A NEAT Solution : Where Interaction Design and Public Health Meet

• Office workers tend not to move about during work hours. A series of medical observational studieshave shown that extended sitting is associated with several negative health outcomes includingobesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), breast and colon cancer and prematuremortality. Therefore, developing ways to encourage physical activity and breaking the habit ofprolonged sitting in offices is urgently needed. Few studies, however, have investigated the natureof local movement and mobility in workspaces in depth and taking a cross disciplinary approach.This paper reports on an ongoing cross-disciplinary research project targeted at increasing physicalactivity of office workers while reducing prolonged sitting. Our collaboration between thedepartments of Informatics, Public Health and Clinical Medicine and the Design School at UmeåUniversity resulted in two ethnographic studies. This led to the development and implementation oftwo prototypes referred to as the “NEAT Lamp” and the “Talking Tree”. The “NEAT Lamp” is asimple sensor-based lamp that was evaluated in situ in our second ethnographic study. The resultsof this study deepened our understanding of local movement and mobility in offices and resulted inthe design of a second prototype, the “Talking Tree”. Using the knowledge gained through ourethnographic studies and the experience of using the prototypes, we were able to develop aconceptual framework for describing the patterns of local movement and mobility of office workers.This paper describes the process leading to the development of this framework. Moreover, ithighlights how this process benefited from the cross-disciplinary nature of the project.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Mänsklig interaktion med IKT (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Human Aspects of ICT (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik med samhällsvetenskaplig inriktning (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Information Systems, Social aspects (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Sedentary Lifestyle

Workspaces

Ethnography

Prototyping

Cross Disciplinary Research

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