Towards a Mobile Application to Create Sedentary Awareness Gijs Geleijnse, Aart van Halteren and Jan Diekhoff Philips Research Eindhoven, The Netherlands gijs.geleijnse@philips.com , aart.van.halteren@philips.com ABSTRACT successful persuasive strategies to establish an increased Prolonged sitting time is a potential health risk, not only for amount of physical activity. people with an inactive lifestyle, but also for those who do meet the recommended amount of physical activity. In this Recent medical literature reports that not only an inactive paper, we evaluate SitCoach, a mobile application to nudge lifestyle may lead to adverse health effects, but also people from their seats. The application is targeted to office sedentary behavior itself is harmful. Prolonged sitting time workers. SitCoach monitors physical activity and sedentary is also dangerous for people who meet the WHO guidelines behavior to provide timely feedback by means of of 30 minutes of physical activity per day [4,12]. The suggesting sitting breaks. A pilot experiment with a group reduction of sedentary behavior is hence identified as a of 8 users learned that the general awareness of the target behavior that contributes to a healthy lifestyle. importance of sitting breaks is low. Combined with the Support to create awareness of one’s sedentary behavior belief that the ability to take sitting breaks is highly may be beneficial. However, as Owen et al. state in [12], dependent on external factors, a strategy of proposing break “given the recent recognition of this phenomenon of too reminders may not be the most successful for this target much sitting, there are not yet any recommended clinical group. Future work should focus on raising awareness of guidelines. Commonsense might suggest that it may be the problem and providing insights into personal sitting prudent to try to minimize prolonged sitting with 5 minute behavior. breaks every hour”. Author Keywords In this paper, we describe SitCoach, a mobile application Sitting time, mobile persuasion, sedentary awareness, that assists the user to create sedentary awareness and to physical activity. have regular sitting breaks. Such an application can be combined with additional physical activity promotion ACM Classification Keywords features. To the best of our knowledge, SitCoach is the first H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): prototype mobile application aimed to reduce sitting time. Miscellaneous. Using SitCoach, the goal is to collect insights into INTRODUCTION possibilities to influence people’s sitting behavior using a In the past years, a substantial amount of research has been mobile device. devoted to physical activity promotion through mobile SitCoach targets office workers, a group which is often also devices. Using the accelerometer embedded in a mobile assisted by break reminder applications on their PCs. Such phone or in a dedicated device, the energy expenditure of applications are developed to prevent their users from the user can be estimated. The user may receive feedback repetitive strain injuries. Although such applications show on his past physical activity level in minutes or burned to be successful in reducing complaints [7], they may not calories. always be pleasant to use [10]. Morris et al. [10] introduced Several strategies have been explored to influence the SuperBreak, which stimulates break compliance for user’s behavior and promote higher physical activity levels. computer usage. Instead of the usual breaks offered by Most notably, the usage of virtual rewards [1,2], social software packages such as XWrits and WorkRave, support [3,9] and goal setting [8] have shown to be SuperBreak offers the possibility to make the break time more productive. By offering the user the possibility to interact with the PC through gestures during the break, break compliance is promoted and the productivity during the break time is increased. Hence, although SuperBreak may increase break compliance for computer work, it does Copyright © 2011 for the individual papers by the papers' authors. not target a reduction in sitting time. Moreover, neither of Copying permitted only for private and academic purposes. This volume the computer packages support break compliance during is published and copyrighted by the editors of PINC2011." other sedentary time, e.g. during meetings or while reading. After describing the SitCoach application in the next chapter, we present a first pilot user experiment to assess the usability of the application. Through a locus of control questionnaire and by means of a semi-structured interview, we gather additional insights on opportunities and techniques to promote sitting break compliance. INTRODUCING SITCOACH SitCoach is an iPhone application that measures physical activity by means of the built-in accelerometer. The application records active time and sitting time at a granularity of one minute. To fight sitting time and inspire people to take a break once in a while, the SitCoach reminds users after a configurable number of in-active minutes via visual, acoustic and tactile messages. Users set their goals in terms of maximum number of consecutive sitting minutes and number of active minutes per day. Identifying Sitting Time Using the built-in accelerometer in the smart phone, the user’s activity is classified in an active and inactive state. Every second a measurement of the phone’s x, y and z Figure 1. SitCoach main screen. positioning is taken by the accelerometer. These three values are compared with the previous measurement. When A FIRST USER EVALUATION the difference for x,y or z exceeds 0.3 the accelerometer To assess the usability and user acceptance of the recognizes a movement. The 0.3 was determined application, SitCoach has been evaluated with users. This empirically: it is low enough to pick up the walking evaluation also provides insights into the participants’ movement of the user without getting a false reading from current sitting behavior and their awareness of the other possible movements like a small turn with the chair harmfulness of sedentary behavior. The goal of the study is while sitting. to identify future directions for persuasive applications targeting sedentary awareness. To distinguish walking from other smaller movements like a small turn or just standing up from a chair the movement In the study, the participants are provided with an iPhone will be monitored over a certain interval of time. An with the SitCoach application and are invited to use the empirically determined value of 5 seconds proved to be application throughout a day at the office. At the end of the sufficient. day, a semi-structured interview is conducted, to discuss experiences. Moreover, the participants are questioned Creating Sedentary Awareness about current sitting break habits and the awareness of the To motivate users to become more active, the application importance of such breaks is assessed. Apart from the stores the number of active minutes per day for each of the interview, two questionnaires were handed to the users. This provides a social nudge for users to see how participants: one focusing on the utilitarian and hedonic others are doing and to comply with the social norm. qualities of the application [5,6] and a second one focusing When it is time to take a break, SitCoach emits a tactile on the locus of control that people perceive with respect to (vibration) and an acoustic warning. Users can override the possibilities to reduce their sitting time [13]. acoustic warning. A visual indicator at the main screen Participants shows when a user is moving, giving the user immediate Eight participants (four females) were invited to participate feedback about their current behavior. Figure 1 provides a in the experiment, during one working day. All participants screenshot of the main screen of SitCoach. The green circle were knowledge workers with high computer dependability. indicates that the application has detect that the user is Procedure and Design currently moving and hence the number of active minutes is increasing while in this state. In the state displayed in the The participants were scheduled on a day they described as figure, the user is nine inactive minutes away from a break a typical office day. Per participant, a day was selected reminder. However, if the user is active for a period equal without having appointments outside the office during to the actual time of the sitting break, the break timer will working hours. be reset. In the morning after arriving at the office, the participants received a fully charged iPhone 3G. SitCoach was the only which is installed by default. The others have disabled it. application installed, apart from the standard software. The For a mobile application to create sedentary awareness, the participants were instructed not to use the phone for other perceived control over the sitting breaks should remain with purposes. No SIM card was installed, limiting the the user. functionalities of the phone. The interviews showed that the phone vibration to signal During the intake meeting, the participants were explained break alerts was appreciated as it is discrete and easy to the functionality of the applications and guided through the ignore when needed, for example during meetings. On the features and settings. The standard break timer was set to other hand, the buzzing signal was experienced to be 60 minutes, prompting for a 5 minute break. The standard distracting: “When I am working, I don’t want to be activity goal was set to 50 minutes. The participants were disturbed”. free to change the settings throughout the day. The Locus of Control questionnaire revealed that six out of Around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the participants were eight participants scored low on the internality dimension interviewed based on a list of pre-defined questions on their (scores < 18 on a range from 6 to 36), while the other sitting behavior, sedentary awareness and the SitCoach scored moderate (18 ≤ score ≤ 24). This implies that the application. Moreover, the two questionnaires were handed. office workers participating in the study believe that they have little control over their sitting behavior. With overall The Attrakdiff2 questionnaire was presented to assess both higher scores on the powerful others dimension, it is the pragmatic and hedonic qualities of SitCoach [5,6]. His believed that others (colleagues, managers) strongly scores on both qualities are important for the prolonged determine the participants’ sitting behavior. usage of a product. Specifically, the questionnaire measures perceived pragmatic quality, hedonic quality identification The Attrakdiff2 questionnaire results show favorable scores (i.e. does the product contribute to the user’s identity in a on the pragmatic dimension, implying that the participants social context?), hedonic quality stimulation (i.e., does the are generally positive about the interaction with the product help to develop skills or knowledge) and SitCoach application. No remarks were made about any attractiveness (is the product good, bad or ugly?). Each of inaccuracies of the application. This suggests that the those four categories contains seven word-pairs on a seven current implementation is well usable to distinguish sitting point semantic-differential scale (e.g. discouraging vs. time from active time. Lower scores were reported on the motivating, complicated vs. simple). hedonic dimensions, most notably on attractiveness. To assess the perceived locus of control to influence one’s Table 1. Users’ responses to the locus of control questionnaire. sitting behavior, a locus of control questionnaire was Participant Internality Powerful Chance assessed [13]. The commonly used questionnaire, others externality developed by Wallton et al., is adapted for sitting behavior. externality The questionnaire measures whether the control over the sitting behavior is determined internally (i.e. self-control; Person 1 Moderate Moderate Low example statement: If I take care of myself, I can avoid long Person 2 Moderate High Moderate sitting periods), by others (e.g. Whenever I feel I sit too much and too long, I should consult a trained professional.) Person 3 Low High Moderate or by chance (e.g. No matter what I do, I 'm likely to have Person 4 Low High Moderate long sitting periods). Results Person 5 Low Moderate Moderate All participants indicated that they were not aware of the Person 6 Low Moderate Low harmfulness of sedentary behavior itself. When taking a Person 7 Low High Low break and getting up from their desk, the participants did so because they were aware of the adverse effects of Person 8 Low High High prolonged computer usage and the healthfulness of physical Some of the participants reported battery problems with the activity. Half of the participants reported to be unhappy smart phone. Although the participants received a fully with the amount of sitting time during a day in the office. charged phone, the battery time was not enough for the Suitable moments to take a sitting break are in between application to run for the whole working day. Hence, in tasks and when feeling less concentrated. The time spent future work, solutions should be researched that take the during such breaks is not seen as productive. energy consumption of the phone into account when The lack of control is seen as the largest source of running such accelerometer-based applications. annoyance with PC break applications. Only one of the The functionality to share the activity minutes on FaceBook participants is using an RSI prevention program on the PC, or other social media was not well received. Similar to the findings of Munson et al. [11], participants did not feel the Avrahami, D., Froehlich, J.E., LeGrand, L., Libby, R., need to bother their social network with such details. Mosher, K., & Landay, J.A., “Flowers or a Robot Army? Encouraging Awareness & Activity with Personal, Table 2. Users’ responses to the AttrakDif2 questionnaire. Mobile Displays,” Proc of UbiComp 2008, 54-63. Ppn Pragmatic Hedonic Hedonic Attractive 3. Fujiki, Y (2010). iPhone as a Physical Quality Quality Quality ness Activity Measurement Platform. In Proceedings of the Identification Stimulatio 2010 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing n Systems (CHI). 1 High Moderate High Moderate 4. Hamilton, M.T., Healy, G.N., Dunstan, D.W., 2 High Low Low Low Zderic, T.W., and Owen, N. (2008). Too little exercise and too much sitting: Inactivity physiology and the need 3 Moderate Moderate Moderate Low for new recommendations on sedentary behavior. Current 4 Low Moderate Moderate Low Cardiovascular Risk Reports 2(4), 292-298. 5. Hassenzahl, M. (2006) Hedonic, emotional and 5 High High Moderate Moderate experiental perspectives on product quality. In Ghaoui, C. 6 High High High Low (ed) Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction. Hershey: Idea group, 226-272. 7 High Moderate High Low 6. Hassenzahl, M. (2010) Attrakdiff. Retrieved 8 High Moderate High Moderate August 11th 2010 from http://www.attrakdiff.de/en/AttrakDiff-/What-is- AttrakDiff/Scientific-Background. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK In this paper, we presented an application to assist people to 7. Heuvel, S.G. van den, Looze, M de, Hildebrandt, control their sitting behavior. The mobile application V.H., and The, K.H (2003). Effects of software programs combines feedback on physical activity with insights on the stimulating regular breaks and exercises on work-related user’s sitting periods. SitCoach was developed to gain neck and upper-limb disorders. Scand J Work Environ insights into people’s awareness of their sedentary behavior Health 29(2):106–116. and the user acceptance of a break reminder application. 8. Lacroix, J., Saini, P., Holmes, R. (2008). The relationship between goal difficulty and performance in With SitCoach, we have created an application that detects the context of Physical Activity. In: MobileHCI’08. sitting time with fair accuracy. However, the users involved in the trial showed not to be in the right stage of change to 9. Lin, J; Mamykina, L; Lindtner, S; Delajoux, G; be responsive to the strategies applied in SitCoach. Strub, HB. (2006). “Fish’n’Steps: Encouraging Physical Persuasive strategies to stimulate the user to take sitting Activity with an Interactive Computer Game,” UbiComp breaks are likely to be more successful after having 2006. established awareness of the adverse health effects of sitting 10. Morris, D., Bernheim Brush, A.J. and Meyers, B.R behavior. This can be done by first providing insights in (2008). SuperBreak: Using Interactivity to Enhance one’ sitting behavior and subsequently suggesting Ergonomic Typing Breaks. Presented at CHI 2008. opportunities to reduce sitting time. For users who are 11. Munson, S., Lauterbach, D., Newman, M.W., aware of the problem and the adverse effects of their Resnick, P. (2010). Happier Together: Integrating a behavior, the triggers applied in SitCoach may be revisited. Wellness Application into a Social Networking Site. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PERSUASIVE 2010. This work was funded by the European Commission, within 12. Owen, N., Bauman A., and Brown, W. (2009). the framework of the ARTEMIS JU SP8 SMARCOS Too much sitting: a novel and important predictor of project – 100249 - (http://smarcos-project.eu). chronic disease risk? British Journal of Sports Medicine 42(2). REFERENCES 1. Consolvo, S., Everitt, K., Smith, I., & Landay, 13. Wallton, K.A, Strudler Wallton, B., DeVellis, R. J.A., “Design Requirements for Technologies that (1978). Development of the Multidimensional Health Encourage Physical Activity,” Proceedings of CHI 2006, Locus of Control Scales. Health Educ Behav 6(1):160 – 457-66. 170. 2. Consolvo, S., Klasnja, P., McDonald, D.W.,