Exploring Understandable Algorithms to Suggest Fitness Tracker Goals that Foster Commitment

Paweł W. Woźniak, Przemysław Piotr Kucharski, Maartje M.A. De Graaf, Jasmin Niess

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

While fitness trackers are gaining popularity, they struggle to offer long-term health benefits, largely due to their inability to offer engaging goals. Understanding how trackers can suggest and update fitness goals can lead to building improved systems that support wellbeing. We investigate how to suggest fitness tracker goals to users and ways to help them commit to those goals. We compared algorithms for step goal setting in a pre-study. Next, we conducted two surveys (a vignette study and a survey using the users' Fitbit data) that compared the users' attitudes to suggested goals, with and without disclosing the algorithm to them. We found that explaining how a step goal was computed increased goal commitment and, in one study, contributed to building trust in the goal. Our work shows that explaining how a tracker works can help build engaging fitness tracking experiences. We contribute insights on designing transparent personal informatics systems.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationNordiCHI 2020 - Proceedings of the 11th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
Subtitle of host publicationShaping Experiences, Shaping Society
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)9781450375795
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Oct 2020
Event11th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Shaping Experiences, Shaping Society, NordiCHI 2020 - Virtual, Online, Estonia
Duration: 25 Oct 202029 Oct 2020

Conference

Conference11th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Shaping Experiences, Shaping Society, NordiCHI 2020
Country/TerritoryEstonia
CityVirtual, Online
Period25/10/2029/10/20

Funding

This work was supported by Utrecht University’s Focus Area Sport and Society. We acknowledge the support of the Leibniz Science-Campus Bremen Digital Public Health (lsc-diph.de), which is jointly funded by the Leibniz Association (W4/2018), the Federal State of Bremen and the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology—BIPS.

Keywords

  • fitness tracker
  • goal
  • health
  • transparency
  • well-being
  • wellbeing

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