| Research Question
Exploring how apple watch shapes our health perception
How do apple watch and the health data shape people's understanding of "health", and what impact do these influences have on their motivation and mental well-being?
| Interview Guide
Designing interview guide for 45 min semi-structured user interview
| User Interview
Conducting 5 in-depth interviews with apple watch users
All participants in the interviews are apple watch users who frequently use the health tracking functions of their watch and most of them are from the UC Berkeley community. There are 3 females and 2 males and the age range is 20 - 35.
| Insight Analysis
Qualitative coding and analysis for interview transcripts
| Insights
Theme 1 - The Impact of Small Tasks
Small health tasks on Apple Watch, like stand-up reminders and closing activity rings, provide instant positive feedback that reinforce people’s motivation. This quick sense of accomplishment turns simple actions into lasting habits, helping users stay consistently engaged in their health management and fostering long-term behavior change.
1.1 Motivation from instant feedback
Compared to long-term health goals like improving sleep, participants found short-term tasks much easier to follow and more rewarding. They found it challenging to change sleep routines based on the data feedback but the smaller health tasks are easier to follow.
The instant positive feedback—like the animations for closing rings, pop-up timers for handwashing, and one-minute mindfulness exercises—makes small tasks enjoyable and encourages consistent engagement. These small but rewarding tasks drive motivation and create a quick sense of achievement.
1.2 Lasting effects of small tasks
While these health tasks are relatively small, they can lead to long-lasting effects through features like gamification, virtual rewards, and social sharing. Participants mentioned collecting medals for completing exercise activities, competing with friends in health challenges, and tracking their ring achievement over time. When asked about the motivation of closing up the ring on apple watch every day, one participant shared, “I think in terms of trying hard to receive some kind of reward, I become healthier, and it makes me feel good to do something every day and maintain a streak. That makes me feel good, and I just don’t want to break that streak.”
These rewards and social features turn small tasks into ongoing habits, creating a sense of achievement that sustains motivation and supports long-term health engagement.
| Insights
Theme 2 - Health tracking as form of communication
Health tracking is not just about automatic data collection—it is an interactive experience that involves the active exchange of human input and feedback. This back-and-forth communication between the user and their device provides customized information, creates motivation, and helps form consistent routines. While passive or automatic tracking is convenient, participants emphasized that their engagement and input significantly enhance the health-tracking experience. It's about balancing automation with human involvement to build health awareness and sustain routines.
2.1 User input as form of engagement
User input plays a key role in making health tracking feel interactive. For example, one participant shared her experience of tracking emotions by selecting different avatars to represent her mood throughout the day. She mentioned, "Manually logging my health data in Apple Watch makes me feel like I can take care of myself." Another participant enjoyed tracking her medication, where she manually entered information and customized pills using emojis and colors. These examples highlight that human input is a form of active engagement, allowing users to take control of their health-tracking journey and develop routines around it. This sense of involvement fosters deeper commitment to their health practices.
2.2 Humanized communication beyond machine interaction
The meaning of communication in this report can evolve beyond input and feedback, also referring to more humanized interactions. Participants expressed that they project metaphors of other relationships, like those with pets or close friends, onto their Apple Watches. During the study, participants were asked whether their Apple Watch felt more like a robot or a stuffed animal. In a follow-up activity, they were invited to sketch their ideal relationship with the device using a metaphor.
While most participants described their current watch as more like a robot, they sketched relationships that were more personal and connected. They envisioned their ideal watch as a pet, a close friend, or a caring assistant. One participant explained, "I wish it could be more like a pet that accompanies my everyday life. In that way, I would feel more connected to it, so it’s more than just a tool. Then, when it reminds me to drink water or go to sleep, I would feel more motivated. It’s kind of like Duolingo—if I don’t practice before 10pm, the bird gets mad at me."
This highlights how users desire a deeper emotional connection with their health-tracking devices, one that goes beyond machines and feels more like a supportive, humanized relationship that fosters long-term health motivation.
| Insights
Theme 3 - Tapping into emotion and mental well-being
Emotion tracking in Apple Watch goes beyond simple data collection— it taps into the subtle space of human emotions. It encourages self-awareness and helps users explore and understand their mental well-being, a dimension of health often overlooked in favor of physical metrics. By making the intangible nature of emotions more visible, Apple Watch plays a key role in fostering emotional awareness and helping people better navigate their mental health.
3.1 Bringing awareness to mental well-being
Emotion-tracking apps in Apple watch, whether automated or manual, are valuable not because of data precision but because they bring attention to the idea of mental-wellbeing. Rather than focusing on the accuracy of bio-data, Apple Watch encourages users to become more aware of their emotions—an aspect of health they often hadn't paid attention to before.
One participant shared her experience of using an app that tracked her heart rate variability (HRV) through her Apple Watch to analyze her emotions. She found the relationship between bio-data and emotions interesting and was motivated to explore the connection further online. Another participant, who manually selected moods throughout the day using an app, mentioned that the process helped her better understand how her emotions changed over the day, providing insights into her emotional patterns that she had not previously recognized.
3.2 Emotional design of avatars
The emotional design of avatars in emotion-tracking apps enhances engagement and creates a deeper connection to the tracking experience. Participants mentioned that the human-like, playful design of avatars helped build motivation and trust, making emotion tracking feel less clinical and more personal.
One participant described her experience using an app with an animated emotional avatar, stating, “I used this app because I like the avatar. The design is like a cute and fluffy ball with a human face. It's really cute. And once I record it, it will appear on my Apple Watch homepage. I feel so nice to have this little buddy of my mood.” This highlights how the emotional design of avatars can foster a sense of companionship and make the experience of tracking emotions feel more engaging and rewarding.
| Insights
Conclusion
This study highlights how the Apple Watch reshapes users' understanding of health by encouraging small, consistent tasks that foster long-term habits. It goes beyond traditional health metrics, bringing attention to emotional well-being and helping users take simple actions that build greater self-awareness.
Health management in Apple watch is like putting up small puzzle pieces that together form a bigger picture of well-being. The Apple Watch focuses on the impact of small health tasks, bringing attention to the details that improve health.
Future research could be conducted to explore how different user groups, from casual users to professionals, engage with these features. Understanding which types of users benefit most from small, routine-based tasks versus more advanced metrics could help optimize health-tracking technologies for diverse needs.