From information to reflection-design strategies for personal informatics

Personal informatics systems, particularly activity trackers, often provide quantified feedback on movement and physical activities. However, current design solutions fail to provide opportunities for reflection on collected data and do not cultivate a holistic picture of one's health. Through literature research we found four actionable design strategies to address reflective design in personal informatics. A review of thirteen commercial activity trackers highlighted that visualization and enabling data sharing on social networks are the most common strategies used to elicit reflection in current products whereas other strategies such as effective playback of data or including journaling features are largely ignored. We conclude that the current industry trends do not adequately address reflective design and do not appreciate the growing interest amongst users in learning about health.