Design and Field Trial of Datarium: Representing Slightly Changing Digital Illustration Based on Personalized Tracking Topics

Sangsu Jang, Jinyoung Moon, Nanum Kim, Hwajung Hong, Young-Woo Park

Empowering individuals through a personalized self-tracking system that provides a deeper understanding of themselves is important for helping them remember to work towards their personal goals. To pursue this research opportunity, we designed and implemented six Datariums that record and visualize tracking topics as personalized digital illustrations, using a five-week collaborative design process with six participants. In addition, a two-week field study was conducted to investigate the user experience of Datarium. Through this study, we found that encountering personal records via changes in the visual state of representations motivated users to record. Moreover, this approach provided a sense of security because users themselves determined how their records were visualized in the digital illustration. Findings suggest the need to consider the design of self-tracking systems that support the recording of personally meaningful information and present these records in more immersive ways.