Expanding the Locus of Control: Design of a Mobile Quantified Self-Tracking Application for Whiplash Patients

Abstract

The paper presents the design and exploration of a mobile quantified self-tracking prototype for patients with whiplash-associated disorders. The analytic lens is social learning theory and the patients' experiences of the artefact in their formation of practice. The intertwined processes of interpreting user--device interactions are addressed in terms of how patients attributed these interactions as efficacy information and provides insights into why the whiplash patients failed to convert quantified self-information into self-management strategies. The paper concludes that future designs should focus on accommodating patients' needs and desires for exerting control over the condition as a means of facilitating a gradual expansion of the patients' locus of control through tracking and visualization features that support an ongoing maintenance of equilibrium with the condition.