‘I Don’t Need a Goal’: Attitudes and Practices in Fitness Tracking beyond WEIRD User Groups
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2021-09
Author(s)
;
Woźniak, Paweł W.
;
Yomna Abdelrahman, Yomna
;
ElAgroudy, Passant
;
Abdrabou, Yasmeen
;
Eckerth, Caroline
;
Diefenbach, Sarah
;
Knaving, Kristina
Abstract (De)
Fitness trackers have the potential for fostering sustained change
and increasing well-being. However, the research community is yet
to understand what design features and values need to be embodied
in a fitness tracker for long-term engagement. While past work
mainly focused on WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich,
Democratic) fitness trackers users in North America and Western
Europe, this paper investigates another perspective on fitness tracking. We conducted interviews with N = 37 fitness tracker users in
the US, Europe and Egypt to identify the similarities and differences
in attitudes and practices in fitness tracking. We found that fitness
tracking involved a deeper social context in Egyptian communities
and our findings suggest that Arabic users focused on physiological
measurement, while non-Arab Western users appear to be
more interested in goal achievement. We contribute design dimensions that can help build more inclusive tracker experiences. Our
work highlights how future fitness trackers should support a customisable spectrum of design values to offer engaging experiences
to a diverse and global audience.
and increasing well-being. However, the research community is yet
to understand what design features and values need to be embodied
in a fitness tracker for long-term engagement. While past work
mainly focused on WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich,
Democratic) fitness trackers users in North America and Western
Europe, this paper investigates another perspective on fitness tracking. We conducted interviews with N = 37 fitness tracker users in
the US, Europe and Egypt to identify the similarities and differences
in attitudes and practices in fitness tracking. We found that fitness
tracking involved a deeper social context in Egyptian communities
and our findings suggest that Arabic users focused on physiological
measurement, while non-Arab Western users appear to be
more interested in goal achievement. We contribute design dimensions that can help build more inclusive tracker experiences. Our
work highlights how future fitness trackers should support a customisable spectrum of design values to offer engaging experiences
to a diverse and global audience.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
ACM
Official URL
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Contact Email Address
jasmin.niess@unisg.ch
Eprints ID
266024
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
open.access
Name
3447526.3472062(1).pdf
Size
654.56 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
49e6bf65c32b89ad37ebdd23ae17108e