Needs and Challenges of Personal Data Visualisations in Mobile Health Apps: User Survey

Personal data visualisations are critical contributors toward the successful adoption of mobile health apps. Thus, understanding user needs when using mobile personal data visualisation is essential to ensure the adoption of these apps. This paper presents the results of our survey to understand users’ needs and challenges around using mobile personal data visualisations. We received 56 complete responses, which showed that fun and curiosity are the primary drivers of health-tracking apps. Furthermore, the main challenges are the lack of interaction with the presented charts, the complexity of the presented data and the inconsistency of charts’ presentation. In contrast, complete and customisable charts that are easy to read encourage frequent app use. Finally, we recommend reviewing current data visualisation design and development guidelines to help avoid the reported challenges.