What is it about?
Many active people experience physical activity (PA) frequency fluctuation over the year and need to overcome several perceived barriers to PA to remain active. This paper mainly addresses one of these barriers: Seasonal Variability, which has received limited attention in previous self-tracking studies. We followed a Research through Design approach to explore the influence of the seasons on people’s PA fluctuations, and conceptualized the PA maintenance tool: 'Seasons'. Our findings from testing 'Seasons' with 10 active individuals lead to recommendations for designers of future PA maintenance tools.
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Why is it important?
Our findings illustrate the complexity of PA maintenance, and the influence of seasonal variability and other barriers to PA on successful PA maintenance. By taking seasonal variability into account, a PA management tool could help individuals identify their personal experiences with PA fluctuations, set structured and realistic goals to overcome PA obstacles, and prepare coping strategies for circumstances that may arise. Furthermore, by leveraging knowledge often reserved to professional athletes, individuals can learn to deploy annual exercise performance planning.
Perspectives
With this paper, we are hoping to start a conversation around PA fluctuation, the influence of seasonal variability on individuals PA levels, as well as the role of the designer in making this knowledge available to the user.
Fredrika Åström
Universiteit Twente
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Self-Tracking and Management of Physical Activity Fluctuations: An Investigation into Seasons, May 2021, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3411763.3451758.
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