Self-Tracking to Do Less

Author

Sarah Homewood, CHI 2023

Keywords

Self-Tracking, Phenomenology, Long COVID, COVID 19, Fitbit, Heart-rate monitor, Step counting, Post COVID-19 syndrome, pacing technologies, autoethnography, fitness tracking technologies

WHAT

  • autoethnography of long COVID, using Fitbit

WHY

  • the extraordinary experience of living with a new illness

  • in line with a recent shift within the feld of HCI towards frst-person methodologies and phenomenological approaches

HOW

  • Autoethnography and self-tracking

    • Forlano: to capture, examine and communicate the sensorial and emotional richness and complexity of the experience of using a technological device during illness

    • tracking medical expertise, heart rate, step counting

    • notes app and voice memo

  • Method

    • 3 synthesis

    • 3 vignettes

Experimental Design

  • Fitbit Charge 4

    • heart rate data

    • mid-price and good reviews

    • tracking step-count, heart rate, sleep quality and menstrual cycle data

  • Cardiogram

    • a finer grain of detail about heart rate

Vignette / Results

  • First Vignette

    • every time I went from sitting or lying down to standing up, the initial value of heart rate would slowly start increasing faster and faster

    • The value at the peak of this spike in heart rate shaped how I viewed the severity of my long COVID illness

    • the higher the value, the sicker I would see myself on that day

  • Second Vignette

    • 3 months

    • 10000 steps but flash of horror

    • limiting my daily activity was much more important to me than leading Fitbit’s defnition of a “healthy lifestyle”

    • using my Fitbit to set my walking pace

  • Third Vignette

    • 15 months

    • cognitive symptoms were almost gone

    • exercise and physical exertion were the last hurdle

    • start increasing physical activity to avoid other health problems

    • use blue and orange zone to organise life

    • Living without needing to track was my defnition of full health

Discussion

  • Misuse of Self-Tracking Technologies

  • Modes of Pacing

  • The Design of Pacing Technologies

    • Relegating Interoceptive Information

    • Supporting Decision Making During Pacing

    • Understanding and Designing for Dynamic Illnesses