about their ‘true self’. There is however also a growing critique on how these applications and devices are designed, promoted and used. There are many factors that are addressed as problematic or even ethically doubtful. These applications and devices have been accused of being based on oversimplified models of human behavior which subsequently produce incomplete representations. Some designs re-produce norms in a problematic way, e.g. what is considered as a ‘normal’ body weight or not. This over-emphasis on behavior and performance, neglect subjective experience and situational factors.
Much of the critique mentioned above can be connected to a logic based on datafication and productivity. When ‘knowing through data’ and ‘productivity’ become the norm we believe that a large portion of what it is to be a person is cut away. Also, knowing and doing is always situated and contextual and will affect our experience. To properly reflect over this, we need more information than just how fast, and how far, we can run. As off today, most of these technologies seriously lack support of these subjective and experiential aspects. Data over performance is nicely plotted in a graph for comparison while information of how the activity was experience is commonly reduced to a short comment or ticking a box. As we frame this research topic, we want to introduce and promote a person-centered concept. This is a concept stemming from the care sciences that acknowledge the individual behind the patient and emphasize that an understanding of that individual, her/his feelings, goals, life-situation, relations and much more, have an impact on how successful treatment can and should be modeled.
With this Research Topic we want to address the design challenges related to the, what we consider problematic, logic of datafication and productivity which can be found in many self-tracking and wellness applications and devices. We thereby looking for submissions that can expand knowledge of these challenges and how interaction design can support of holistic representations. Relevant submissions to this Research Topic include, but are not limited to:
• Critical perspectives on self-tracking and wellness technologies, both for leisure and for healthcare purposes
• Empirical studies addressing this challenge
• Innovative interfaces/technologies supporting the collection and analysis of subjective data/experience
• The use of AI/ML – challenges and opportunities
• Ethical issues related
• Design methods supporting person-centered perspectives
It is often argued that these technologies can empower people as they will learn more about their ‘true self’. There is however also a growing critique on how these applications and devices are designed, promoted and used. There are many factors that are addressed as problematic or even ethically doubtful. These applications and devices have been accused of being based on oversimplified models of human behavior which subsequently produce incomplete representations. Some designs re-produce norms in a problematic way, e.g. what is considered as a ‘normal’ body weight or not. This over-emphasis on behavior and performance, neglect subjective experience and situational factors.
Much of the critique mentioned above can be connected to a logic based on datafication and productivity. When ‘knowing through data’ and ‘productivity’ become the norm we believe that a large portion of what it is to be a person is cut away. Also, knowing and doing is always situated and contextual and will affect our experience. To properly reflect over this, we need more information than just how fast, and how far, we can run. As off today, most of these technologies seriously lack support of these subjective and experiential aspects. Data over performance is nicely plotted in a graph for comparison while information of how the activity was experience is commonly reduced to a short comment or ticking a box. As we frame this research topic, we want to introduce and promote a person-centered concept. This is a concept stemming from the care sciences that acknowledge the individual behind the patient and emphasize that an understanding of that individual, her/his feelings, goals, life-situation, relations and much more, have an impact on how successful treatment can and should be modeled.
With this Research Topic we want to address the design challenges related to the, what we consider problematic, logic of datafication and productivity which can be found in many self-tracking and wellness applications and devices. We thereby looking for submissions that can expand knowledge of these challenges and how interaction design can support of holistic representations. Relevant submissions to this Research Topic include, but are not limited to:
• Critical perspectives on self-tracking and wellness technologies, both for leisure and for healthcare purposes
• Empirical studies addressing this challenge
• Innovative interfaces/technologies supporting the collection and analysis of subjective data/experience
• The use of AI/ML – challenges and opportunities
• Ethical issues related
• Design methods supporting person-centered perspectives
Keywords: personal informatics, self-tracking, datafication, person-centered design, critical perspectives, ethics, artificial intelligence, machine learning
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
