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Personal Air Pollution Monitoring Technologies: User Practices and Preferences

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HCI International 2020 - Late Breaking Papers: User Experience Design and Case Studies (HCII 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12423))

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Abstract

Long-term exposure to air pollution can cause adverse health effects. Many efforts are underway to develop affordable, portable, and accurate technologies to help people monitor air pollution regularly. Although personal, wearable air pollution monitoring technologies are popular among some technology enthusiasts and citizen scientists, we know little about air pollution monitoring practices and preferences of lay individuals. We conducted a sequential explanatory mixed-methods study (n = 321) to understand people’s current air pollution monitoring practices and their requirements for personal air pollution monitoring technologies. Although concerned about the adverse effects of air pollution (94%), less than 10% reported checking the levels of air pollution at least once a week. Respondents were more likely to carry a monitoring device as a bag accessory (74%) or wear it on their wrist (42%), than around their shoes, waist, or neck. If monitoring were available, however, it was unclear how much that would manifest behavior changes in individuals. We discuss how our findings can inform future technology design.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.habitatmap.org/airbeam.

  2. 2.

    https://www.dyson.com/purifiers/dyson-pure-cool-overview.html.

  3. 3.

    https://foobot.io/.

  4. 4.

    https://getawair.com/.

  5. 5.

    Negative or less than enthusiastic comments about personal air pollution monitoring are emphasized in red.

  6. 6.

    https://www.airnow.gov/.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all our participants for their time and the City Tech Collaborative, Environmental Law and Policy Center, and Chicago Hyde Park Village for their assistance in study recruitment.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA

    Nina Sakhnini, Ja Eun Yu & Debaleena Chattopadhyay

  2. The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

    Rachael M. Jones

Authors
  1. Nina Sakhnini
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  2. Ja Eun Yu
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  3. Rachael M. Jones
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  4. Debaleena Chattopadhyay
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Debaleena Chattopadhyay .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Crete and Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Constantine Stephanidis

  2. Aaron Marcus and Associates, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Aaron Marcus

  3. World Usability Day and Bentley User Experience Center, Newton Center, MA, USA

    Elizabeth Rosenzweig

  4. Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Pei-Luen Patrick Rau

  5. San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, USA

    Abbas Moallem

  6. Eindhoven Univesity of Technology, Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands

    Matthias Rauterberg

Appendix A: Survey Questions

Appendix A: Survey Questions

Q1. How often do you check the levels of air pollution (i.e., air quality) around you?

Never   Less than once a month   Monthly   Weekly   Daily

Q2. When did you last check the air quality in your immediate surrounding? (e.g., measured using a device or visited a government website, such as https://airnow.gov)

Never   More than a year before   More than a month before   Last month   Last week

Q3. How do you get information about air quality? (Choose all that apply.)

News   Government website   Other websites   EPA AIRNow mobile app   Other mobile apps   Other   I don’t

Q4. Do you use any air quality monitoring devices?

Yes   No

Q5. Do you own/use any of the following air quality monitoring devices? (Choose all that apply.)

Dylos   Airbeam   Foobot   Dyson Pure Cool   Xiaomi Mi Air Purifier Pro   Awair   uHoo   PurpleAir   Healthy Home Coach by Netatmo   AirVisual Pro   Blueair Aware   Other   I don’t own any device.

Q6. The air quality in your immediate surrounding is bad. Now consider the following statements.

I should cover my mouth with my hand.

Strongly disagree   Somewhat disagree   Neither agree nor disagree   Somewhat agree   Strongly agree

I should cover my mouth using a scarf.

I should cover my mouth using a dust mask.

I should cover my mouth using a N95 respirator.

I should stay indoors or minimize time outdoors.

I should close the windows of my room.

Q7. The air quality in your immediate surrounding is bad. How often do you?

Cover your mouth with your hand.

Strongly disagree   Somewhat disagree   Neither agree nor disagree   Somewhat agree   Strongly agree

Cover your mouth using a scarf.

Cover your mouth using a dust mask.

Cover your mouth using a N95 respirator.

Stay indoors or minimize time outdoors.

Close the windows of your room.

Q8. Research has shown that pollution levels measured with a personal device are little different and more personal than estimated across neighborhoods from fixed monitoring sites. Please state how much you agree or disagree with the following statements.

I would like to know how much polluted air I breathe in over time (e.g., during last year).

Strongly disagree   Somewhat disagree   Neither agree nor disagree   Somewhat agree   Strongly agree

I would like to know how much polluted air I breathe in sometimes (e.g., during last evening’s commute).

I am willing to wear a device to measure the polluted air I breathe in.

I am willing to put a device at home to measure the polluted air my family and I breathe in.

It is important that the device measuring air quality around me be portable.

Q9. You are offered a device that can measure your daily exposure to air pollution. The device needs to be worn outside, over your topmost layer of clothing, to accurately measure the air quality around you. How likely are you to wear or carry a device like this? Please rank in the order of your preference. (Rank 1 means highly likely, rank 5 means least likely. Images show some examples.)

– on or near your bag

– around or near your waist

– around or near your neck

– on or near your shoes

Q10. Please state how much you agree or disagree with the following statements:

Environmental pollution is an important global problem.

Strongly disagree   Somewhat disagree   Neither agree nor disagree   Somewhat agree   Strongly agree

High levels of air pollution can adversely affect my health and my family’s health.

Breathing in polluted air for many years may cause cardiovascular diseases.

Breathing in polluted air for many years may cause cognitive impairments.

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Sakhnini, N., Yu, J.E., Jones, R.M., Chattopadhyay, D. (2020). Personal Air Pollution Monitoring Technologies: User Practices and Preferences. In: Stephanidis, C., Marcus, A., Rosenzweig, E., Rau, PL.P., Moallem, A., Rauterberg, M. (eds) HCI International 2020 - Late Breaking Papers: User Experience Design and Case Studies. HCII 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12423. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60114-0_33

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60114-0_33

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