Hi everyone, my name is Marit Bentvelzen, and in this video I will present our work
on the Technology-Mediated Reflection Model. Reflection is considered to be an important part
of how people use personal informatics systems. By reflecting on personal data, a user can come to an
understanding of patterns and trends, which can lead to more knowledge about oneself.
Several models have been proposed that describe the user’s journey in using personal informatics
systems, such as the stage-based model of personal informatics system, which was later
extended by Epstein; who proposed the lived informatics model of personal informatics
A common feature of these models is that they contain a reflection phase.
And this phase is ascribed significant importance. Reflection is seen as a key enabler
for positive experiences in a user’s personal informatics journey. Given the importance of
reflection for the overall process, a deeper understanding of personal informatics can be
built through studying the details of that phase. It remains a challenge to understand
how and under what conditions users enter and exit the reflection phase. Consequently, there is
a need for examining the user practices within the reflection phase of personal informatics journeys.
To address this gap, we conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with users
of fitness trackers and an online survey to study practices in reflecting on fitness data.
Our results show that users reported reflecting on data despite lacking reflection support
from their tracking technology. Based on our results, we introduce the Technology-Mediated
Reflection Model, which describes conditions and barriers for reflection on personal data.
The Technology-Mediated Reflection Model (TMRM) describes user behaviours and practices
in the reflection phase of a personal informatics journey.
The model shows how users enter, exit and stay in the reflection phase.
The model is comprised of two cycles; the temporal cycle and the conceptual cycle.
These cycles show how users’ needs and perspectives evolve throughout their engagement
with their tracker. The key concept behind the TMRM is facilitated reflection—a state where the
user perceives that they receive adequate support for reflection from their tracking
technology of choice, meaning that the features of the tracking technology are aligned with the
current conceptual and temporal needs of the user. Let’s take a look at an example. One of our
participants, P7, is an amateur triathlete who uses a fitness tracker to keep track of his
performance and progress in training sessions and competitions. He has been using fitness trackers
for the last ten years and currently, he uses a Garmin Forerunner, a tracker specifically
designed for triathletes. Generally speaking, P7 is satisfied with the tracker’s abilities.
Yet, in order to be able to reflect on his data, P7 needs to use additional tools.
He created an Excel spreadsheet and every day, he manually transfers some of his
tracker’s data to a sheet, and adds additional context data such as subjective
scores for fatigue and general well-being. In terms of our model, this user selected
a watch specifically designed for triathletes. In his case there is a partial conceptual match
between his concept of activity to be tracked and the tracking functionalities of the tracker. Yet,
P7 wants to track more metrics than his tracker allows, which is a conceptual mismatch. Also, he
desires more flexibility in the time period to be analysed leading to a temporal mismatch. Because
of these mismatches, P7 decided to manually track additional data to achieve conceptual
alignment in a spreadsheet, allowing him to re-enter and maintain facilitated reflection.
The sheet enables the participant to review different time periods in his activity
and manually track additional metrics. P7’s journey shows how mismatches can lead to
users developing additional tools for tracking to ensure that their reflection cycle is maintained.
So our findings show that this state is temporary—reflection
in personal informatics is a dynamic process in which the users constantly adapt their tracking
experience to their evolving needs. The temporal and conceptual cycles
offer design considerations for a future generation of personal informatics systems
and we hope that our work contributes to a better understanding of fitness trackers
and allows more users to improve their well-being.