Design for health and wellbeing: an investigation into diet control body-monitoring applications for smart devices

Date

2014

Author

Tuna, Nur Nagihan

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The advancements in information and communication technologies (ICT) lead innovative changes in various areas as well as health and wellbeing. Many people use their smart devices for monitoring their body. Since inactivity and unhealthy eating are amongst the biggest problems of our era, weight monitoring applications are becoming favoured options. However, in order to ensure people’s wellbeing, not only their physical state but also mental and social states should be supported by these applications. ‘Positive Technology’ is relatively a new research area, and the use of body monitoring applications for weight control has not been studied in detail in this context up to date. For this reason, a study is conducted with three different weight control body-monitoring apps with 15 participants who had an interest in weight losing and/or healthy eating. The study aimed at understanding the strengths and weaknesses of weight control apps and to explore which features should be supported for enhancing the wellbeing of people. Consequently, suggestions are presented for improvement of weight control body monitoring apps with the aim of enhancing people’s wellbeing.

Subject Keywords

Industrial design., Product design., Health., Well-being., Body weight., Weight loss.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12618098/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/24153

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis