Reference Information
Activity Awareness in Family-Based Healthy Living Online Social Networks
- Stephen Kimani, Shlomo Berkovsky, Greg Smith, Jill Freyne, Nilufar Baghaei, and Dipak Bhandari
- IUI 2010, Hong Kong, China
Activity Awareness in Family-Based Healthy Living Online Social Networks
- Stephen Kimani, Shlomo Berkovsky, Greg Smith, Jill Freyne, Nilufar Baghaei, and Dipak Bhandari
- IUI 2010, Hong Kong, China
Summary
This paper explained how to use a social network coupled with an activity awareness interface in order to help improve overall health of individuals. The test they conducted set out to see if the activity awareness interface did in fact make user more aware of their health and the activities they can do to improve it.
This paper explained how to use a social network coupled with an activity awareness interface in order to help improve overall health of individuals. The test they conducted set out to see if the activity awareness interface did in fact make user more aware of their health and the activities they can do to improve it.
 |
| An example of part of the Activity Awareness interface. |
In the future, the designers would like to find ways to collect real-world user activity data. This could then be compiled back into the activity awareness interface and improve the overall user experience.
Discussion
At first, I didn’t exactly see the point of this. But after finishing the paper, this seems like an interesting idea. With people being on computers so much now, finding ways to tap into that and help motivate people to be more active could help a lot. To me, it seemed like this social network they were using was designed for this testing purpose. I imagine it can later be adapted to major social networking sites, because having a separate network devoted this might not gain a large enough audience to make an impact on overall health. Even still, this is an interesting idea in using technology to help promote physical health and awareness.
At first, I didn’t exactly see the point of this. But after finishing the paper, this seems like an interesting idea. With people being on computers so much now, finding ways to tap into that and help motivate people to be more active could help a lot. To me, it seemed like this social network they were using was designed for this testing purpose. I imagine it can later be adapted to major social networking sites, because having a separate network devoted this might not gain a large enough audience to make an impact on overall health. Even still, this is an interesting idea in using technology to help promote physical health and awareness.
This is a really cool concept, and I agree with you that the only way this will catch on is if it's integrated into existing social networks. It's like having hundreds of accountability partners.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a really good idea to help motivate people, since so many people regularly use social networking sites now. But I agree, it would have more of an affect if it was integrated with an existing site so that the audience is already established.
ReplyDeleteThose are really great ideas about integrating the interface they developed into famous social networking sites. One thing I would of liked seen in the paper was more about the responses of the participants testing the interface.
ReplyDeletePeople need help many times keeping balance in their lives. This tool could be used to help keep them in check. However if the user does not interact with social networks on a regular basis this could be a problem.
ReplyDelete