Supporting Diabetes Self-Management with Ubiquitous Computing Technologies: A User-Centered Inquiry (original) (raw)
Related papers
2019
For those with chronic conditions, such as Type 1 diabetes, smartphone apps offer the promise of an affordable, convenient, and personalized disease management tool. However, despite significant academic research and commercial development in this area, diabetes apps still show low adoption rates and underwhelming clinical outcomes. Through user-interaction sessions with 16 people with Type 1 diabetes, we provide evidence that commonly used interfaces for diabetes self-management apps, while providing certain benefits, can fail to explicitly address the cognitive and emotional requirements of users. From analysis of these sessions with eight such user interface designs, we report on user requirements, as well as interface benefits, limitations, and then discuss the implications of these findings. Finally, with the goal of improving these apps, we identify 3 questions for designers, and review for each in turn: current shortcomings, relevant approaches, exposed challenges, and potent...
mHealth applications for diabetes: User preference and implications for app development
Health informatics journal, 2015
Increasing diabetes prevalence has led to the need for more sustainable and person-centred services. The diabetes self-care mHealth marketplace is growing, but most effective/valued features are unknown. This study gauges diabetes app user opinion to inform development work. An analysis of diabetes mHealth apps informed design of a questionnaire sent to a random sample of 400 patients stratified by diabetes type and age. Responses were analysed by sub-group, and preferences were compared with current diabetes apps. App features included data storage/graphics, exercise tracking, health/diet, reminders/alarms, education. Questionnaire response rate was 59 per cent (234/400); 144/233 (62%) owned smartphones. Smartphone users expressed preference towards mHealth (101/142 (71%)), although diabetes use was low (12/163 (7%)). Respondents favoured many potential features, with similar preferences between diabetes types. This study demonstrates that while mHealth acceptance is high, current ...
This paper aims to raise issues concerning the design of self-care technology, which supports an increasing number of individuals' chronic disease in everyday life. It discusses the results of an ethnographic study that exposes the intricacies and practicalities of managing diabetes in everyday life, and informs the patient-centric design of a diabetes journaling tool. It also sheds light on some everyday chronic self-care practices and suggests how to rethink some of the assumptions and connotations of the current medical model and the traditional role of the patient, which is not always fully appreciated in the design of ubiquitous and personal technologies for the patient. In particular, the analysis covers: the open-ended and uncertain nature of chronic care, the wide inter-and intra-variability of patients' conditions and attitudes towards the disease, and the need for more symmetrical interactions and consultations with medical experts. These findings informed the design of a proof of concept called Tag-it-Yourself (TiY), a mobile journaling tool that enables the personalisation of self-monitoring practices. A final discussion on the actual use of the TiY tool is also offered along with general implications for the design of self-care technologies and an outline of future directions for research in this area.
Questioning the Reflection Paradigm for Diabetes Mobile Apps
Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 2016
Hundreds of diabetes self-management apps are available for smart phones, typically using a diary or logging methodology. This paper investigates how well such approaches help participants to make sense of collected data. We found that, while such systems typically support data and trend review, they are ill suited to helping users understand complex correlations in the data. The cognitively demanding user interfaces (UI's) of these apps are poorly adapted both to the restricted real estate of smartphone displays and to the daily needs of users. Many participants expressed the desire for intelligent, personalized and contextually aware near-term advice. By contrast, users did not see tools for reflection on prior data and behavior, seen as indispensable by many researchers, as a priority. We argue that while designers of future mobile health (mHealth) systems need to take advantage of automation through connected sensors, and the increasing subtlety of intelligent processing, it is also necessary to evolve current graphs and dashboards UI paradigms to assist users in longterm self-management health practices.
Understanding User Requirements in Take-Home Diabetes Management Technologies
People who suffer from Diabetes are required to make frequent decisions on their personal treatment based on results from glucose monitors. Yet the results returned from the devices form only a part of the decisionmaking process. We seek to understand the role that glucose monitors have in patient's management practices and how technology could support patients' management further. From a series of interviews, we arrive at the hypothesis that the capture of the contextual information will both aid the understanding of results, and allow for enhanced support during non-routine occurrences.
Evaluating diabetes mobile applications for health literate designs and functionality, 2014
Preventing chronic disease, 2015
The expansion of mobile health technologies, particularly for diabetes-related applications (apps), grew exponentially in the past decade. This study sought to examine the extent to which current mobile apps for diabetes have health literate features recommended by participants in an Institute of Medicine Roundtable and compare the health literate features by app cost (free or not). We used diabetes-related keywords to identify diabetes-related apps for iOS devices. A random sample of 110 apps (24% of total number of apps identified) was selected for coding. The coding scheme was adapted from the discussion paper produced by participants in the Institute of Medicine Roundtable. Most diabetes apps in this sample addressed diabetes management and therapeutics, and paid apps were more likely than free apps to use plain language strategies, to label links clearly, and to have at least 1 feature (a "back" button) that helps with the organization. Paid apps were more likely than...
Ideas and Enhancements Related to Mobile Applications to Support Type 1 Diabetes
JMIR mhealth and uhealth, 2013
Background: Mobile devices have become increasingly important to young people who now use them to access a wide variety of health-related information. Research and policy related to the integration of health information and support with this technology do not effectively consider the viewpoint of a younger patient. Views of young people with type 1 diabetes are vital in developing quality services and improving their own health-related quality of life (HRQOL), yet research on their lifestyle and use of Web and mobile technology to support their condition and in non-health-related areas is sparse. Objective: To develop insight into young people with type 1 diabetes and their current use of Web and mobile technology and its potential impact on HRQOL. This can be achieved by constructing an in-depth picture of their day-to-day experiences from qualitative interviewing and exploring how they make use of technology in their lives and in relation to their condition and treatment. The goal was then to build something to help them, using the researcher's technical expertise and seeking users' opinions during the design and build, utilizing sociotechnical design principles.