A Stage-Based Model of Personal Informatics Systems (CHI 2010 Talk)

A Stage-Based Model 
of Personal Informatics Systems

Ian Li
Anind Dey
Jodi Forlizzi
HCII, Carnegie Mellon University

Ian Li, Anind Dey, Jodi Forlizzi A Stage-Based Model of Personal Informatics CHI 2010
Gnothi seauton.
Ian Li, Anind Dey, Jodi Forlizzi A Stage-Based Model of Personal Informatics CHI 2010 2
Know thyself.
Self-knowledge is valuable.
A way to get self-knowledge
Collect information about yourself,  
e.g., oneʼs behaviors, habits, and thoughts.
Reflect on the information about yourself.
Personal Informatics
A class of systems that help people  
collect and reflect on their behavior  
to gain self-knowledge
Physical Activity
Finance
Electricity
Diabetes
Health
Mood
http://personalinformatics.org/tools
Alice
•  20 years old
•  Family history of heart
disease
•  Wants to be more active,
but doesnʼt know how
because sheʼs busy
1. Alice prepares.
2. Alice collects data.
Mon 1573
Tue 4392
Wed 4537
Thu 5842
Fri 10258
Sat 7528
Sun 1368
Mon 1497
Tue 1837
3. Alice transcribes data.
Transcribe to Excel
M T W Th F Sa Su M T
4. Alice reflects on the data.
Active
Inactive Inactive
5. Alice takes action.
Walk in the park
instead of
watching TV
Model of Personal Informatics
PREPARATION COLLECTION INTEGRATION REFLECTION ACTION
1.  Barriers cascade.

2.  Stages are iterative. Design 
3.  User- vs. System-driven Guidelines
4.  Facets
Introduction
Surveys and Interviews
The Stages
Properties of the Stages
Case Studies
Conclusion
Introduction
The Stages
Case Studies
Conclusion
Self-tracking
Personal analytics
Living by numbers
Other research have explored these different

stages in isolation:
•  Collection
•  MyLifeBits (Gemmell et al. 2006)
•  SenseCam (Hodges et al. 2006)
•  Reflection
•  Casual InfoVis (Pousman et al. 2007)
Other projects have combined collection and

reflection on personal information
•  Physical Activity: FishʼnʼSteps (Lin ʼ06), Shakra
(Maitland ʼ06), UbiFit (Consolvo ʻ08)
•  Sustainability: StepGreen (Mankoff ʼ08), UbiGreen
(Froehlich ʼ09)
•  Many systems for finance, health, physical
activity, productivity, etc.
Why a model  
of Personal Informatics?
A growing field with many HCI challenges
•  Tools are used over a long period of time.
•  User is involved throughout the process.
No comprehensive list of problems
Developers need a guide for development  

and assessment of these tools
Introduction
The Stages
Case Studies
Conclusion
Survey
What personal informatics tools they use
What problems they encountered
Survey Questions
•  How difficult is it to collect this personal
information?
•  What was your initial motivation to reflect
on this collected personal information?
•  What patterns have you found?
Transcript of the survey is at:

http://personalinformatics.org/lab/survey
Participants
Advertised the survey in blogs about
personal informatics.
68 users of personal informatics tools
11 participated in follow-up interviews over

instant messenger
Types of Information
Automatically collected
•  Financial institutions (banks, credit cards)
•  Utility companies (electricity, heating)
•  Computers (email and browsing history)
Types of Information
Manually collected
•  Fewer participants, but greater variety
Calendar events, status updates, work

activities, blog posts, weight, exercise,
browser bookmarks, time at work, mood,
journal, sleeping habits, food consumption, productivity,
health, medication intake, symptoms, miles ran, sports
activities, blood pressure, blood sugar level, dream journal,
step counts, relationship status, books read, transportation
Reasons
Interested in personal data
•  “data nerd”
•  “a student of information visualization”
•  “this data is about ME (her emphasis).”
Trigger events (e.g., problems with physical

activity, nutrition, weight, etc.)
Analysis
Identified barriers that people experienced.
Affinity diagrams to identify themes
Derived a model composed of:

•  5 stages
•  4 properties
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ludens/3185982588/
Introduction
Personal Informatics Systems
The Stages
Case Studies
Conclusion
Preparation
The stage before people start collecting
information.
•  What information to record
•  How to record the information
Preparation Barriers
•  Choosing the right information to collect
•  Finding the right tool to use
Collection
The stage when people collect information
about themselves (e.g., inner thoughts, behavior,
social interactions, and their immediate environment).
Collection Barriers
•  Using the tool
•  Remembering
•  Lack of time
•  Motivation
•  Finding data
•  Accuracy
Collection Barriers
•  Using the tool One problem is: 
•  Remembering “Keeping up the
•  Lack of time motivation to do so;
•  Motivation like finding payback
for the investment of
•  Finding data
time and effort.”
•  Accuracy
Integration
The stage when the information from the
Collection stage is prepared, combined, and
transformed for the user to reflect on.
Integration Barriers
•  Organization
•  Scattered
visualizations
•  Transcribing data
•  Multiple inputs
Integration Barriers “Itʼd be neat if I could

•  Organization graph [the data]
•  Scattered straight from the web
site instead of
visualizations
manually typing in the
•  Transcribing data data to a
•  Multiple inputs spreadsheet.”
Reflection
The stage when people reflect on their
personal information.
•  Users may reflect immediately (short-term)
•  Or after several days or weeks (long-term)
Reflection Barriers
•  Lack of time
•  Self-criticism
•  Visualization
•  Interpretation
•  Sparse data
•  No context
Reflection Barriers “Itʼs hard to get a

•  Lack of time holistic view of the
•  Self-criticism data since the time
filters are at most one
•  Visualization
month and Iʼd like to
•  Interpretation
look at several
•  Sparse data months at once.”
•  No context
Action
The stage when people choose what they are
going to do with their new-found
understanding of themselves.
Action Barriers
•  Not knowing what to do with the
information
•  Alerts
•  Incentives
•  Suggestions
Introduction
The Stages
Case Studies
Conclusion
1. Barriers cascade
2. Stages are iterative
1. Barriers Cascade
Problems in the earlier stages can affect the
later stages.
1. Barriers Cascade.
1. Barriers Cascade.
1. Barriers Cascade
P44 lacked time and motivation during
Collection stage.
About Reflection stage, he said:

“I wish I could report successes on this front,
but my lack of regular collection has made
this difficult.”
1. Barriers Cascade
Design Guideline
Consider all the stages when designing PI
systems.
2. Stages are Iterative
Users may need to incorporate  
new types of data, tools, and processes  
as they progress through the stages.
2. Stages are iterative.
P48 switched between Google spreadsheets,
Daytum, and your.flowingdata to collect
restaurants visited.
But the tools did not allow importing data.
2. Stages are Iterative.
Design Guideline
Flexibility is important.
•  Support easy importing and exporting of

data.
1. Barriers cascade.
2. Stages are iterative.
3. User- or system-driven
4. Facets
3. User- vs. System-driven
User-driven System-driven
Mon 1573
Tue 4392
Wed 4537
Thu 5842
Fri 10258
Sat 7528
Sun 1368
Mon 1497
Tue 1837
Collection
Integration
Reflection
Collection
Integration
Reflection
Design Guideline
Consider the tradeoffs between user-driven
and system-driven stages.
4. Facets
Peopleʼs lives are composed of many facets.
•  Home life vs. work life
•  Daily interactions with other people
•  Health
•  Finance
4. Facets
Users expressed desire to see associations
between different facets of their lives.
•  “To understand trends in symptoms,
behaviors, and circumstances.” P26
•  “If it were easily collected, information on
food intake, calories, fat, etc., would make
an interesting starting point for analysis.”
P49 who tracks medication intake
4. Facets
Most personal informatics are uni-faceted.
Some personal informatics systems have

multi-faceted collection, but only support
uni-faceted reflection.
4. Facets
Location Activity People
Office Shopping Family
Active
Inactive Inactive
4. Facets
Design Guideline
Supporting multiple facets may help users
find associations between facets of their
lives.
→ Explore support for multiple facets.
5 Stages
4 Properties
•  Design guidelines
Introduction
The Stages
Case Studies
Conclusion
Case Studies
1.  Twitter-based systems
2.  Mint (http://mint.com)
3.  IMPACT
IMPACT
Different from most personal informatics
systems for physical activity:
•  Collects physical activity information  

and context (e.g., type of activity, location, people)
•  Visualizations to help users become aware 

of factors in their lives that affect their
physical activity.
Two prototypes – Two studies
IMPACT 1.0 IMPACT 2.0
Manual collection Semi-automated
collection
Collection vs. Reflection
Short-term Long-term
Reflection Reflection
IMPACT 1.0 Manual GOOD NOT GOOD

Collection
IMPACT 2.0 Automated NOT GOOD GOOD

Collection
The model and IMPACT
The model helped analyze the different
aspects of IMPACT.
IMPACT highlights the necessity to consider

the interactions between the different stages 
(e.g., Collection vs. Reflection)
IMPACT shows value of multi-faceted support

Introduction
The Stages
Case Studies
Conclusion
Contribution: Barriers and Model
Identified a list of problems
•  Highlights the many HCI challenges of
building effective personal informatics tools
Defined a model of personal informatics

•  Common framework for describing,
comparing, and evaluating such systems
Contribution: Design Guidelines
Described 4 properties with implications for
design of personal informatics systems
1.  Consider the design of all the stages.
2.  Flexibility between tools is important.
3.  Balance automation and user control.
4.  Explore support for finding relationships
between facets of oneʼs life.
Thank you!
http://personalinformatics.org/
http://personalinformatics.org/lab/model
Ian Li ianli@cmu.edu
Anind Dey anind@cs.cmu.edu
Jodi Forlizzi forlizzi@cs.cmu.edu
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A Stage-Based Model

of Personal Informatics Systems

HCII, Carnegie Mellon University

Reflect on the information about yourself.

1. Barriers cascade.

Other research have explored these different

Other projects have combined collection and

No comprehensive list of problems

Developers need a guide for development

What problems they encountered

Transcript of the survey is at:

68 users of personal informatics tools

11 participated in follow-up interviews over

Calendar events, status updates, work

Trigger events (e.g., problems with physical

Affinity diagrams to identify themes

Derived a model composed of:

Integration Barriers “Itʼd be neat if I could

Reflection Barriers “Itʼs hard to get a

About Reflection stage, he said:

But the tools did not allow importing data.

• Support easy importing and exporting of

Some personal informatics systems have

→ Explore support for multiple facets.

• Collects physical activity information

• Visualizations to help users become aware

IMPACT 1.0 Manual GOOD NOT GOOD

IMPACT 2.0 Automated NOT GOOD GOOD

IMPACT highlights the necessity to consider

IMPACT shows value of multi-faceted support

Defined a model of personal informatics

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A Stage-Based Model 

1.  Barriers cascade.

Developers need a guide for development  

•  Support easy importing and exporting of

→ Explore support for multiple facets.

•  Collects physical activity information  

•  Visualizations to help users become aware 