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Abstract
Mother caregivers of children with cancer are often unaware of how the tasks of caregiving interfere in their social relationships and lifestyle. This article explores how persuasive mobile technologies may promote the self-reflection and introspection of communication practices, emotions, and lifestyle. The article describes the design of EmotionMingle, a mobile system running in a situated display showing an ambient visualization using the metaphor of a tree to represent the status of an individual’s social network that, used in tandem with downloaded Facebook photographs, may help caregivers avoid social isolation. EmotionMingle also informs caregivers of how their emotions correlate with their communication practices and lifestyle. The results of a qualitative evaluation of the EmotionMingle prototype reveal that mother caregivers perceived it as useful and its visualizations as appropriate. The findings from this study reveal emergent practices of using mobile persuasive applications for self-reflection to discover wellness trends, possibly inducing behavior change.
Notes
2. 1Participants’ quotes were translated from Spanish to English, and some were adjusted to fit English grammar conventions.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Carolina Fuentes
Carolina Fuentes is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Computer Science of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She received her engineering degree from the University of Santiago (Chile). Her research interests are in human–computer interaction, especially affective computing and tangible user interfaces.
Carlos Hernandez
Carlos Hernandez is a M.Sc. student in computer science at Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, México. His research interests are in human–computer interaction, affective computing, and self-reflection capture tools. He received his computer engineering degree from the Universidad Autonóma de Baja California.
Lizbeth Escobedo
Lizbeth Escobedo is a postdoctoral student in computer science at Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE), México. Her research interests include ubiquitous computing, human–computer interaction, and assistive technologies. She holds a B.Sc. from the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California and an M.Sc. from CICESE.
Valeria Herskovic
Valeria Herskovic has been an assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile since 2010. She received her B.S., engineering, and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chile. Her research interests are in the areas of mobile computing, human–computer interaction, and collaborative systems.
Monica Tentori
Monica Tentori is a professor of computer science at Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, México. Her research intersecting human–computer interaction and ubiquitous computing particularly focuses on designing, developing, and evaluating natural user interfaces, self-reflection capture tools, and new interaction models for ubiquitous computing. Her work is being applied to healthcare and urban living.