Stepping on the scale? Only in the morning, of course! - Exploring the Lived Experience of Consumer Self-Tracking Technology in the Context of Citizen Science

Consumer health devices pose great opportunities for Citizen Science. Yet, to ensure that citizen-contributed data is suitable for research remains a key challenge. This work probes the lived experience of collecting health data in daily life. We contribute findings from a 4-weeks field deployment with 16 participants who collected health data using a representative mix of fitness watches, smart scales, sleep tackers and blood pressure monitors. We employed Cultural Probe Cards to encourage participants to engage with their data and conducted regular interviews to capture their attitudes towards devices and data. Most notably, our results pinpoint that users’ emotional reactions can affect how they interpret their data and whether they continue to collect it. We also identify important behavioral and circumstantial factors that influence the completeness and quality of user-generated datasets. We conclude with recommendations for ensuring data quality and adherence in health-tracking field studies.