post by Shazmin Majid (2018 cohort)
Accepted paper: Designing For the User, With the User: Self-tracking Technology for Bipolar Disorder
Conference: EAI Pervasive Health 2020 Doctoral Consortium, Atlanta USA, October 2020
This paper was written for the purposes of showcasing the findings of my first work package which consisted of a series of workshops and interviews in 2020. This was a novel piece of work as I found that despite the growing number of technological products to help those with severe mental health conditions, only a few have carried out in-depth qualitative work with users to understand the user-device relationship with this type of technology. I was motivated to share this notion with the panel group of experts at the doctoral consortium to gauge feedback on the position of my work. Specifically one member had a published track record of technology for bipolar disorder which proved useful for the development of my PhD work. The paper was received well at the conference. In particular, the field expert described it as a “needed piece of work” and wanted to follow the updates of the project.
In terms of writing this paper, it was written alongside my supervisors who all equally contributed towards the work. Firstly, I prepared a presentation with the main premises of the paper (introduction, methods, results and discussion) and received feedback from the team and iterated the plan as needed. I wrote the first draft of the paper based on the agreed plan and then shared this with my supervisors for rounds of feedback and iteration. The final paper was then signed off by the team and submitted for consideration to the conference organisers. Also, this paper had a significant role within my PhD as it summarised my initial findings which were then subject to peer-review. This in turn prepared me for the next work package which consisted of the design of the digital self-tracking tool. The paper highlighted that the gap that I have found in the literature is valid and it is important to consider the unique needs of users in the design of mental health technology.
The findings of this paper have resulted in another paper which has been submitted to the Journal of Medical Internet Research for consideration. The full results of this paper including the design process will be submitted for consideration to CHI 2022. The process of writing and submitting this paper was insightful, as my background is in traditional psychology, this paper gave me my first experience of submitting to the field of computer science. Overall, it was an enjoyable and welcoming experience and look forward to future submissions of my work.
The paper’s abstract can be found here.