Putting the Self in Self-Tracking: The Value of a Co-Designed 'How Might You' Self-Tracking Guide for Teenagers

Although teenagers engage with Personal Informatics tools to track their health and fitness, many do so without adequate guidance, and they express concerns regarding the potential for these practices to bring harm. Further research is needed to understand how we might leverage resources beyond these tools to support young self-trackers. We worked with 44 teenagers (aged 13-18 years) in the United Kingdom in two series of online workshops to co-design a reimagined ‘how might you’ guide to promote lifelong, healthy behaviors with self-tracking tools. Our findings emphasize the importance of flexible resources that can support teens’ self-tracking practices. For example, guidance on asking critical questions can be particularly valuable in the preparation and reflection stages of self-tracking. To better design teens’ interactions with health technologies, particularly Personal Informatics tools, we must think critically about how we design the broader information ecosystems within which these tools reside.