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Experiment in a Box (XB): an interactive technology framework for sustainable health practices

Experiment in a Box (XB): an interactive technology framework for sustainable health practices
Experiment in a Box (XB): an interactive technology framework for sustainable health practices

This paper presents the Experiment in a Box (XB) framework to support interactive technology design for building health skills. The XB provides a suite of experiments—time-limited, loosely structured evaluations of health heuristics for a user-as-experimenter to select from and then test in order to determine that heuristic’s efficacy, and to explore how it might be incorporated into the person’s life and when necessary, to support their health and wellbeing. The approach leverages self-determination theory to support user autonomy and competence to build actionable, personal health knowledge skills and practice (KSP). In the three studies of XB presented, we show that with even the short engagement of an XB experiment, participants develop health practices from the interventions that are still in use long after the intervention is finished. To situate the XB approach relative to other work around health practices in HCI in particular, we contribute two design continua for this design space: insourcing to outsourcing and habits to heuristics. From this analysis, we demonstrate that XB is situated in a largely under-explored area for interactive health interventions: the insourcing and heuristic oriented area of the design space. Overall, the work offers a new scaffolding, the XB Framework, to instantiate time-limited interactive technology interventions to support building KSP that can thrive in that person, significantly both post-interventions, and independent of that technology.

continuua, heuristics, inbodied, inbodied interaction, insourcing, knowledge skills and practice, ksp, outsourcing
Schraefel, M.C.
ac304659-1692-47f6-b892-15113b8c929f
Muresan, George Catalin
aa231706-2a59-4fa5-8f08-46119fb79081
Hekler, Eric
6134e43f-db87-4030-bea4-c14fda161c98
Schraefel, M.C.
ac304659-1692-47f6-b892-15113b8c929f
Muresan, George Catalin
aa231706-2a59-4fa5-8f08-46119fb79081
Hekler, Eric
6134e43f-db87-4030-bea4-c14fda161c98

Schraefel, M.C., Muresan, George Catalin and Hekler, Eric (2021) Experiment in a Box (XB): an interactive technology framework for sustainable health practices. Frontiers in Computer Science, 3, [661890]. (doi:10.3389/fcomp.2021.661890).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This paper presents the Experiment in a Box (XB) framework to support interactive technology design for building health skills. The XB provides a suite of experiments—time-limited, loosely structured evaluations of health heuristics for a user-as-experimenter to select from and then test in order to determine that heuristic’s efficacy, and to explore how it might be incorporated into the person’s life and when necessary, to support their health and wellbeing. The approach leverages self-determination theory to support user autonomy and competence to build actionable, personal health knowledge skills and practice (KSP). In the three studies of XB presented, we show that with even the short engagement of an XB experiment, participants develop health practices from the interventions that are still in use long after the intervention is finished. To situate the XB approach relative to other work around health practices in HCI in particular, we contribute two design continua for this design space: insourcing to outsourcing and habits to heuristics. From this analysis, we demonstrate that XB is situated in a largely under-explored area for interactive health interventions: the insourcing and heuristic oriented area of the design space. Overall, the work offers a new scaffolding, the XB Framework, to instantiate time-limited interactive technology interventions to support building KSP that can thrive in that person, significantly both post-interventions, and independent of that technology.

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Accepted/In Press date: 6 May 2021
Published date: 26 May 2021
Additional Information: Funding Information: We acknowledge support from the UKRI EPSRC, in particular, the Health Resilience Interactive Technology Established Career Fellowship, the ReFresh Project and the GetAMoveOn Health Network+ (EP/T007656/1, EP/ K021907/1, EP/N027299/1). We also acknowledge support from the office of the Pro Vice Chancellor, Interdisciplinary Research, University of Southampton, United Kingdom. Finally, we are grateful to the reviewers whose excellent feedback only enhanced this work. Funding Information: We acknowledge support from the UKRI EPSRC, in particular, the Health Resilience Interactive Technology Established Career Fellowship, the ReFresh Project and the GetAMoveOn Health Network+ (EP/T007656/1, EP/K021907/1, EP/N027299/1). We also acknowledge support from the office of the Pro Vice Chancellor, Interdisciplinary Research, University of Southampton, United Kingdom. Finally, we are grateful to the reviewers whose excellent feedback only enhanced this work.
Keywords: continuua, heuristics, inbodied, inbodied interaction, insourcing, knowledge skills and practice, ksp, outsourcing

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 474464
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/474464
PURE UUID: 70a1d757-34c5-4ca4-a652-f3f548af7040
ORCID for M.C. Schraefel: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-9061-7957

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Date deposited: 22 Feb 2023 20:30
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 02:57

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Contributors

Author: M.C. Schraefel ORCID iD
Author: George Catalin Muresan
Author: Eric Hekler

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