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Designing for the Changing Body: A Feminist Exploration of Self-Tracking Technologies

Authors:

Abstract

Our bodies are in a constant state of flux. Self-tracking technologies are increasingly used to understand, track and predict these fluxes and physiological processes. This paper outlines ongoing research that investigates the mediating qualities of self-tracking technologies. As physiological fluxes and processes are more commonly experienced by women, and have been historically used as a tool for subjugation, a feminist perspective and methodology is applied within this research. Methods including research-through-design and speculative and critical design are used to test the hypothesis that through speculating on the design of self-tracking technologies, valuable knowledge can be contributed to the fields of HCI and interaction design in relation to subjects such as the societal taboos and prejudices surrounding the notion of the changing body, privacy of biodata and how identity and sense of self is shaped through the act of self-tracking.
Designing for the Changing Body: A
Feminist Exploration of Self-Tracking
Technologies
Abstract
Our bodies are in a constant state of flux. Self-tracking
technologies are increasingly used to understand, track
and predict these fluxes and physiological processes.
This paper outlines ongoing research that investigates
the mediating qualities of self-tracking technologies. As
physiological fluxes and processes are more commonly
experienced by women, and have been historically used
as a tool for subjugation, a feminist perspective and
methodology is applied within this research. Methods
including research-through-design and speculative and
critical design are used to test the hypothesis that
through speculating on the design of self-tracking
technologies, valuable knowledge can be contributed to
the fields of HCI and interaction design in relation to
subjects such as the societal taboos and prejudices
surrounding the notion of the changing body, privacy of
biodata and how identity and sense of self is shaped
through the act of self-tracking.
Author Keywords
Self-tracking; women’s health; research-through-
design; feminist HCI; menstrual cycles; menopause;
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uses, contact the Owner/Author.
CHI'18 Extended Abstracts, April 2126, 2018, Montreal, QC, Canada
© 2018 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).
ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-5621-3/18/04.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3170427.3173031
Sarah Homewood
IxD Lab,
IT University of Copenhagen
Rued Langgaards Vej 7, 2300
København S, Denma rk
shom@itu.dk
ACM Classification Keywords
J.3 [Computer Applications]: Life and Medical
SciencesMedical information systems
Introduction
Technological developments such as wearables, the
ubiquity of smart phones and apps and a shift in
attitudes towards sharing biodata have resulted in an
increase in the use and application of self-tracking
technologies in society. Self-tracking technologies can
now use sensors to track bodies in real time and use
data and algorithms to predict physiological processes
and behaviour. These factors all challenge traditional
formulations in how we understand and experience our
bodies and their physiological processes [10,14].
As philosopher Drew Leder writes on self-tracking
technologies “what was depth is artificially made to
surface[9:53]. Through the mediating qualities of
technology, we come to understand our bodies in
different ways; they enable us to gain new knowledge
and skills that can be used to change lifestyle habits
[12] and allow us to observe our bodies as they
change. Self-tracking technologies influence our felt
sense of our body, our data becomes a “prosthetic of
feeling” [11:75] that influences our sense of self and
notion of control (or lack of control) over our bodies.
Research Motivation
Traditionally the notion of the “user” in interaction
design and HCI has imagined a one-state being. Those
who identify as female experience more physiological
processes, such as menstrual cycles, pregnancy and
menopause, than those who identify as male.
Physiological processes challenge the notion of the
body as a constant and stable entity and historically
this argument has been used to subjugate women
[8,16]. This research is motivated by a desire to
celebrate the changing body through designing for and
with physiological processes rather than mitigating and
controlling the body as it changes [15,13].
Hypothesis
The main hypothesis of this research is that there are
valuable contributions to be made to the fields of HCI
and interaction design in designing self-tracking
technologies in speculative and embedded forms
through the use of physical computing. Through
designing speculative self-tracking technologies that
are not in the form of wearables or smart phone apps,
certain aspects and effects of self-tracking can be
examined. These aspects might relate to the impact of
the layering of data on the lived experience of the user,
societal taboos surrounding the changing body, notions
of privacy around biodata and how identity and sense
of self is shaped. This hypothesis will be applied to
three cases of physiological processes; menstrual
cycles, menopause and a third as-yet-unknown case.
Research Objectives
§ To understand the impact of the design of existing
self-tracking technologies on users through
interviews and auto-ethnographic qualitative studies.
§ To understand societal notions of the changing body
through presenting alternative self-tracking
technologies through speculative and critical design.
§ To study the impact of speculative technologies that
synchronize with the bodies and reflect the body’s
physiological changes in physical and embedded
ways through the development of prototypes and
user studies.
Related Work
This research contributes to the burgeoning field of
“women’s health” in HCI and interaction design
[1,3,17]. This research addresses issues related to
women’s health technologies such as cultural notions of
taboo, power and prejudice.
Examples of affective computing [5] offer useful
findings in relation to how the design of affective
computing artifacts can influence our experience of our
own emotions and moods, and therefore the
physiological processes that produce these moods and
emotions, for example [18 and 7].
Research Approach and Methods
Research-through-design [19] will be the vehicle for
this ongoing research. Relating to the fact that
physiological changes have been historically used to
subjugate women, this research utilizes a feminist
methodology that offers not only tools to critique
existing technologies, but also the tools to enact
feminism through the values, perspective and positions
represented by and within this research project [4].
Critical and speculative design offer a framework for
critical inquiry through imagining ideologically different
futures [6]. These imagined futures can be used to
question current ethical, moral and political factors [2].
This research employs critical and speculative design in
order to produce knowledge on preferable futures [6]
for the design of self-tracking technologies.
Dissertation Status and Next Steps
The first topic addressed within this ongoing research is
menstrual cycle tracking technologies. In the first
study, menstrual cycle tracking is taken out of the
smart phone and into the home. Ambient Cycle
(figure 1.) is a prototype comprised of an Wi-Fi
connected LED light strip paired with a designed app to
provide a way for users to adapt their homes to their
moods experienced at different phases of their
menstrual cycle through mood lighting. Colours shown
at different phases of the menstrual cycle are based on
emotions typically experienced during certain menstrual
phases coupled with their accepted colour within the
field of colour psychology. “Ambient Cycle” has been
installed in the home of four participants for a month at
a time with at least two more participants completing
the study by the end of the year. Baseline and post-
study interviews were conducted and participants were
asked to keep a diary during the study. These
interviews and diaries will be used to test the
hypothesis that visualizing menstrual cycle data in this
ambient form produces valuable knowledge on how the
form of menstrual cycle tracking technologies influence
participant’s relationships with other people, their
perception of their moods in relation to their menstrual
cycles, and their sense of self.
An auto-ethnographic study into deliberately removing
self-tracking technologies from our lives investigated
the lasting effects of using self-tracking technologies
and was used to analyze self-tracking from a
philosophical, particularly phenomenological,
perspective.
The next steps to take within this research is to test
hypotheses and findings gathered during explorations
on menstrual cycle tracking technologies, and to apply
them to the case of menopause-related technologies
Figure 1: Ambient Cycle
installed in the home.
Contributions
Through this research, I hope to propose new
understandings of the body within HCI and interaction
design. I believe that the feminist perspective that I
offer can combat the subjugation of women in rejecting
the notion of a physiologically single-state user within
HCI and interaction design. Using research-through-
design, I aim to show that there is potential value for
the fields of HCI and interaction design in speculating
on the design of self-tracking technologies that can
propose new conceptualizations of the body and self,
both for the individual and for society.
References
1. Almeida, T., Comber, R. and Balaam, M. (2016)
‘HCI and Intimate Care as an Agenda for Change in
Women’s Health’.
2. Auger, J. (2013) ‘Speculative design: crafting the
speculation’, Digital Creativity, 24(1), pp. 1135.
3. Balaam, M. (2017) ‘Hacking Women’s Health’, pp.
476483.
4. Bardzell, S. (Indiana U. (2010) ‘Feminist HCI:
Taking Stock and Outlining an Agenda for Design’,
Proceedings of the 28th International Conference
on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp.
13011310..
5. Boehner, K. et al. (2005) ‘Affect: From Information
to Interaction’, Proceedings of the Fourth decennial
conference on Critical Commputing, pp. 5968.
6. Dunne, A. and Raby, F. (2013) ‘Speculative
everything: Design, fiction and social dreaming’,
The MIT Press, III(1), pp. 15.
7. Gaver, W. et al. (2007) ‘Enhancing ubiquitous
computing with user interpretation: field testing the
home health horoscope’, Proceedings of the ACM
Conference on Human Factors in Computing
Systems, (JANUARY), pp. 537546.
8. Grosz, E. (1994) ‘Lived bodies: Phenomenology
and the flesh’, Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal
Feminism.
9. Leder, D. (1990) The Absent Body, The Absent
Body.
10. Lupton, D. (2016) The Quantified Self. UK: Polity
Press.
11. Neff, G. and Nafus, D. (2016) ‘Self-Tracking’, in.
MIT Press.
12. Rooksby, J. et al. (2014) ‘Personal tracking as lived
informatics’, Proceedings of the 32nd annual ACM
conference on Human factors in computing systems
- CHI ’14, pp. 1163–1172.
13. Rose, N. (2001) ‘The Politics of Life Itself’, 18(6),
pp. 130.
14. Ruckenstein, M. (2014) ‘Visualized and Interacted
Life: Personal Analytics and Engagements with
Data Doubles’, Societies, 4(1), pp. 6884.
15. Schüll, N. D. (2016) ‘Data for life: Wearable
technology and the design of self-care’,
BioSocieties. Nature Publishing Group, 11(3), pp.
317333.
16. Shildrick, M. (1998) Leaky Bodies and Boundaries:
Feminism, Postmodernism and (Bio) Ethics, Journal
of medical ethics.
17. Søndergaard, M. L. and Koefoed, L. (2016)
‘PeriodShare: A Bloody Design Fiction.’, In Proc.
NordiCHI 2016 Extended Abstract.
18. Zhao, M., Adib, F. and Katabi, D. (no date)
‘Emotion Recognition using Wireless Signals’, pp.
95108.
19. Zimmerman, J., Forlizzi, J. and Evenson, S. (2007)
‘Research through design as a method for
interaction design research in HCI’, Proceedings of
the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in
computing systems - CHI ’07, pp. 493502.
... Such tracking is not only related to health management, but also has social connotations [6]. HCI research emphasizes the cultural and societal influences on tracking designs [6,23,80,148]. In some societies, menstruation self-tracking is closely related to self-identity and emancipation [80,162]. ...
... HCI research emphasizes the cultural and societal influences on tracking designs [6,23,80,148]. In some societies, menstruation self-tracking is closely related to self-identity and emancipation [80,162]. However, current design often ignores the social, cultural, and political influences on women's health [148]. ...
... Menstrual self-tracking is closely related to self-identity and serves as a means of selfliberation and personal empowerment in the deep-rooted menstrual stigma context [80,162]. However, the overturn of Roe v. Wade led many to abandon familiar methods of period tracking, deeply affecting their sense of self and mental well-being. ...
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On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which has led to full bans on most abortions in 14 states within one year. Many people in the U.S. use period and fertility tracking apps for reproductive healthcare and concerns have arisen about the privacy risks these apps might pose in the wake of Roe reversal. Existing literature on privacy risks of period and fertility tracking apps has primarily examined the privacy policies and practices of these apps. However, how users make sense of the privacy risks of these apps, especially in the post-Roe time, remains understudied. This study explores collective privacy sensemaking on social media, a practice in which people collectively make sense of a privacy situation. Our findings reveal how people contextualize privacy issues, speculate about the associated risks, as well as explore risk mitigation strategies. We conclude with privacy design implications for privacy design in period and fertility tracking apps and contribute insights that could inform policymaking and legal perspectives.
... A growing body of research in HCI (and adjacent felds of STS and media studies) has drawn attention to the sociocultural, ethical, and political implications of apps designed for tracking intimate, bodily data. Under the broader concept of 'women's health', research on MFTAs has been conducted for example on data privacy (see e.g., [35]) or confgurations of sexuality and reproduction (see e.g., [15,21]). Research in this feld not only highlights critical aspects, but also points to the empowering potential these apps may hold for users through increasing body literacy and self-explorations (see e.g., [14,22]). ...
... A growing feld of HCI research is concerned with exploring fertility and menstruation tracking technologies. Under the broader concept of women's health, research into diferent aspects of bodies and data entanglements, such as topics of menopause [8,11], menarche [41], menstruation [10,14,16,21] and reproduction [34,36] is being conducted. This paper draws on work in women's health that is looking into the intimate data surrounding bodies. ...
... This area of HCI develops design projects that "intend to destigmatize women's health experiences through challenging the role technologies should play herein and proposing better possible futures" [40]. This work investigates and designs for topics such as intimate care [3], menarche [41], menstruation [14,16,17,21], fertility/reproduction [23,36], and breastfeeding [20]. For example, projects such as Homewood's Ovum aim to break current conceptions of designing for reproductive bodies by designing for fertility tracking as a "shared, domestic and do-it-yourself experience" [23]. ...
... Our study cuts across multiple felds of scholarly work around the body [39,67], women's health [4,37,44], disability [36,42], and care [10,74]. We limit our review here to, frst, a historical perspective on the breast pump and its use in the workplace, and second, current perspectives on intimate technology more broadly within HCI and Interaction Design. ...
... One dimension that has gained attention is intimacy. In the feld of HCI, the term intimate technology is often used when a technology is applied to an intimate part of the body [6,7], and/or to an intimate bodily process [30,37,65]. This resonates with psychological perspectives where intimacy is considered the degree of physical proximity between actors [76]. ...
... Labella engages users in the act of touching and looking as a way of self-discovery, to construct new knowledge about one's bodily functions. Homewood et al. concord the theme in the design of Ovum, a fertility tracking device designed to aid in conception [37,38]. Ovum takes saliva samples to determine ovulation windows in a menstrual cycle and is designed with an aim to solicit participation from both of the partners together as way to inquire into shared and domestic settings. ...
... However, a critical examination by Bardzell et al. of how the technology was positioned and designed revealed several assumptions, and highlighted that it does not discuss related aspects like reproduction [11]. More recently, HCI scholars have taken an ecological perspective, as reflected in research on involving parents for offering support during menarche [67], and partners in female fertility care [22,30,37,40]. ...
... For example, cultural probes have successfully elicited conversations and provocations on taboo topics within marginalized communities. Researchers have leveraged diverse probes like catalogs [31], photographs [33], postcards [41], activity worksheets [3,9], comic books [80], and digital artifacts [37,40] as ice-breakers to offer vocabulary and nurture environments to share difficult personal stories on otherwise conversational taboo topics. Researchers have also explored playfulness as an effective tool to circumvent social awkwardness around taboo topics [5,36]. ...
... In recent years, first-person research projects in HCI have forged important new directions gaining first-hand insight into the experience of those who are often underrepresented. For instance, works have offered new perspectives at the intersection of HCI, disability studies, and assistive technologies [42,43], while other works have offered new views on questions of gender, sexuality, and technology [14,36,45,62], as well as relations to the changing body, through explorations of breastfeeding and menstrual tracking for instance [37][38][39][40]. ...
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