Physical inactivity is a major cause of disease in the United States and globally. Effective physical activity interventions often use community based approaches due to the demonstrated effectiveness of combining individual and group based behavioral strategies towards encouraging physical activity behaviors and influencing social norms. Such interventions can increase their impact by adopting technology based solutions to facilitate the underlying behavioral strategies. Current technologies for persuading physical activity primarily focus on facilitating the individual level behavioral strategies and de-emphasize the interpersonal aspects. This dissertation focuses on the development and evaluation of technology that is aimed at facilitating group dynamics-based strategies for promoting physical activity within small socially connected teams. This dissertation introduces a multi-component smartwatch-centered system (FitAware) that uses sensors to automatically track physical activity and leverages the advantages of the watch form factor to facilitate both group and individual level behavioral strategies via non-interruptive, glanceable, and frequent feedback updates. This manuscript describes the design and evaluation of FitAware in the context of an 8 week statewide physical activity community-based intervention, culminating in guidelines for system development that have been tested in educational settings. / Ph. D. / Physical inactivity is a major cause of disease around the world. A good way to tackle this challenge is to conduct community-based physical activity interventions because of their effectiveness in the use of both individual and social approaches for influencing behaviors. An important challenge with such interventions is increasing their impact on the communities. Mobile technology can be used as a platform that can help reach more people. Mainstream devices for promoting physical activity focus on facilitating individual level behavioral strategies (e.g., how many steps one walked) and de-emphasize the interpersonal aspects (e.g., how ones steps compare to friend’s steps) which makes them less than optimal for facilitating the social approaches within community interventions. This dissertation focuses on the design, development and evaluation of a system that prioritizes both individual and interpersonal behavioral strategies for promoting physical activity. This work introduces a multi-component smartwatch-centered system (FitAware) that uses sensors to automatically track physical activity and leverages the convenience of the wristwatch information accessibility to facilitate both group and individual level behavioral strategies via non-interruptive, glanceable, and frequent feedback updates. This dissertation describes the design and evaluation of FitAware as part of an 8 week statewide physical activity community-based intervention, culminating in guidelines for system development that have been tested in educational settings.

Augmented reality head-worn displays (AR HWDs) have the potential to assist personal computing and the acquisition of everyday information. With advancements in hardware and tracking, these devices are becoming increasingly lightweight and powerful. They could eventually have the same form factor as normal pairs of eyeglasses, be worn all-day, overlaying information pervasively on top of the real-world anywhere and anytime to continuously assist people’s tasks. However, unlike traditional mobile devices, AR HWDs are worn on the head and always visible. If designed without care, the displayed virtual information could also be distracting, overwhelming, and take away the user’s attention from important real- world tasks. In this dissertation, we research methods for appropriate information displays and interactions with future all-day AR HWDs by seeking answers to four questions: (1) how to mitigate distractions of AR content to the users; (2) how to prevent AR content from occluding the real-world environment; (3) how to support scalable on-the-go access to AR content; and (4) how everyday users perceive using AR systems for daily information acquisition tasks. Our work builds upon a theory we developed called Glanceable AR, in which digital information is displayed outside the central field of view of the AR display to minimize distractions, but can be accessed through a quick glance. Through five projects covering seven studies, this work provides theoretical and empirical knowledge to prepare us for a pervasive yet unobtrusive everyday AR future, in which the overlaid AR information is easily accessible, non-invasive, responsive, and supportive. / Doctor of Philosophy / Augmented reality (AR) refers to a technology in which digital information is overlaid on the real-world environment. This provides great potential for everyday uses, because users can view and interact with digital apps anywhere and anytime even when physical screens are unavailable. However, depending on how the digital information is displayed, it could quickly occupy the user’s view, block the real-world environment, and distract or overwhelm users. In this dissertation work, we research ways to deliver and interact with virtual information displayed in AR head-worn displays (HWDs). Our solution centers around the Glanceable AR concept, in which digital information is displayed in the periphery of users’ views to remain unobtrusive, but can be accessed through a glance when needed. Through empirical evaluations, we researched the feasibility of such solutions, and distilled lessons learned for future deployment of AR systems in people’s everyday lives.

This thesis project is exploring future smartwatch use within elderly care. The user-centered designing phase uses a design intervention approach, where design and research happen simultaneously.The research question is: “How can a smartwatch be used within the elderly care, based on the existing TES mobile phone app, and how can these interactions be designed as smartwatch features?”. The results are four iteratively explored design opportunities, presented as design propositions with concept sketches, and two prototypes.The main participants in the field studies and workshops are end-users, caregivers within the elderly home care and an elderly care center. The outcome shows they are positive towards an imagined future containing smartwatches as a work tool. They see advantages with the wearable and glanceable technology, like freed hands, less to carry and simpler interactions in comparison to a smart phone.The study also shows positive effects of using interaction design for a company’s design process, and exploration of new technology.