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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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CHI'18 Extended Abstracts, April 21–26, 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
Sciences—Medical 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.
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