Personal Informatics

Workshop Notes

Notes taken by Yevgeniy Medynskiy during the workshop.

Name/affiliation/what made you interested in self-tracking (1 min each)

Themes:

Clinical health & wellness: clinical outcomes; wellness; mental health; social wellbeing
Domains: email; attention/information overload; sleep; location; experience sampling
Branching Out: Persuasive (not manipulating!) technology; Social networking; Barriers to PI
Theories: Value-sensitive design; Psychology
Visualizing archives of personal data
Privacy and security

Halimat Alabi: App for anxiety tracking; mental health; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
Sudheendra Hangal: Sentiment analysis via email; passive lifelogging; sensemaking of text archives with Muse (Memories Using Email).
Catherine Grevet: Integrated model for multi-faceted PI systems; Transtheoretical Model; Theory of Planned Behavior; Stage-based Model of Personal Informatics.
Elizabeth Bales: Share PI data with their social network/community; "Interpersonal" informatics.
Laura Dabbish: SeeMail for email visualization; Patterns of communication over time, including responsiveness.
Matthew Kay: Sleep tracking and self-improvement; Environmental factors that disturb sleep; Lullaby sensor system + sleep tracking device like FitBit or Zeo.
Eric Hekler: Android apps for self-tracking and social sharing; Goal setting; Ability to influence behavior via confederates; Operant conditioning via fun experiences.
Jed Brubaker: Challenges and barriers when working with PI ecologies; Estrellita case study; Challenge of Context, Challenge of "Personal" and Challenge of Represenation.
Blaine Price: Lifelogging (specifically, location) and privacy; Persuasive technology -- engagement, non-invasiveness. Summary of available devices

Synchronize data formats. Are you measuring that you think you're measuring?
Presentation and sharing. What levels of privacy controls should you give to users?
Keeping users' engagement, based on their expertise and motivation.

Not just use theory, but test and improve theory
Where does theory come in: related work; prototyping (conceptual review/feedback)
Models of motivation and action; theories of behavior change and behavior change strategies; measurement theory

Mark Matthews: Relapse prevention and mental health; bipolar disorder -- tracking common triggers/signs/risk factors; PI architecture.
Eric Hofer: Course for PI design; Arduino as technology for teaching PI; Adding art to the design and research in most HCI work.
Amy Gonzales: Vera photographing and rating health behaviors, with and without social interaction and reflection.
Neema Moraveji: Calming technologies -- technologies that induce calm; "calm alertness"; stressors vs calmers
Alina Pommeranz: Personal values of PI -- value-sensitive technology; value elicitation via experience sampling
Alexander Meschtscherjakov: Experience Sampling (ESM) Tools; MyExperience, PocketBee; Created a new tools: Maestro which uses a client-server architecture
Noreen Kamal: Personal Health Informatics: What is the role of the [online] social network? Can the later motivate the use of the former? The social impact on health.
Jack Weeden: Monitor waste and recycling behavior. Social competition for scores, with MTurk integration for waste labeling. Personal reflection.
Natalia Romero: Collecting and sharing experiences with family.

Barriers: Collection, motivation, finding the users for your tools, getting critical mass.
Strategies for overcoming: Gamification, establishing social norms, integrating PI with everyday activity, bootstapping (value w/ little setup time), improving usability, making sure users can utilize the data they are collecting, making applications mobile.

Promote self-awareness. Stimulate cognitive activity.
"Value transparency" -- tools articulate what they're trying to do and users can choose.

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May 7–12, 2011
Vancouver, BC, Canada