Understanding People’s Experience for Physical Activity Planning and Exploring the Impact of Historical Records on Plan Creation and Execution

Abstract

Making and executing physical activity plans can help people improve their physical activity levels. However, little is known about how people make physical activity plans in everyday settings and how people can be assisted in creating more successful plans. In this paper, we developed and deployed a mobile app as a probe to investigate the in-the-wild physical activity planning experience for 28 days with 17 participants. Additionally, we explored the impact of presenting successful and unsuccessful planning records on participants’ planning behaviors. Based on interviews before, during, and after the deployment, we offer a description of what factors participants considered to fit their exercise plans into their existing routines, as well as factors leading to plan failures and dissatisfaction with planned physical activity. With access to historical records, participants derived insights to improve their plans, including trends in successes and failures. Based on those findings, we discuss the implications for better supporting people to make and execute physical activity plans, including suggestions for incorporating historical records into planning tools.