Today I’m presenting the paper Putting Phenomenological Theories to Work in the Design of Self-TrackingTechnologies
by myself, Sarah Homewood and my co-author Anna Vallgårda from the IT University of
Copenhagen.
Existing self-tracking technologies have been criticized for perpetuating a dualist, Cartesian rather than phenomenological,
understanding of the self as a separated mind and body.
In this paper we answer calls for a phenomenological approach to the design of self-tracking devices.
In our study, we focused on menstrual cycle tracking devices.
This is a typical design of most menstrual cycle tracking apps.
The user puts in data on their menstrual cycle and the app uses algorithms to try to predict when events such as when
menstruation, ovulation and PMS will occur in the next cycle.
This is based upon an assumption that the menstrual cycle recurs regularly.
Users are also given medical information about the menstrual cycle through the app.
Phenomenology = a philosophical study of lived experience.
The world is always a world-as-perceived, rather than a scientific object or a thing-in-itself.
This works against a Cartesian perspective where there is an inherent truth to objects
in the world that can be discovered through scientific methods.
Within self-tracking, this attitude holds that it is possible and beneficial to control
the unruly body through making it transparent and malleable through collecting and acting
upon self-tracked data.
In some ways, using phenomenological approaches with self-tracking data creates an epistemological
battle ground; where scientific truths about the body are pitted against the lived experience
of the user and some of the consequences of this were evident in our study and something
we go into more detail about in our paper.
So rather than re-enacting Cartesian perspectives, we attempted to design a menstrual cycle tracking
device with phenomenological commitments.
These are that knowledge is co-constructed: The knowledge of the self is constructed,
rather than discovered, through external sources of information and internal sensations.
The body is interconnected: Interactions with other people influence self-understanding.
We are an interconnected self.
We are always our past, present and future selves: Notions of the past and future self
influences the present experience of the self.
The body is always in flux: Although it is not always experienced as such, the body is
always in a constant state of change.
We are reflexively influenced by our inner states: Our internal states influence our
sense of self and our experience of our world.
Rather than designing a device that would provide truths about the users body, we aimed
towards a type of menstrual cycle tracking device that acknowledged the individual, subjective
experience of the user rather than asking them to fit their experience of their menstrual
cycle in to a model based upon scientific knowledge.
We wanted to offer a device that co-constructed knowledge about the menstrual cycle with the
individual.
We also wanted to avoid the device being a diagnostic device.
We did this by using constant flows of data in the home instead of the data being shown
in one persons app which they checked periodically.
Rather than seeing the body as moving between distinct phases of the menstrual cycle such
as menstruation, PMS and ovulation based on medical models, we wanted to reflect that
the body is always in a state of change.
Ambient Cycle is comprised of a Wi-Fi enabled microcontroller with a LED strip that is configured
through a designed webpage that can be used as an app.
The microcontroller and LED strip are embedded in an acrylic, line-bent form to form the
lamp part of the design.
The lamp is designed to project colour up a wall.
Menstrual cycle data is considered to be private data.
Since the device was to be displayed within the home, we used an ambiguous design and
form of data representation just through changing colours to make sure that the user felt secure
showing their private data publicly.
Unless someone was told what the device was, and what the particular meaning of the colours
was, no-one would guess that the lamp had anything to do with menstrual cycles at all.
Ambient Cycle is a menstrual tracking device that – like most apps – relies on self-reported
data to give the user a prediction of when the next phase of the menstrual cycle will
occur.
The interface firstly asks users to input information on the average length of their
cycle and which day of the cycle they are currently on.
They are then asked to colour in the bar that represents their menstrual cycle to represent
any aspect of the menstrual cycle that they want.
The LED strip then lights up with the colour that correlates to each day according to how
the user has decided to program it.
The lamp then automatically cycles through this colour configuration over the coming
months.
I deployed Ambient Cycle in the homes of five participants for three months.
Here you can see that my participant has chosen pink for when she has her period, purple for
when she is finishing her period, blue for the middle part of her cycle, and white for
PMS when she is irritable just before her period starts again.
My participants chose many different colour configurations based on many different reasons.
One said “I read that you're supposed to feel more energetic in the first two weeks
of your cycle.
It would be nice to be able to maximize that.”
This participant wanted to use the lamp to reflect and even exaggerate her energy levels
during her menstrual cycle.
Participants programmed the device to reflect how they would be feeling at the time that
they would be experiencing the data, so for their future selves.
This participant chose to program blue and green colours to soothe her when she had anxiety
because of PMS.
“Cooler colours help me to calm down”.
This shows a use of Ambient Cycle as a therapeutic tool that would help improve my participants
experience.
Some participants wanted Ambient Cycle to fit how they were feeling even if this meant
living with a colour they didn’t like.
There was tension between it being something that was representing some aspect of their
bodies or emotions and it being a device in the home.
“My logic was like; I choose a colour that matches my feeling these days...
What I'm feeling is not pleasant so I choose a not pleasing colour”
The fact that private data was being presented publicly in the home was dealt with in different
ways.
This participant found the thought of telling her parents-in-law what the device really
did laughable but was happy to post about being part of the study on social media.
“I forgot to tell my parents-in-law… but that would have been different to say "oh
it's just my menstrual cycle” (laugh)”
Another participant was still using her normal menstrual cycle tracking app at the same time
as using ambient cycle.
She was surprised when Ambient cycle actually proved to be more accurate than her app in
predicting her period.
She felt that the design of ambient cycle made it seem less accurate.
This also led her to question her relationship with menstrual cycle tracking devices more
generally.
“but then I actually had my period, so the lamp was more accurate than the app…
But that's also a weird way of looking at it.
Like the app is the correct...
I mean it’s my body that should be correct”
There were also ways in which ambient cycle pointed to new ways in which we might use
self-tracking devices.
Designing with this different approach proved to be innovative.
For example, two participants thought that they might use the device to communicate their
menstrual state to their family.
“Well I'm also thinking of its benefits for my family... if it becomes blue when I
have PMS I could tell my kids "see I have PMS, you know it's blue so be gentle.””
Another participant used Ambient cycle to track parts of her menstrual cycle where she
felt good.
Whereas normally she would only tracking negative aspects.
“I chose green for very good days and so I thought "Ah so I'm going to pay attention
if it's really good these days””
So, to summarise, we found that a phenomenological approach showed how co-constructive methods
of producing knowledge about the body risks mistrust and obsolescence and that public
displays of private data require careful negotiation through the design of the device, which we
did through using an ambiguous artefact and ambiguous displays of data just through coloured
light.
However, this approach also facilitated 1.
the documentation of many different aspects of the menstrual cycle, for example both physiological
and emotional aspects; 2.
the tracking of positive as well as negative aspects of the menstrual cycle, and 3.
novel uses of self-tracked data, for example as a tool to communicate internal states with
others.