Speaker

Lucas M. Silva

Abstract

Digital self-tracking technologies can help people better understand themselves and reflect on how to improve their health and wellbeing, such as monitoring one’s food intake, exercise, moods, progress towards goals, and more. However, current health tracking technologies predominantly target single device use, typically phones, overlooking the increasing ubiquity of technology in people's daily lives and the diverse interaction and data modalities offered by various devices. This limitation constrains opportunities for self-tracking in different contexts, where a single device and limited modalities may prove unsuitable. Furthermore, data and device rigidity limits opportunities for collaborations centered on health management, particularly in the context of connecting children and families tracking together. In this talk, I describe systems I have designed and evaluated that integrate people's technological and social ecologies for health tracking, exploring opportunities for making self-monitoring more convenient, connected, and meaningful. I present empirical findings from projects in two domains: multi-device and multimodal self-tracking for food journaling, and collaborative tracking in families with ADHD children for behavior co-regulation.

Bio

Lucas M. Silva is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Informatics at University of California Irvine. Prior to his PhD studies, he worked as a software engineer and, more recently, as a UX Research intern at Google and Netflix. His research focuses on designing, developing, and evaluating systems to support health and well-being for individuals and families. He uses human-centered design approaches to understand people's perspectives and everyday experiences with technology use, including co-designing interactions and field deployment evaluations of working prototypes. His efforts have been recognized through awards such as UCI’s Public Impact Fellowship, the Fred M. Tonge Endowed Graduate Award, and Rob Kling Memorial Endowed Fellowship. His work has been published in top human-computer interaction venues, including CHI, DIS, IMWUT, and MobileHCI.