Conference article

The emergence of a variety of different technical devices has changed the ways we manage things; live our lives; gain new knowledge; or maintain a healthy lifestyle. According to Manhattan Research (2012) multiscreen health activities are on the rise. More and more exercise related equipment or gadgets are being adopted for the purposes of tracking; enhancing or facilitating our physiological state. Research in this field have addressed issues in the type of interaction; usage pattern and information perspectives; to explore the mechanisms between intrinsic issues (individual differences; content and device); and extrinsic issues (environmental context and culture implications). Less attention has been paid to deal with the relationships between the users and their devices during exercise activities. Some reports have shown why and how people utilize multiple devices in their daily lives; as well as what those devices mean to them in general; but it may not be the same while applying to the context and purpose in the domain of physical health. Mobile devices like smartphone; tablet or exercise gadgets provide specific functions and convey different messages when used in the context of exercise. The goal of this study is to explore the kind of devices people use during exercise; the usage context; and the emotional reaction derived from multiple devices by understanding the role of each device and how it can affect users’ perception to the content and the motivation to the goal from a user-centered point of view. The findings of my study ascribed roles to the investigated devices through in-depth interviews. This study is to propose a conceptual structure of the user-device relationships in exercise activities; and provide a basic understanding on how we could map out the content; strategies or different ways of interaction with the characteristics of devices to maximize the effectiveness of the outcome.

Exercise; user-device relationship; multiscreen; product attachment; motivation