Activity tracking: Barriers, workarounds and customisation

Daniel Harrison; Paul Marshall; Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze; Jon Bird

doi:10.1145/2750858.2805832

Activity tracking: Barriers, workarounds and customisation

Daniel Harrison, Paul Marshall, Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze, Jon Bird

Department of Computer Science

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

115 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Activity trackers are increasingly popular, but they have high levels of abandonment and little evidence exists to suggest why this is. This paper explores barriers to engagement with activity trackers. We extend previous research by not only characterising the barriers users experienced, such as tracking accuracy and device aesthetics, but also by reporting the workarounds they created. We discuss implications for the design of activity tracking systems by reflecting on these workarounds, the potential for activity tracker design to help overcome existing barriers, and how customisation could play a role.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	UbiComp 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages	617-621
Number of pages	5
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450335744
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/2750858.2805832
Publication status	Published - 7 Sept 2015
Event	3rd ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, UbiComp 2015 - Osaka, Japan Duration: 7 Sept 2015 → 11 Sept 2015

Conference

Conference	3rd ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, UbiComp 2015
Country/Territory	Japan
City	Osaka
Period	7/09/15 → 11/09/15

Keywords

Activity tracking
Behaviour change
Fitness
Health
Personal informatics
Physical activity
Quantified self

Access to Document

10.1145/2750858.2805832

https://rps.ucl.ac.uk/repository.html?pub=0&com=get-file&rfurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdiscovery.ucl.ac.uk%2Frt4eprints%2Ffile%2F185917%2FUbicomp2015_Harrison.pdf

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Cite this

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title = "Activity tracking: Barriers, workarounds and customisation",

abstract = "Activity trackers are increasingly popular, but they have high levels of abandonment and little evidence exists to suggest why this is. This paper explores barriers to engagement with activity trackers. We extend previous research by not only characterising the barriers users experienced, such as tracking accuracy and device aesthetics, but also by reporting the workarounds they created. We discuss implications for the design of activity tracking systems by reflecting on these workarounds, the potential for activity tracker design to help overcome existing barriers, and how customisation could play a role.",

keywords = "Activity tracking, Behaviour change, Fitness, Health, Personal informatics, Physical activity, Quantified self",

author = "Daniel Harrison and Paul Marshall and Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze and Jon Bird",

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doi = "10.1145/2750858.2805832",

language = "English",

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booktitle = "UbiComp 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)",

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note = "3rd ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, UbiComp 2015 ; Conference date: 07-09-2015 Through 11-09-2015",

}

Harrison, D, Marshall, P, Bianchi-Berthouze, N & Bird, J 2015, Activity tracking: Barriers, workarounds and customisation. in UbiComp 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), pp. 617-621, 3rd ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, UbiComp 2015, Osaka, Japan, 7/09/15. https://doi.org/10.1145/2750858.2805832

Activity tracking: Barriers, workarounds and customisation. / Harrison, Daniel; Marshall, Paul; Bianchi-Berthouze, Nadia et al.
UbiComp 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2015. p. 617-621.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

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T1 - Activity tracking

T2 - 3rd ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, UbiComp 2015

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AU - Marshall, Paul

AU - Bianchi-Berthouze, Nadia

AU - Bird, Jon

PY - 2015/9/7

Y1 - 2015/9/7

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AB - Activity trackers are increasingly popular, but they have high levels of abandonment and little evidence exists to suggest why this is. This paper explores barriers to engagement with activity trackers. We extend previous research by not only characterising the barriers users experienced, such as tracking accuracy and device aesthetics, but also by reporting the workarounds they created. We discuss implications for the design of activity tracking systems by reflecting on these workarounds, the potential for activity tracker design to help overcome existing barriers, and how customisation could play a role.

KW - Activity tracking

KW - Behaviour change

KW - Fitness

KW - Health

KW - Personal informatics

KW - Physical activity

KW - Quantified self

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BT - UbiComp 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing

PB - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Y2 - 7 September 2015 through 11 September 2015

ER -

Activity tracking: Barriers, workarounds and customisation

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Dr Paul Marshall

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Activity tracking: Barriers, workarounds and customisation

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

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Profiles

Dr Paul Marshall

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