FitAware: Promoting Group Fitness Awareness ThroughGlanceable Smartwatches

Abstract

Physical inactivity is a global public health concern. Community-based interventions that use strategies such as competition and cooperation, with group dynamics-based strategies at their core, are effective at improving individual physical activity behaviors, but they often rely on participants to actively seek out fitness information themselves. This work examines how technologies such as smartwatches that are designed to raise awareness of personal and group fitness can encourage positive fitness behavior within and across peer groups. This paper presents a study about smartwatch use by 27 people as part of an 8- week community physical activity intervention program with elements of competition and cooperation, seeking to understand fitness awareness and behavior of the participants. Results indicate generally high awareness levels of smartwatch information. In particular, members of most successful groups exhibited significantly higher awareness for feedback displayed on the smartwatch.