Everyday Disruptions to Goals: Implications for Wellbeing Technology

Health technologies tools provide support for behavioral goals but largely assume that people live a stable life routine and continuously engage with their goal. Despite barriers to behavior being discussed in literature, they are largely not at the center of design, and researchers lack a systematic understanding of the prevalence and burdens of disruptions. To characterize individuals’ disruptions to engaging in wellbeing goals, we surveyed 149 US adults. We identified eight types of disruptions, such as emotional/cognitive, physical/medical, financial and four resulting burdens (emotional, physical, logistical, and financial). The majority of participants experienced multiple disruptions, with over 40% of experiencing daily disruptions. Over half of participants experienced disruptions lasting over a month. We discuss how health and wellbeing technologies can support people’s goals through adaptation based on disruptions’ burden, temporality, relevance and scale of disruptions.