DAN & Danny: Combining Analog and Digital Self-Tracking Data to Manage Wellbeing

Abstract

An uprising trend of Personal Informatics has leveraged mobile applications to help users track their wellbeing; however, these digital solutions focus on quantitative data, lacking the insights provided by qualitative data in paper notebooks. We propose to digitally augment a paper diary to allow both analogue and digital data, bridging the gap between qualitative and quantitative data tracking practices to support better awareness and reflection on health data. As a first case-study, we designed a self-tracking tool to help college students manage their wellbeing by increasing self-awareness and easing help-seeking behaviours. Next, we conducted a longitudinal study to validate the tool's effectiveness and analyse its acceptability. Results show that our approach helped students by allowing moments of self-reflection and self-awareness. Additionally, our findings suggest that qualitative data is most useful when important events and abrupt changes to wellbeing occur. Preference for paper or digital diaries is highly user-dependent; however, most participants favoured a digital-only tool with notetaking capabilities.