Rethinking sustained healthy lifestyle change through design and evaluation of socio-technical wearable systems
Lead Research Organisation:
Swansea University
Department Name: College of Science
Abstract
The "Rethinking sustained healthy lifestyle change through design and evaluation of socio-technical wearable systems" research project will examine how state-of-the-art digital technology design can evolve to prompt, support and sustain behaviour change. Specifically, the project will focus on the idea of an active lifestyle though the quantified self; How users interact with fitness technology, use technology to identify and better understand inactivity, and, building on foundational work on how persuasive computing can provide social influence, prompt behavioural changes. The main aims of this would be to generate insight into socio-technical assemblages that contribute to inactivity, and the critical aspects of ubiquitous technology design that could be used to try and combat resultant inactivity. The goal would be to research and test a system that would work to encourage a reduction in sedentary behaviour and an increase in activity with the intention of maintaining a more active lifestyle.
Broadly speaking, the research will aim to look at the way intelligent context aware insights could be used to provide an effective socio-technical platform to drive specific behavioural changes. Capturing information such as sensor data, through, for example, step trackers and accelerometers devices in addition to more broad context information such as calendar appointments and GPS locations, will allow hypotheses to be formulated with regards to both collecting and using this contextual data to find more effective methods of intervention. A design-research approach will be used to create a digital platform that combines this multi-modal data and adopts machine learning algorithms inside smart devices to deliver real-time feedback to prompt and support users in the goal of increasing self-motivation in the most effective way. This will be achieved through creating user-centric designs as to work directly with the socio-technological systems to make this intervention effective and sustainable.
The specific focus of this research is to identify and attempt to reduce inactivity and sedentary behaviour in everyday life. Adults should take part in 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week, and children are encouraged to be active for 60 minutes a day; the average adult and child in the UK fails to meet both due, in no small part, to home technology which encourages sedentary behaviour and long periods of inactivity. With 17% of preventable deaths in Wales attributed to inactivity and a 59% increase in the risk of a pre- mature death if a person sits down more than 8 hours a day, this is an issue that needs to be addressed.
Broadly speaking, the research will aim to look at the way intelligent context aware insights could be used to provide an effective socio-technical platform to drive specific behavioural changes. Capturing information such as sensor data, through, for example, step trackers and accelerometers devices in addition to more broad context information such as calendar appointments and GPS locations, will allow hypotheses to be formulated with regards to both collecting and using this contextual data to find more effective methods of intervention. A design-research approach will be used to create a digital platform that combines this multi-modal data and adopts machine learning algorithms inside smart devices to deliver real-time feedback to prompt and support users in the goal of increasing self-motivation in the most effective way. This will be achieved through creating user-centric designs as to work directly with the socio-technological systems to make this intervention effective and sustainable.
The specific focus of this research is to identify and attempt to reduce inactivity and sedentary behaviour in everyday life. Adults should take part in 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week, and children are encouraged to be active for 60 minutes a day; the average adult and child in the UK fails to meet both due, in no small part, to home technology which encourages sedentary behaviour and long periods of inactivity. With 17% of preventable deaths in Wales attributed to inactivity and a 59% increase in the risk of a pre- mature death if a person sits down more than 8 hours a day, this is an issue that needs to be addressed.
Organisations
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES/P00069X/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/09/2027 | |||
| 1949548 | Studentship | ES/P00069X/1 | 01/10/2017 | 31/12/2021 | Darren Scott |
| Description | An overview of the research space led to the development of a 'conceptual blueprint' for designing AI technologies for health and behaviour change, which presents an effective baseline for researchers to explore this space with the aim of increased efficacy and user experience. A new design method, Effect-Led Design, has been developed to help aid the development of AI-driven user technologies by allowing both the efficacy of AI and the needs of human users to be considered alongside each other. A new approach to physical activity personalisation, involving the intelligent switching of whole behaviour change techniques as well as their individual variables has been developed and implemented in a test state. This was tested, and it was found that users responded positively to the switching mechanisms, finding the wider range of available techniques as well as the increased novelty of changing content to be motivating and engaging. However, the intelligent aspect was unsuccessful in the test condition due to the experiments uncovering the amount of noise present in daily living. A further refinement of the AI algorithm that accounts for the interplay of actual activity and motivational response was developed and implemented, although testing of this is still required to ascertain whether it performs more effectively. |
| Exploitation Route | The outcomes of this funding, in many ways, present a strong foundation for a wide range of research in this space. The development of a broad conceptual blueprint for designing in this space, a design method for exploring AI-driven designs and an implementation of the novel concept of full technique switching collectively allows for others to explore this emerging space of AI-driven digital behaviour change with the groundwork partially laid out. This allows for more effort to go into exploring novel methods of integrating AI and digital technologies into this space and could lead to greater outcomes for both the research community and potential end users who will gain improved behavioural outcomes from such technologies. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Healthcare,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism |
| Title | Effect-Led Design Process/Method |
| Description | Effect-Led Design allows for AI to be effectively integrated into user-centred systems and design approaches without the common issues of over-cautious backlash and limitation of the potential improvements to efficacy. Effect-Led Design is centred around three key concepts - A clearly stated outcome metric for the system, repeated and consistent grounding in theory-based techniques and approaches, and the development of a 'playful' atmosphere to reduce the impact of concerns around the technology on the potential outcomes. The first stage of the process, Design, involves domain experts using their knowledge of the space to propose and design concepts for effectively behaviour change using techniques and approaches grounded in theory and literature. This concepts approach a key goal or metric, and are designed to be as effective as technically possible by initially disregarding any human factors such as acceptability or concerns around privacy and autonomy. These concepts are presented to be easily understandable, with the mechanisms and outcomes made clear. These concepts are then presented to potential end users, who evaluate the systems in terms of their potential impact and their level of usability/acceptability. These users then propose changes to the system to make them more acceptable and usable, without sacrificing the impact of the system to any great extent. The purpose of this order (creating the maximum efficacy design and then working this back into an acceptable system) is chosen to prevent over cautious response to the system which may completely remove any potential impact - The ability to clearly view the potential impact and what the system would require from the user means users are more likely to make minor changes to the system to balance effect and usability, since they have a clear image of the positive impact and would not want to sacrifice this. Users and designers are then brought together to discuss how their changes would be implemented, to finalise designs which best balance effect and usability, and which could then feasibly be implemented and tested on a wider scale. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This method was tested within our research team, and was found to be effective in producing significantly different designs to those seen in the contemporary application space, and performed well against an established process in Value Sensitive Design. The method performed positively in regards to its proposed outcomes, and designer and user feedback was positive as to the impact this may have on producing more effective designs. This is interest in testing this in future with varied domains and the implementation and testing of designs stemming from this process, although this is still a conceptual study and has not yet been conducted. |