Examining Menstrual Tracking to Inform the Design of Personal Informatics Tools

@article{Epstein2017ExaminingMT,
  title={Examining Menstrual Tracking to Inform the Design of Personal Informatics Tools},
  author={Daniel A. Epstein and Nicole B. Lee and Jennifer H. Kang and Elena Agapie and Jessica Schroeder and Laura R. Pina and James Fogarty and Julie A. Kientz and Sean A Munson},
  journal={Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems . CHI Conference},
  year={2017},
  volume={2017},
  pages={6876 - 6888}
}
We consider why and how women track their menstrual cycles, examining their experiences to uncover design opportunities and extend the field's understanding of personal informatics tools. [] Key Result Our findings encourage expanding the field's conceptions of personal informatics.
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165 Citations
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Methods Citations
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Monitoring Menses: Design-Based Investigations of Menstrual Tracking Applications
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Two case studies are presented, examining core issues of usability and inclusion in the design of existing applications and using participatory approaches to highlight the lived experiences of menstruators and introduce alternatives to dominant menstrual app protocols.
Characterizing physiological and symptomatic variation in menstrual cycles using self-tracked mobile-health data
TLDR
It is uncovered that women located at different ends of the menstrual variability spectrum, based on the consistency of their cycle length statistics, exhibit statistically significant differences in their cycle characteristics and symptom tracking patterns.
Defining Menstrual Literacy With the Aim of Evaluating Mobile Menstrual Tracking Applications.
TLDR
These applications had insufficient support for facilitating menstrual literacy, especially for teen and perimenopausal users, and subsequent design opportunities for menstrual tracking applications to facilitate more robust support of menstrual literacy and overall health of people who menstruate are discussed.
Period Hacks: Menstruating in the Big Data Paradigm
Menstrual tracking and fertility apps have gained popularity in recent years, often sold as tools for self-empowerment through self-knowledge. While critics tend to focus on the gendered design of…
A mixed methods exploratory study of women’s relationships with and uses of fertility tracking apps
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Analysis of the free-text survey questions and interviews highlighted four themes underpinning women’s relationships with FTAs: (a) medical grounding; (b) health trackers versus non-trackers; (c) design; and (d) social and ethical aspects.
Teenage Use of Smartphone Applications for Menstrual Cycle Tracking
TLDR
Young people at the onset of puberty may be particularly drawn to period-tracking apps, both for their appeal as a seemingly private way to explore a budding interest in health and as a natural way to track and understand emerging patterns in their developing bodies.
Period-tracking with apps and the (re)constitution of menstrual cycles
Th e present article explores how cycles are brought into being through the practices and aff ordances involved in period-tracking with apps. Based on thirteen in-depth semi-structured interviews…
Hormonal Health: Period Tracking Apps, Wellness, and Self-Management in the Era of Surveillance Capitalism
Period tracking is an increasingly widespread practice, and its emphasis is changing from monitoring fertility to encompassing a more broad-based picture of users’ health. Delving into the data of…
The real-world applications of the symptom tracking functionality available to menstrual health tracking apps
TLDR
Whether the fields available in iOS mobile phone apps for recording menstrual cycle symptoms are able to be harmonized across platforms for potential use in research, such as aggregated data analysis is evaluated.
Goals, life events, and transitions: examining fertility apps for holistic health tracking
TLDR
Fertility patients can benefit more from holistic self-tracking and provide insights for future design of consumer health technologies that better support holistic fertility tracking.
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