Supporting Users in Setting Effective Goals in Activity Tracking

Herrmanny, Katja; Ziegler, Jürgen; Dogangün, Aysegül

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-31510-2_2

Cited by 20 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Some researchers have sought to assign adaptive fitness goals based on a particular user's historical data, in order to improve a goal that is too difficult or too easy. These typically employ simple algorithms that raise goals that the user is easily achieving, and lower goals that the user is struggling to achieve [1,12,22,34,38]. MyBehavior, in a study of 17 users, suggested exercise or actions to take, but not goals [42].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Goal-setting And Achievement In Activity Tracking Apps: A Case Study Of MyFitnessPal

Gordon

Althoff

Leskovec

2019

The World Wide Web Conference

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Activity tracking apps often make use of goals as one of their core motivational tools. There are two critical components to this tool: setting a goal, and subsequently achieving that goal. Despite its crucial role in how a number of prominent self-tracking apps function, there has been relatively little investigation of the goalsetting and achievement aspects of self-tracking apps.Here we explore this issue, investigating a particular goal setting and achievement process that is extensive, recorded, and crucial for both the app and its users' success: weight loss goals in MyFitness-Pal. We present a large-scale study of 1.4 million users and weight loss goals, allowing for an unprecedented detailed view of how people set and achieve their goals. We find that, even for difficult long-term goals, behavior within the first 7 days predicts those who ultimately achieve their goals, that is, those who lose at least as much weight as they set out to, and those who do not. For instance, high amounts of early weight loss, which some researchers have classified as unsustainable, leads to higher goal achievement rates. We also show that early food intake, self-monitoring motivation, and attitude towards the goal are important factors. We then show that we can use our findings to predict goal achievement with an accuracy of 79% ROC AUC just 7 days after a goal is set. Finally, we discuss how our findings could inform steps to improve goal achievement in self-tracking apps.

show abstract

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Goal-setting And Achievement In Activity Tracking Apps: A Case Study Of MyFitnessPal

Gordon

Althoff

Leskovec

2019

The World Wide Web Conference

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…defining a specific exercise plan). The research mostly looked into non-work related areas of life, such as health [20], [21], food intake [65], students' learning behavior [24], [25], [26], and physical activity [27], [28], [29]. However, there are cases, including sleep and work, where pre-determined goals are not suitable for everyone, or they would have varying impacts on different people.…”

Section: Background: Reflective Goal-settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reflect on progress towards goals/tasks (S8), document findings & learnings (S10), create subtasks (S6) updates to WI tracker Avoid (self-induced/external) deviation from planned work (G2) Better handle urgent/unplanned issues/bugs (29) [SE]…”

Section: Improve Time Management (G1)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Meyer with the identification of meaningful goals that motivate positive behavior changes [17], [18], [19], [19]. This includes mostly personal areas of life, such as health [20], [21], sleep quality [22], [23], students' learning behavior [24], [25], [26], and physical activity [27], [28], [29]. Research more specific to knowledge workers' work habits investigated the effects of self-reflection on task completion [30], [31], time management [32], and detachment from work [33], [34].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Enabling Good Work Habits in Software Developers through Reflective Goal-Setting

Meyer

Murphy

Zimmermann

et al. 2021

IIEEE Trans. Software Eng.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Software developers are generally interested in developing better habits to increase their workplace productivity and well-being, but have difficulties identifying concrete goals and actionable strategies to do so. In several areas of life, such as the physical activity and health domain, self-reflection has been shown to be successful at increasing people's awareness about a problematic behavior, motivating them to define a self-improvement goal, and fostering goal-achievement. We therefore designed a reflective goalsetting study to learn more about developers' goals and strategies to improve or maintain good habits at work. In our study, 52 professional software developers self-reflected about their work on a daily basis during two to three weeks, which resulted in a rich set of work habit goals and actionable strategies that developers pursue at work. We also found that purposeful, continuous self-reflection not only increases developers' awareness about productive and unproductive work habits (84.5%), but also leads to positive self-improvements that increase developer productivity and well-being (79.6%). We discuss how tools could support developers with a better trade-off between the cost and value of workplace self-reflection and increase long-term engagement.Abstract-Software developers are generally interested in developing better habits to increase their workplace productivity and well-being, but have difficulties identifying concrete goals and actionable strategies to do so. In several areas of life, such as the physical activity and health domain, self-reflection has been shown to be successful at increasing people's awareness about a problematic behavior, motivating them to define a self-improvement goal, and fostering goal-achievement. We therefore designed a reflective goal-setting study to learn more about developers' goals and strategies to improve or maintain good habits at work. In our study, 52 professional software developers self-reflected about their work on a daily basis during two to three weeks, which resulted in a rich set of work habit goals and actionable strategies that developers pursue at work. We also found that purposeful, continuous self-reflection not only increases developers' awareness about productive and unproductive work habits (84.5%), but also leads to positive self-improvements that increase developer productivity and well-being (79.6%). We discuss how tools could support developers with a better trade-off between the cost and value of workplace self-reflection and increase long-term engagement.

show abstract

“…It is positive that an increasing number of PT studies are underpinned by psychology theories, such as goal-setting theory [5,10] and Transtheoretical Models [5]. However, the selection of theory is still heavily reliant on the designer's instinctive understanding of the behaviour and existing knowledge of psychology theories, rather than a systematic and theoretically guided process [13].…”

Section: Framework Guiding the Study: Behaviour Change Wheelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Office Workers’ Perceived Barriers and Facilitators to Taking Regular Micro-breaks at Work: A Diary-Probed Interview Study

Huang

Benford

Hendrickx

et al. 2017

Persuasive Technology: Development and Implementation of Personalized Technologies to Change Attitudes and Behaviors

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract.Research has suggested regular breaks in sedentary office work are important for health, wellbeing and long-term productivity. Although many computerized break reminders exist, few are based on user needs and requirements as determined by formative research. This paper reports empirical findings from a diaryprobed interview study with 20 office workers on their perceived barriers and facilitators to taking regular micro-breaks at work. This work makes two contributions to the Persuasive Technology (PT) community: a diagnosis of the full range of determinants and levers for changing office work break behaviours; a demonstration of applying the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW), an intervention development framework originating from Health Psychology, to elicit theory-based design recommendations for a potential PT.

show abstract

Supporting Users in Setting Effective Goals in Activity Tracking

Cited by 20 publications

References 14 publications

Goal-setting And Achievement In Activity Tracking Apps: A Case Study Of MyFitnessPal

Goal-setting And Achievement In Activity Tracking Apps: A Case Study Of MyFitnessPal

Enabling Good Work Habits in Software Developers through Reflective Goal-Setting

Office Workers’ Perceived Barriers and Facilitators to Taking Regular Micro-breaks at Work: A Diary-Probed Interview Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About