Bringing new voices to design of exercise technology: participatory design with vulnerable young adults

Physical activity is important for people's health, but it can be challenging especially for people who are vulnerable because of mental disorders. This paper contributes to participatory approaches developed to include vulnerable people in the design of exercise technology and situates participatory design to an exercise location and exercise activities. The results expand the current design space of exercise technology, which is dominated by sports enthusiasts and persuasive strategies. Visions for digital support that mediates local social exercise horizons are presented as a design alternative. The results exemplify that a participatory approach, which includes marginalized people in the design of technology, offers new knowledge for making existing and future applications useful to a broader audience. Specifically, the results point to opportunities for opening up the design space of health-promoting technology to support the cooperation of available health resources among residents in a community with attention to people who are in a vulnerable situation.