LifeMosaic: co-design of a personal informatics tool for youth

While a growing number of technologies offer personal data to the user, little is known about how such tools can be harnessed for and by adolescents. Prior work has focused on implementations, in which youth experience is subordinated to the prescribed aims of adults. Few studies have engaged with the concerns and motives of the young people themselves. Co-design can be a powerful method for exploring beyond such limits, informing design that reflects the voices and values of the designed-for population. This paper presents a case study exploring the design of a personal informatics app (LifeMosaic) by a group of 14 to 16-year-olds. LifeMosaic lets users set any focus they personally care about and track it using colours and stickers. The design was shaped through youth concerns around privacy, social support, flexibility and self-expression as well as the desire to support mental wellbeing. This work illustrates new opportunities and understandings for personal informatics with youth: framing the data as mediating transindividual meaning making.