Toward Supporting Personalized Tracking Experiences in Healthcare

摘要

Self-tracking is a powerful means to enhance people's awareness of their own behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. People use self-tracking to achieve various types of goals, such as to satisfy curiosity, to document data, and to change behaviors. To realize the full potential of self-tracking in pursuit of these different goals, people need to employ a tracking regimen that matches their motivation levels, capabilities, and preferences. Some people have a high level of motivation to engage in self-tracking, whereas others are less motivated and thus do better with a minimalist approach. People may also have different levels of technical proficiency and financial capability, as well as different preferences for tracking mechanisms (e.g., pen and paper, mobile apps, wearables). Furthermore, these aspects may change over the course of a tracking period, or over the course of a lifetime. Enabling people to personalize their self-tracking regimen is a promising way to address diverse tracking needs while at the same time enhancing a user's sense of identity and engagement with the tracking tool.