Focus Section of Interaction Design and Architecture(s): Designing Self-Care for Everyday Life (Nov 2014)

Website: http://www.mifav.uniroma2.it/idea2010/login.php
Deadline for submissions: 21 November 2014

To be published at the Interaction Design and Architecture(s) Journal (IxD&A) (ISSN 1826-9745, eISSN 2283-2998)

Self-managing a chronic condition is a challenging activity. It requires patients and caregivers to deal with symptoms and the possible resulting disability, to manage emotions, and mediate their relationship with health professionals. Self-care technologies have tried to help in these tasks in multiple ways, including watching the evolution of symptoms, performing health measurements, or connecting with others that have the same condition. Nevertheless, self-care technologies often fail to integrate themselves into people’s everyday life.

Designing self-care technology for everyday life requires an in-depth understanding of the self-care strategies people use, the contexts in which they live, and tools they have at their disposal. Acquiring this understanding requires new approaches to the design of self-care technologies.

The aim of this focus section is to invite researchers to explore the challenges, opportunities, lessons learned, and theoretical insights of self-care technologies to broaden the scope of IxD&A and HCI research in self-care. This body of work is likely to inform the new generation of more holistic self-care technologies that takes into account people’s everyday life and experiences.