Personal Informatics and Context: Using Context To Reveal Factors That Affect Behavior

Personal Informatics+Context 
Using Context to Reveal Factors that Affect Behavior
Ian Li Anind Dey, CMU, Co-chair

Jodi Forlizzi, CMU, Co-chair
Niki Kittur, CMU
John Stasko, Georgia Tech
Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal

Alice
•  20 years old
•  Family history of heart
disease
•  Wants to be more active,
but donʼt know how
because sheʼs busy
Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 2

Mon 1573
Tue 4392
Wed 4537
Thu 5842
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Sat 7528
Sun 1368
Mon 1497
Tue 1837

Transcribe to Excel
M T W Th F Sa Su M T

Active
Inactive Inactive

Factors
•  Lack of time
•  Lack of motivation
•  Activities
Active
•  Location
•  People
Inactive Inactive

Location Activity People
Office Shopping Family
Active
Inactive Inactive

Problem
Pedometer only recorded one type of
information.

Physical Activity
Finance
Electricity
Diabetes
Health
Mood
http://personalinformatics.org/tools

Thesis
A personal informatics system  
that allows users to associate  
context with behavioral information  
can better reveal factors that affect
behavior, compared to systems that only
show behavioral information.

Thesis Questions
Is a PI system with context better at
revealing factors that affect behavior?
•  YES, I will show this in 3 completed
studies and my proposed work.

Location: Park
Activity: Hiking
People: Friend
Step counts: 7531

UbiComp
Sensors
Data mining

Thesis Questions
How do we build a PI system with context?
•  Alice had to do a lot to get data and reflect
on them.
•  Issues collecting data? Reflecting on
data?
•  It is not as easy as just automating the
system.
•  Whether the system is manual or
automated has an effect on the userʼs
awareness.
Introduction
Stage-Based Model of PI
Prototypes
Diary Study
IMPACT 1.0
IMPACT 2.0
Proposed Work
Conclusion
Introduction
Prototypes
Diary Study
IMPACT 1.0
IMPACT 2.0
Proposed Work
Conclusion
Thesis Questions

•  Create a framework as guide in designing
personal informatics systems.
•  Building a PI system involves many parts
each with their own HCI issues.

Survey and Interviews
68 people who use personal informatics
Advertised the survey in blogs about

personal informatics.
What tools they use and their problems

Sample Questions
•  How difficult is it to collect this personal
information?
•  How do you explore this collected personal
information?
•  What patterns have you found?
Transcript of the survey is at:

http://personalinformatics.org/lab/survey
Analysis
Identified barriers that people experienced.
Affinity diagrams to identify themes.
Derived a model composed of:

•  5 stages

5 Stages
PREPARATION COLLECTION INTEGRATION REFLECTION ACTION

5 Stages

Alice
•  Wanted to become
active
•  Decided to track her
physical activity
•  Chose to track step
counts using a
pedometer

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Transcribe to Excel

Active
Inactive Inactive

The stage when people

choose what they are going
to do with their new-found
understanding of themselves.
•  Alerts
•  Incentives
•  Suggestions
Other research have explored these different

stages in isolation
•  Collection
•  MyLifeBits (Gemmell et al. 2006)
•  SenseCam (Hodges et al. 2006)
•  Reflection
•  Casual InfoVis (Pousman et al. 2007)

1. Barriers cascade.
2. Stages are iterative.

1. Barriers Cascade.
Problems in the earlier stages can affect the
later stages.

Active
Inactive Inactive

Problems in the earlier stages can affect the
later stages.
→ Consider all the stages when designing PI

systems.

2. Stages are Iterative.
Users may need to incorporate new types of
data, tools, and processes as they
progressed through the stages.

Location: Park
Activity: Hiking
People: Friend
Step counts: 7531

Users may need to incorporate new types of
data, tools, and processes as they progress
through the stages.
→ Flexibility is important, but consider user

needs early to minimize missed data.

1. Barriers cascade.
2. Stages are iterative.
3. User- or system-driven
4. Uni- or multi-faceted

3. User- vs. System-driven
The stages can be user-driven, system-
driven, or a combination of both.

Mon 1573
Tue 4392
Collection Wed
Thu
4537
5842
Fri 10258
Combination Sat
Sun
Mon
7528
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1497
Tue 1837
Integration
Transcribe to Excel
User-driven
Reflection
Excel graphs
System-driven
Collection
System-driven
Integration
System-driven
Reflection
System-driven
The stages can be user-driven, system-
driven, or a combination of both.
→ Explore the tradeoffs between user-driven

and system-driven stages.

Uni- vs. Multi-faceted
Most personal informatics are uni-faceted.
Some personal informatics systems have

multi-faceted collection, but only support
uni-faceted reflection.

Users expressed desire to see associations
between different facets of their lives.
•  “To understand trends in symptoms,
behaviors, and circumstances.” P26
•  “If it were easily collected, information on
food intake, calories, fat, etc., would make
an interesting starting point for analysis.”
P49 who tracks medication intake

Active
Inactive Inactive
M T Th F Sa Su M T

Most personal informatics are uni-faceted.
→ Explore support for multiple facets

throughout the stages.
•  I explore using contextual
information.

Thesis Questions

•  Created a framework to analyze PI
systems.
•  When designing, consider all the stages.

Introduction
Prototypes
Diary Study
IMPACT 1.0
IMPACT 2.0
Proposed Work
Conclusion
Thesis Questions
→ Deploy prototypes in field studies.

→ Build prototypes that explore different
ways of supporting context.

Domain: Physical Activity

Why Physical Activity?
Lack of physical activity is a common
problem that leads to obesity, diabetes, and
high blood pressure.
Lack of awareness of physical activity is one

reason why people are not active.

In order to provide real time feedback to the user, an possible to use the rate of change of neighbouring cells to
animated representation of the user’s current mode of infer travel by car.
activity runs continuously on the main screen of the To classify these patterns we use an artificial neural
application. This is shown in Fig. 2c and d. network. The network inputs are the sum of signal strength
fluctuation across all monitored cells, and the number of
3.1 Sensing activity distinct cells monitored over a given time interval. The
network consists of a single layer of eight hidden neurons;
The current activity of the user is inferred using patterns of weights are learnt using back propagation. The network
fluctuation in GSM signal strength and changes to the IDs outputs the currently sensed activity for the given input
of detected cells. This method has been demonstrated as a values. The network is trained by repeatedly presenting data
Physical Activity Awareness reliable and unobtrusive way of sensing current activity [2],
and has the advantage over the more traditional approach of
using an accelerometer in that it does not require additional
sensor hardware as in Sensay [17] and the multimodal
collected during each method of movement.
The current activity of the user is conditionally depen-
dent upon their previous activity. In order to provide instant
feedback to the user interface, the neural network deliber-
sensor board of [11]. Similarly, while the processing of ately does not model this behaviour. Instead, when deter-
physiological and biometric data could complement our mining if any additional minutes have been earned, we
approach, the benefits of encapsulating the system within a apply task knowledge based upon the output from the
mobile phone would be lost. An alternative approach would neural network over the previous two and a half minutes.
be to utilise the positioning information available from This enables noise to be filtered out and a more accurate
some mobile phone networks, however this approach representation of the users’ activities achieved. For exam-
Products frequently involves prohibitive cost, as well as depending

upon much of the same technology as our client based
monitoring.
ple, periods of low signal strength fluctuation such as
stopping at traffic lights whilst driving can be ignored when
placed between periods of high fluctuation where many
Rather like a traditional accelerometer, the levels of distinct neighbouring cells were monitored. It could be
signal strength fluctuation change when a mobile phone is argued that activity would be more accurately inferred if a
moved. For example, Fig. 3 shows the total signal strength longer rolling filter had been applied to the GSM data.
fluctuation across all monitored cells during successive 30-s Introducing longer filters would have increased the likeli-
time periods whilst walking, remaining still and travelling hood of active minutes ‘disappearing’ from the users’
Fish’n’Steps: Encouraging Physical Activity with an Interactive Computer Game 263
1 2
Research 3
4
!!
Fig. 1. One participant’s display after approximately two weeks into the trial in the Fish'n'Steps
team-condition, also the public kiosk and pedometer platform, which rotated through each of
the team fish-tanks. The components of the personal display include: 1) Fish Tank - The fish
tank contains the virtual pets belong to the participant and his/her team members, 2) Virtual Pet
Figure 2 The phone interface. Images a and b show screens for examining relative –and individualown
The participant’s activity
fish in alevels: compare
frontal view Daily
on the right Activity
side next and
to the fish tank, 3) Calcula-
This Week’s Activity Images. c and d show two of the screens showing the estimatedtions
current activity
and feedback level: Stationary
- improvement, and progress
burned calories, Walking bar, personal and team ranking,
UbiFit  Shakra Fish ʻn Steps etc., 4) Chat window for communicating with team members.
To evaluate the effect of Fish’n’Steps, we recruited 19 participants from the staff

Consolvo et al. ʼ08 Maitland et al. ʻ06 Lin et al. ʻ06 of Siemens Corporate Research to participate in a 14-week study. Two experimental
conditions were designed to separately assess the impact of the virtual pet and the
social influences. Application of the TTM to assess behavior that changed during the
study demonstrated that Fish’n’Steps was a catalyst of a positive change for 14 out of
19 participants. This effect was evident in either an increase in their daily step count
Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal (for 4 participants), a change in their attitudes towards physical activity (for 3 partici-
51
pants) or a combination of the two (for 7 participants). The greatest change in daily
number of steps was by the participants who were at the TTM’s intermediate levels of
the behavior change. For these participants the game provided just enough motivation
to translate mental readiness into action.
While the overall findings were encouraging, there are a number of possibilities for
future investigations. For example, selecting participants from our own research or-
Research on Factors
Physical activity is affected by lack of time,
choice of activities, the environment, and
social influence. (Sallis & Hovell 1990)
CDC suggests understanding of factors to

circumvent barriers to physical activity.

Activity
Location
People
Physical Activity Level

Activities
Location
People
Physical Activity Level

Research on Factors
Diabetes awareness of blood sugar level and
food consumption (Frost & Smith ʼ03)
•  Images of food associated with blood
sugar level.
•  Used in a class where people discussed
their images and blood sugar level.
•  Made a prototype, but only tested with one
person.
Research on Factors
Asthma patients videotaping daily routines
found that they are in the presence of harmful
allergens more often than they realized
(Rich et al. ʻ00)
•  Users videotaped daily routines, but a
trained observer looked at the video for
assessment.
•  Matt Leeʼs embedded assessment work

Sedentary People and Walking
Research suggests that they are less aware
of their physical activity and how to become
active (Sallis & Hovell 1990)
Focused on walking because it is easier to

integrate into daily life. (Norman & Mills 2004)

Introduction
Prototypes
Diary Study
IMPACT 1.0
IMPACT 2.0
Proposed Work
Conclusion
Thesis Questions
•  Run field studies with prototypes.

•  Build several prototypes to try different
ways of supporting context.

Introduction
Prototypes
Diary Study
IMPACT 1.0
IMPACT 2.0
Proposed Work
Conclusion
Thesis Questions
Diary Study
How would people find factors using context?
IMPACT 1.0
Would context reveal factors that affect behavior?
IMPACT 2.0
What is the value of context in the long term?
Thesis Questions
Collection Integration Reflection
Diary
Prototype user-driven user-driven user-driven
IMPACT 1.0
user-driven user-driven system-driven
IMPACT 2.0
combination system-driven system-driven

Thesis Questions
Time-Stamped Aggregated
End-of-Day Real-time

Date:
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Tracking Booklet Reflection
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Setup
4 female participants (A1-A4)
•  Ages 25-50
•  Sedentary. Pre-screened using Stages of
Exercise Behavior Change (Marcus et al. 1998)
Audio-taped interviews every week

SenseWear Tracking
Booklet
No Pedometer SenseWear
Physical Activity Graph Printouts
Information
1 2 3
Results
Excellent compliance over 3 weeks
•  At least one activity recorded per hour

In all phases, participants found factors
that affected their physical activity.
Week 1, A3:
“Writing down had an effect. I would think ʻOh
good I have something active to write down.ʼ
Like when I would carry my laundry to the
Laundromat on foot.”

In all phases, participants found factors
that affected their physical activity.
Week 2, A1:
“It was nice to see that I walked more than I
did. There was one day when I was
babysitting. I walked so much with the
baby. I walked all over campus.”

FRI DEC 8, 2:03 ... Start Time
Matching SenseWear graph printouts End Time

- Fri Dec 8, 2006 05:14 AM
Session end - Fri Dec 8, 2006 02:03 PM

with booklet entries.
End
2:03 PM
EC 7, 2:16 ... FRI DEC 8, 2:03 ... Start Time

- Fri Dec 8, 2006 05:14 AM
End Time
Session end - Fri Dec 8, 2006 02:03 PM
Start End
5:14 AM 2:03 PM
Active ... Physical Activity (2.5 ME... Step Count Lying Do... Sleep Duration of Vi...
udes off-body
mate of 4 cal 438 cal 1 hr 43 m... 11346 Not detect... Not detect... 8 hrs 49 m...

Matching SenseWear graph printouts
with booklet entries.
Week 3, A2:
“The paper feedback [SenseWear] told me
when the intensity was greater than other
times, so I was able to gauge my activities
like if I just walk upstairs…I was calling them
in the diary ʻaerobic mini burstʼ.”

Matching SenseWear graph
printouts with booklet entries.
Week 3, A1:
“I had a lot of data, probably too much to
decipher, but it was good. I didnʼt really
compare everything to my booklet, only the
peaks on the charts to see what I was
doing.”

Detailed reflection Immediate awareness
Time-Stamped Aggregated
End-of-Day Real-time

Thesis Questions
•  Participants made associations between

their physical activity and contextual
information helping them become aware of
factors that affected their physical activity.
→ Can we do this in a field study of a

prototype with more people?
Thesis Questions
Diary
IMPACT 1.0
→ Help users make
user-driven
directuser-driven
associations. system-driven
→ Value in aggregated real-time info and

IMPACT 2.0
end-of-day combination
time-stamped info. system-driven
system-driven

IMPACT 1.0

Thesis Questions
Diary Study
IMPACT 1.0
IMPACT 2.0
Thesis Questions
Diary
IMPACT 1.0
IMPACT 2.0

Pedometer Booklet

Plus-Context
e
Day with "
context labels
f
Table and
charts of steps
and context
g
Steps by hour
and by period
of day
Figure 3. a) Interface for recording steps. Steps-Only additions.

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal
b) One day of steps. c) Week of steps by day. d) Week of steps for82
each day. Plus-Context additions. e) Context labeler. f) Table and
Pedometer Booklet Web Site
IMPACT 1.0
Steps-Only Steps-Only Steps-Only
Baseline Steps-Only No Vis

Setup
30 participants (B1-B30)
Questionnaires at the end of each phase

Steps-Only IMPACT 1.0
Baseline
IMPACT 1.0 Steps-Only
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Results
Same level of physical activity awareness
between Steps-Only and IMPACT

Greater awareness of factors
After using IMPACT, participants  
self-reported greater awareness of factors
that affect physical activity (5-point Likert
scale)
3.93 (IMPACT) vs. 3.57 (Steps-Only)

F[1,58] = 5.32, p < .05

Mentioned context
•  “It has been interesting to see what times
of the day I'm most active.” B17
•  “It turns out I get the most walking done to
and from work, which I can't say I wasn't
expecting, but I also had no idea that
walking around Squirrel Hill for just an
hour or two made such a difference.” B24

Mentioned Context Mentioned Context
Excluding Time
IMPACT 1.0 18 out of 30 13

Steps-Only 13 out of 30 7
Control 11 out of 30
6
IMPACT was rated most useful
“The [context] I used the most was the one
asking who I was with during my most active
periods…I hadnʼt realized that I was so
sedentary most of the time I spent with my
friends.” B1

But IMPACT was harder to use
17 of 30 participants preferred Steps-Only.
“IMPACT gave a lot of cool information, but

having to input all the various factors was a
hassle.” B4

Problem can be fixed
Those who preferred Steps-Only said:
•  “There were times I wanted to explain my
context.” B22
•  “IMPACT should be provided as an option.” B30
90% reported they would continue using

IMPACT if collection of context was
automated.

Thesis Questions
•  Context can increase awareness of factors

that affect physical activity.

Collection
Thesis
Integration
Questions
Reflection
HowDiary
do we build a PI system with context?
Prototype
Collection
user-driven Integration
user-driven Reflection
user-driven
IMPACT
Diary 1.0
Visualizations
IMPACT 2.0
IMPACT 1.0 combination system-driven system-driven
→ Users need help collecting and integrating

data over
IMPACT 2.0 a long period of time.

IMPACT 2.0

Thesis Questions
Diary Study
IMPACT 1.0
IMPACT 2.0
Thesis Questions
Diary
IMPACT 1.0
IMPACT 2.0

IMPACT 2.0

IMPACT 2.0
Bluetooth GPS

IMPACT 2.0
Context Input

IMPACT 2.0
Bluetooth Sync

Mobile Phone Web Site
IMPACT 2.0
GPS Context Input
Steps-Only Steps-Only Steps-Only
Control Steps-Only No Vis

Setup
35 participants (C1-C35)

Baseline Phase Intervention Phase
Control
Control IMPACT 2.0
Steps-Only
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Results
Complaints were not about the tedium of
writing things down, but about having to carry
multiple devices.
•  “I would not like carrying two devices (GPS
and phone), that was too much.” C30
•  “I would use [the prototype] if I could use
the software on my own cell phone.” C17

Awareness of factors increased for
all groups between the phases
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F[2,32] = 3.98, p = .0547

Similar awareness of factors
Mentioned Context Mentioned Context
Excluding Time
IMPACT 2.0 8 out of 11 6

Steps-Only 8 out of 12 3
Control 6 out of 12 5
Long-term reflection
What is the value of contextual information in
the long-term?
6-months later when they were more likely to

have forgotten the data

Follow-Up Interviews
Participants:
•  Control (5)
•  Steps-Only (6)
•  IMPACT 2.0 (3)

Follow-Up Interviews
Expressed interest in comparing over long
periods of time.
Curious about the peaks in physical activity.
But only those who collected contextual

information had reminders of what happened
during those peaks.
Collection vs. Reflection
Short-term Long-term
Reflection Reflection
Manual GOOD NOT GOOD

Collection
Automated NOT GOOD GOOD

Collection

Thesis Questions
Automation has an effect:

•  In the short term, reduced interaction with
context data so not difference in
awareness of factors.
•  In the long term, users had data to
effectively reflect on factors.

Diary Thesis Questions


IMPACT 1.0
Collection
user-driven Integration
user-driven Reflection
system-driven
Diary 2.0
IMPACT
Prototype combination
user-driven
system-driven
user-driven
system-driven
user-driven
IMPACT 1.0
•  Automation isuser-driven user-driven
valuable in system-driven
the long term,
but not
IMPACT 2.0as useful in the short term.

Thesis Questions
•  Diary Study and IMPACT 1.0: YES 

Context can increase awareness of factors
that affect physical activity.
•  IMPACT 2.0: DEPENDS 
Automation reduces immediate
awareness, but helps with long-term
reflection.
Thesis Questions
Diary Need visualization

Prototype Support
user-driven user-driven user-driven
Need to reduce burden

IMPACT 1.0 of Collection and
user-driven user-driven system-driven Integration stages.
Consider the effect of

IMPACT 2.0 automation on
combination system-driven system-driven immediate awareness.

Introduction
Completed Work
Diary Study
IMPACT 1.0
IMPACT 2.0
Proposed Work
Conclusion
IMPACT 3.0?

Thesis Questions
•  How do people use context in the
visualizations to find factors that affect
behavior?
•  How do we support comparison
between different types of context?
•  Infer cause-and-effect?

Thesis Questions
•  Reduce the cost of using personal

informatics system while increasing
awareness of factors that affect physical
activity.

UNI-FACETED vs. MULTI-FACETED
uni-faceted multi-faceted

Diary Need visualization

Prototype Support
user-driven user-driven user-driven
Need to reduce burden

IMPACT 1.0 of Collection and
user-driven user-driven system-driven Integration stages.
Consider the effect of

IMPACT 2.0 automation on
combination system-driven system-driven immediate awareness.
Design semi-
IMPACT 3.0 automated collection
combination system-driven system-driven without losing
immediate awareness
PREPARATION COLLECTION INTEGRATION REFL
ITERATIVE
Forced users to collect three types of

contextual information.
•  Some of them may not have been useful,
i.e. they are incurring a cost in Collection,
but not providing a benefit during
Reflection.

ITERATIVE
The prototypes did not support context other

than activity, location, and people.
•  Weather
•  Mood
•  Nutrition
•  Other data sources: calendar, email

ITERATIVE
The prototypes did not count other types of

physical activity.
•  Swimming
•  Biking
•  Sports

ITERATIVE
•  Allow users to select factors that is

important to them.
•  Support factors other than activity,
location, and people.
•  Count other types of physical activity.

BARRIERS CASCADE
The prototypes experienced several barriers

that affected their usage.
Subsequent prototypes addressed some of

these barriers.
Keep these in mind!

IMPACT 3.0 Requirements
1.  Maintain immediate awareness in semi-
automated collection.
2.  Give choices for other types of context

and physical activity.
3.  Explore visualizations of context and

physical activity.
1. Maintain Immediate Awareness
Low-cost manual collection where
visualizations are shown after input.  
(ES+feedback, Hsieh et al. 2008)
•  Once during the day, the system asks the
user to input data manually. After, the user
shows visualizations to the user of other
automatically collected information.

1. Maintain Immediate Awareness
Encourage daily use of the visualizations.
•  Alert the user of an interesting fact.
•  “You were active while walking in the
park.”
•  Make it easy for users to find what they
are looking for.
•  Direct users to the graph that would
answer their question. 

2. Other types of context and PA
Integrate other sources of context
•  Online weather information
•  Event information from calendars
•  Status updates
•  Other personal informatics tools (e.g.,
MoodJam, your.flowingdata)

2. Other types of context and PA
Allow logging of other physical activity.
Equate amount of physical activity with

amount of walking
•  1 hour of softball = 30 minutes of walking

Personal Informatics Browser

3. Explore Visualizations in Detail
Problems occurred in stages before
Reflection, now I can explore this stage in
detail.
•  Visualizations for comparing between
instances of physical activity
•  Visualizations for making cause-and-effect
associations between context and physical
activity

Housework Shopping
Same Physical Activity Level 

Different Context
Office
Office
Different Physical Activity Level 

Same Context
Setup
40 participants
•  Sedentary and active

Baseline Phase Intervention Phase
IMPACT 3.0
Control
Steps-Only
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Awareness Effects
Higher awareness of factors that affect
physical activity.
Maintain immediate awareness even when

collection is semi-automated.
Increased interest in the visualizations

Psychological Effects
Higher locus of control
Higher self-efficacy
Self-reports of change in physical activity

Thesis Questions
•  Deployment of a personal informatics
system that has minimal cost in collection
without loss in benefit in reflection.
•  Exploration of how people use context in
visualizations to find factors that affect
behavior.

Thesis Questions
•  Designs that reduce the cost of using

personal informatics system while
increasing awareness of factors that affect
physical activity.

Limitation
Focus on physical activity.
•  PI systems share the same stages.
•  Revealing factors that affect behavior
benefits the user.
•  Diabetes (Frost & Smith 2003)
•  Early work on smart meters (Betz 2010)

Future Work
Sharing data.
•  Many PI systems allow sharing.
•  Explore the quality of discussions when
data is shared with context.

Thesis Questions
•  Showed that context can increase
awareness of factors that affect behavior.
•  Automation reduces immediate
awareness, but helps with long-term
reflection.
•  Deployed a system that doesnʼt sacrifice
long-term for immediate, vice versa.

Thesis Questions
•  Created the stage-based model of PI as a
framework to analyze PI systems.
•  Created prototypes that support context in
field studies.
•  Identified issues in supporting context and
addressed them in subsequent prototypes.

Schedule
2010
p
m
co
I
bi
H
U
C
Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Prototype Analysis
IMPACT 3.0 Development
Deployment
Analysis
Write Dissertation

Thank you!
To my advisors, Anind Dey and Jodi Forlizzi, and the rest of my
committee, Niki Kittur and John Stasko.
To people who have helped discussions, pilot studies: 

Gary Hsieh, Scott Davidoff, Erin Walker, Karen Tang, Matt Easterday,
Amy Ogan, Amy Hurst, Ruth Wylie, Moira Burke, Matt Lee, Gabi Marcu,
Queenie Kravitz, Min Kyung Lee, Turadg Aleahmad, Tawanna Dillahunt,
Brian Lim, Chloe Fan, Jenn Marlow, Jason Wiese, Sunyoung Kim,
Aubrey Shick, Chris Harrison, Julia Schwarz, Bilge Mutlu, Andy Ko,
Johnny Lee, Ido Roll, Jeff Nichols, Jeff Wong, Sara Kiesler, Laura
Dabbish, Scott Hudson, Tessa Lau, Jaime Teevan, Fernanda Viegas,
Jon Froehlich, UISTʼ09 and UbiCompʼ09 Symposia attendants,
Alexandra Carmichael, Gary Wolf, Nathan Yau, Nicholas Felton, Ellie
Harrison, Edison Thomaz

Personal Informatics and Context: Using Context To Reveal Factors That Affect Behavior

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Personal Informatics and Context: Using Context To Reveal Factors That Affect Behavior

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Personal Informatics+Context

Using Context to Reveal Factors that Affect Behavior

Ian Li Anind Dey, CMU, Co-chair

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 2

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 4

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Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 12

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 13

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 14

How do we build a PI system with context?

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 18

Advertised the survey in blogs about

What tools they use and their problems

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 19

Transcript of the survey is at:

Affinity diagrams to identify themes.

Derived a model composed of:

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 21

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The stage when people

Other research have explored these different

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 29

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 30

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 31

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 32

→ Consider all the stages when designing PI

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 33

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 34

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→ Flexibility is important, but consider user

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 36

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 37

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 38

→ Explore the tradeoffs between user-driven

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 41

Some personal informatics systems have

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 42

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 43

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 44

→ Explore support for multiple facets

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 45

How do we build a PI system with context?

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 46

How do we build a PI system with context?

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 48

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 49

Lack of awareness of physical activity is one

Ian Li Personal Informatics+Context Thesis Proposal 50

Products frequently involves prohibitive cost, as well as depending

Fish’n’Steps: Encouraging Physical Activity with an Interactive Computer Game 263

To evaluate the effect of Fish’n’Steps, we recruited 19 participants from the staff

CDC suggests understanding of factors to

Personal Informatics+Context 

→ Consider all the stages when designing PI

→ Flexibility is important, but consider user

→ Explore the tradeoffs between user-driven

→ Explore support for multiple facets

•  Participants made associations between

→ Can we do this in a field study of a

→ Value in aggregated real-time info and

•  Context can increase awareness of factors

→ Users need help collecting and integrating