“The Device Is Not Well Designed for Me” on the Use of Activity Trackers in the Workplace?

Abstract

The workplace, with its central place in peoples’ lives, can be considered as a key site for promoting better health practices. From this perspective, companies are considering providing employees with activity trackers and supportive services aiming at improving employee health. As an initial exploration of possibilities and challenges for activity trackers in the workplace we undertook the following study: a qualitative study of 13 users of activity trackers within our company. Our main findings are that the successful adoption of activity trackers within the workplace is not straightforward, unless for short term intervention, since all participants stopped wearing them within 3 months. In this case we also saw that the use of activity trackers generated various frustrations and raised a number of concerns around end-user configurability, usefulness and privacy and control of data. The findings can have broad implications in designing and developing adequate wellness solutions at the workplace.