![]() One design in the space is Labella, underwear with a visual marker and an app designed to help women explore their vaginal and pelvic region with a goal of breaking social taboos and promoting exploration and self-understanding. Designing and understanding technology for broader women's health has received relatively limited attention. Prior research often focuses on maternal health. describe a pregnancy ecology to aid in design, shifting from a focus on a woman's activity, diet, and weight tracking to supporting her information seeking, self-knowledge, and social needs. HCI has further considered designs for technology supporting pregnancy and motherhood, including rethinking the experience of breastfeeding and aiding in tracking child development. Many turn to social networks for support, information, and often commiseration. Women often turn to web searches, apps, and social media during pregnancy and parenting for information on whether their experience is normal. The HCI community has a rich history of studying technology in support of women at different stages of pregnancy and motherhood. We finally conducted follow-up interviews with 12 survey respondents to gather in-depth perspectives of those practices. We then surveyed 687 people to understand their practices around tracking menstrual cycles. We first collected and coded 2,000 reviews of popular menstrual tracking apps on the iPhone App Store and Android Market. Toward these goals, we collected and analyzed data from three sources. Understanding the differences and commonalities between menstrual cycle tracking and other domains of personal informatics extends how we as a field consider personal informatics and design our personal informatics tools. For example, women often track their menstrual cycles without an explicit goal of action, but instead for awareness of their place in their menstrual cycle. The practice of menstrual cycle tracking challenges many assumptions of personal informatics. Second, we identify design challenges and concerns in digital tools for menstrual cycle tracking, drawing upon such insights to offer guidance and challenge current broader assumptions in the design of personal informatics tools.Īlthough not about tracking a behavior, menstrual cycle tracking fits Li et al.'s definition of personal informatics as tracking to obtain self-knowledge. We offer an understanding of why and how women track their menstrual cycles, focusing on how they use technology to do so. We first contribute to an ongoing conversation on women's health in HCI (e.g., ) by examining the practice of menstrual cycle tracking. ![]() We consider menstrual tracking through the lens of personal informatics, with two goals. Apple later added this feature, but its exclusion sparked a conversation about inclusivity in design of personal tracking tools. When Apple HealthKit launched in 2014 without support for menstrual data, the public was outraged over the exclusion of such an essential aspect of health tracking. However, relatively little attention has been paid to tracking factors specific to women's health 1, including where a woman is in her menstrual cycle. Health tracking has perhaps captured the most attention, with nearly 70% of US adults tracking a health indicator. Personal tracking for self-knowledge is commonplace, from recording finances for accountability to tracking location for pure curiosity. Our findings encourage expanding the field's conceptions of personal informatics. Existing apps also generally fail to consider life stages that women experience, including young adulthood, pregnancy, and menopause. Designs can create feelings of exclusion for gender and sexual minorities. ![]() Although women find apps and calendars helpful, these methods are ineffective when predictions of future menstrual cycles are inaccurate. Participants described six methods of tracking their menstrual cycles, including use of technology, awareness of their premenstrual physiological states, and simply remembering. We find that women track their menstrual cycle for varied reasons that include remembering and predicting their period as well as informing conversations with healthcare providers. To understand menstrual cycle tracking practices, we collected and analyzed data from three sources: 2,000 reviews of popular menstrual tracking apps, a survey of 687 people, and follow-up interviews with 12 survey respondents. We consider why and how women track their menstrual cycles, examining their experiences to uncover design opportunities and extend the field's understanding of personal informatics tools. ![]()
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