Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

More than step count: designing a workplace-based activity tracking system

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach used in current activity tracking devices such as FitBit, Jawbone, and smartwatches may not be enough to encourage healthier behaviour patterns in people, as much more considerate design is required to create meaningful experiences. This paper focuses on designing an activity tracking system that can be used in a workplace setting. We apply a grounded approach, where we aim to understand employee’s perceptions of physical activities at workplaces and the role an activity tracker can play in supporting that. We describe a three-phase design process, which involves (1) interviewing employees who participated in a large-scale employer-sponsored health and wellness programme, (2) two participatory design workshops that aimed at understanding the role of activity tracking in workplace contexts and generating ideas for activity tracking applications, and (3) studying the use of the resulting design prototype—QUTgo—as a ‘technology probe’ to gather insights into the potential of physical activity tracking in workplaces. This paper contributes to the emerging repoirtoire of studies on activity tracking by providing a user-centric perspective on how to design an engaging activity tracking system that takes into account employees’ perspectives and experiences and the dynamics of specific work settings.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. GCC has now been rebranded as Virgin Pulse Corporate Challenge.

References

  1. Anderson I, Maitland J, Sherwood S, Barkhuus L, Chalmers M, Hall M, Brown B, Muller H (2007) Shakra: tracking and sharing daily activity levels with unaugmented mobile phones. Mobile Networks and Applications 12(2–3):185–199. https://doi.org/10.1007/S11036-007-0011-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Baumer EPS, Gay GK, Katz SJ, Freeman JE, Adams P, Gonzales AL, Pollak J, Retelny D, Niederdeppe J, Olson CM (2012) Prescriptive persuasion and open-ended social awareness. Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work - CSCW. 12:475. https://doi.org/10.1145/2145204.2145279

  3. Begole J, Matsakis NE, Tang JC (2004) Lilsys. In Proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work - CSCW ‘04, 511. https://doi.org/10.1145/1031607.1031691

  4. Brynjarsdottir H, Håkansson M, Pierce J, Baumer E, DiSalvo C, Sengers P (2012) Sustainably unpersuaded: how persuasion narrows our vision of sustainability. Proceedings of the 2012 ACM annual conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI. 12:947. https://doi.org/10.1145/2207676.2208539

  5. Burns PJ, Lueg C, Berkovsky S (2012) Using personal informatics to motivate physical activity: could we be doing is wrong? CHI 2012 Workshop, vol. 1: 4. Retrieved from http://ecite.utas.edu.au/81716/1/Using Personal Informatics to Motivate Physical Activity-Could we be Doing it Wrong.pdf

  6. Chung C-F, Jensen N, Shklovski IA, Munson S (2017) Finding the right fit: understanding health tracking in workplace wellness programs. Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI. 17:4875–4886. https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025510

  7. Consolvo S, McDonald DW, Toscos T, Chen MY, Froehlich J, Harrison B (2008) Activity sensing in the wild: a field trial of UbiFit garden. In: BT - proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ‘08). In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems. ACM. 2008:1797–1806

  8. Epstein DA, Caraway M, Johnston C, Ping A, Fogarty J, Munson SA (2016) Beyond abandonment to next steps: understanding and designing for life after personal informatics tool use. Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems:1109–1113. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858045

  9. Fritz T, Huang EM, Murphy GC, Zimmermann T (2014) Persuasive technology in the real world: a study of long-term use of activity sensing devices for fitness. Proceedings of the 32nd annual ACM conference on human factors in computing systems - CHI. 14:487–496. https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557383

  10. Gorm N, Shklovski I (2016) Steps, choices and moral accounting: observations from a step-counting campaign in the workplace. Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing:148–159. https://doi.org/10.1145/2818048.2819944

  11. Nanna Gorm and Irina Shklovski. 2016. Sharing steps in the workplace changing privacy concerns over time. 4315–4319

  12. Grimes A, Harper R (2008) Celebratory technology. In Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual CHI conference on human factors in computing systems - CHI ‘08. 467. https://doi.org/10.1145/1357054.1357130

  13. Hutchinson H, Bederson BB, Druin A, Plaisant C, Mackay WE, Evans H, Hansen H, Conversy S, Beaudouin-Lafon M, Roussel N, Lacomme L, Eiderbäck B, Lindquist S, Sundblad Y, Westerlund B, Bederson BB, Druin A, Plaisant C, Beaudouin-Lafon M, Conversy S, Evans H, Hansen H, Roussel N, Eiderbäck B (2003) Technology probes: inspiring design for and with families. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ‘03). 5:17–24. https://doi.org/10.1145/642611.642616

  14. Li I, Dey A, Forlizzi J (2011) Understanding my data, myself: supporting self-reflection with Ubicomp technologies. Proceedings of the 13th international conference on Ubiquitous computing:405–414. https://doi.org/10.1145/2030112.2030166

  15. Liang Z, Ploderer B, Liu W, Nagata Y, Bailey J, Kulik L, Li Y (2016) SleepExplorer: a visualization tool to make sense of correlations between personal sleep data and contextual factors. Pers Ubiquit Comput 20(6):985–1000. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-016-0960-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Lin JJ, Mamykina L, Lindtner S, Delajoux G, Strub HB (2006) Fish’n’Steps: encouraging physical activity with an interactive computer game. UbiComp 2006: Ubiquitous Computing:261–278. https://doi.org/10.1007/11853565_16

  17. Lindley SE, Harper R, Sellen A (2010) Designing a technological playground: a field study of the emrgence of play in household messaging. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ‘10):2351–2360. https://doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753681

  18. Lindtner S, Bardzell S, Bardzell J (2016) Reconstituting the utopian vision of making. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems - CHI ‘16:1390–1402. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858506

  19. Maitland J, Sherwood S, Barkhuus L, Anderson I, Hall M, Brown B, Chalmers M, Muller H (2006) Increasing the awareness of daily activity levels with pervasive computing. In 2006 Pervasive Health Conference and Workshops:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1109/PCTHEALTH.2006.361667

  20. Maitland J, Chalmers M (2011) Designing for peer involvement in weight management. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems:315–324. https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1978988

  21. Maitland J, Siek KA (2006) Technological approaches to promoting physical activity. In Proceedings of the 21st annual conference of the Australian computer-human interaction special interest group: design

  22. Masson CB, Martin D, Colombino T (2016) “The device is not well designed for me” on the use of activity trackers in the workplace? In COOP 2016: proceedings of the 12th international conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems:23–27. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33464-6

  23. Mathur A, Van den Broeck M, Vanderhulst G, Mashhadi A, Kawsar F (2015) Tiny habits in the giant enterprise. In: Proceedings of the 2015 ACM international joint conference on pervasive and ubiquitous computing – UbiComp, vol 15, pp 577–588. https://doi.org/10.1145/2750858.2807528

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  24. Morozov E (2013) To save everything, click here: technology, solutionism and the urge to fix problems that don’t exist / Evgeny Morozov. - version details - trove. London, England : Allen Lane an imprint of Penguin Books. Retrieved May 3, 2019 from https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/178425870?selectedversion=NBD50768647

  25. Mueller JG, Vetere F, Gibbs MR, Edge D, Agamanolis S, Sheridan (2010) Jogging over a distance between Europe and Australia. In In Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology, pp 189–198

  26. Pate RR, Pratt M, Blair SN, Haskell WL, Macera C a, Bouchard C, Buchner D, Ettinger W, Heath GW, King AC, Kriska A, Leon AS, Marcus BH, Morris J, Paffenbarger RS, Patrick K, Pollock ML, Rippe JM, Sallis J, Wilmore JH (1995) Physical activity and public health: a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine. JAMA 273(5):402–407. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1995.03520290054029

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Ploderer B, Reitberger W, Oinas-Kukkonen H, van Gemert-Pijnen J (2014) Social interaction and reflection for behaviour change. Pers Ubiquit Comput 18(7):1667–1676. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-014-0779-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Rollins S, Banerjee N, Choudhury L, Lachut D (2014) A system for collecting activity annotations for home energy management. Pervasive and Mobile Computing 15:153–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmcj.2014.05.008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Rooksby J, Asadzadeh P, Rost M, Morrison A, Chalmers M (2016) Personal tracking of screen time on digital devices. In: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems, pp 284–296

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  30. Rooksby J, Rost M, Morrison A, Chalmers M (2015) Pass the ball. In: Proceedings of the 33rd annual ACM conference on human factors in computing systems - CHI ‘15, pp 2417–2426. https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702577

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  31. Rooksby J, Rost M, Morrison A, Chalmers MC (2014) Personal tracking as lived informatics. In: Proceedings of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI ‘14, pp 1163–1172. https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557039

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  32. Shaw R, Fenwick E, Baker G, McAdam C, Fitzsimons C, Mutrie N (2011) “Pedometers cost buttons”: the feasibility of implementing a pedometer based walking programme within the community. BMC Public Health 11(1):200. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Skatova A, Bedwell B, Shipp V, Huang Y, Young A, Rodden T, Bertenshaw E (2016) The role of ICT in office work breaks. In: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems - CHI, vol 16, pp 3049–3060. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858443

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  34. Stawarz K, Cox AL, Blandford A (2015) Beyond self-tracking and reminders. In: Proceedings of the 33rd annual ACM conference on human factors in computing systems - CHI ‘15, pp 2653–2662. https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702230

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  35. Stawarz K, Cox AL, Blandford A, Stawarz K, Cox AL, Blandford A (2014) Don’t forget your pill! In: Proceedings of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI ‘14, pp 2269–2278. https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557079

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  36. Tudor-Locke C, Bassett D (2004) How many steps/day are enough? Preliminary pedometer indicies for public health. Sports Med 34(1):1–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Vyas D, Fitz-walter Z, Mealy E, Soro A, Zhang J, Brereton M (2015) Exploring physical activities in an employer-sponsored health program. In: Proceedings of the 33rd annual ACM conference extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems - CHI EA, vol 15, pp 1421–1426. https://doi.org/10.1145/2702613.2732815

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  38. Züger M, Snipes W, Corley C, Meyer AN, Li B, Fritz T, Shepherd D, Augustine V, Francis P, Kraft N (2017) Reducing interruptions at work. In: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems - CHI, vol 17, pp 61–72. https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025662

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  39. Virgin Pulse Global Challenge. Retrieved from https://www.virginpulse.com/global-challenge/

Download references

Acknowledgements

Several colleagues and students have participated in this project. We would like to thank Mark Vandeberg for his work in developing an initial version of the QUTgo app. We thank Zachary Fitz-Walter, Erica Mealy, Alessandro Soro, Paul Roe, and Margot Brereton, who collaborated in the phase 1 of this project. We also thank Bernd Ploderer and numerous capstone project students for their help in this project. The QUTgo video clip is developed by Liam Dinsdale, Tony Huang, Joseph Scanlon, and Zisong Zhang. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Dhaval Vyas

  2. Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD, 4000, Australia

    Thilina Halloluwa, Nikolaj Heinzler & Jinglan Zhang

Authors
  1. Dhaval Vyas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thilina Halloluwa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nikolaj Heinzler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jinglan Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dhaval Vyas.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Vyas, D., Halloluwa, T., Heinzler, N. et al. More than step count: designing a workplace-based activity tracking system. Pers Ubiquit Comput 24, 627–641 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-019-01305-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-019-01305-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation