Abstract
Wearable activity trackers hold great potential for facilitating self-regulated health behavior, thereby improving physical fitness and preventing cardiovascular diseases. Unfortunately, many users discontinue tracking after only a few months, mitigating large-scale health effects. To identify usage barriers and psychological mechanisms resulting in tracker abandonment decisions, it is essential to characterize former users regarding their abandonment reasons as well as former tracker usage patterns. Within the present research, we reviewed past literature on wearable activity tracking attrition and developed an online questionnaire for assessing abandonment reasons. Results from 159 former users revealed insights into the relative importance of abandonment reasons, former users’ usage patterns, evaluation of personal quantification, and tracker acceptance. Correlational analyses showed that intensity of tracker usage and data interaction, current physical activity, and tracker acceptance were related to specific abandonment reasons. Moreover, abandonment due to perceived data inaccuracy/uselessness and loss of tracking motivation were linked to negative attitudes towards personal quantification. Furthermore, permanent abandonment decisions were particularly related to loss of tracking motivation. Based on the results, we derived six design guidelines for supporting continued tracker usage.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Computers in Human Behavior |
| Volume | 102 |
| Pages (from-to) | 223-237 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| ISSN | 0747-5632 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 01.2020 |
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. We want to thank Dmitri Bogorad, Katharina Schulzeck, and Mourad Zoubir for supporting manuscript preparation and Josef Krems for providing parts of the research infrastructure for the present study.
