This project will study how people reflect on personal informatics data by designing, building, and deploying novel tools for exploration of personal data. Fitness tracking devices, smartphone applications, and other tools based on computer technology that help people automatically track data about every facet of their lives are becoming increasingly prevalent. Despite considerable progress in improving how people collect data for self-tracking, there has been little research on how technology can help people reflect on the collected data. Consequently, people often are overwhelmed by the data they collect, do not know what conclusions to draw, and become frustrated or discontinue use. The research will study approaches to reducing barriers to making sense of tracked data, both individually and in collaboration with friends, family, peers, and experts. To understand and enhance practices for reflecting and acting on personal informatics data, the research will build and deploy tools that help people explore their data and identify opportunities for change. The project includes integrated outreach and educational activities for high school, college, and graduate students and the community.
The initial focus will be on designing tools that support exploration of tracked data from several sources - such as physical activity, mood, sleep, location, weather, weight, and personal finances - and evaluating how these tools augment abilities to reflect and to identify opportunities for change. The research will survey existing practices for sharing data among family and with experts, friends, and peers. Interviews with financial planners, life coaches, and personal trainers will document how they engage with client data. What data and views does each audience need, and how should this be integrated into their process for reflecting and acting? What tensions arise when sharing? How can personal informatics records help bridge different levels and types of expertise? Results will lead to new design approaches that make personal informatics data more valuable to people who already track and that will make self-tracking accessible to more people. The research will improve systems that help people make sense of their tracked data, which will lead to better personal informatics systems and, more broadly, improved practices for open-ended exploration of large, disparate data streams. Results will also contribute to theory about how people reflect on personal data individually and collaboratively, particularly among people with different levels of expertise.
