A Survey of Personal Visualization in mHealth Nutrition Apps

Corrie Whisner, Alexandra Porter, Nicholas Pecor Ross MaciejewskiArizona State University

Quick Summary of mHealth Nutrition Apps

• Apps chosen from Android and Apple store– Keywords: nutrition, diet, health– Chosen based on number of downloads and reviews

• App functionality split into 9 categories• Calorie tracking• Nutrient tracking• Fitness tracking• Weight Tracking• Weight Goal

• Peer Comparison• Social Network Sharing• Meal Suggestion• Incentives/Gamification

Quick Summary of mHealth Nutrition Apps

• Review of 15 apps in total presented in this work

Common features:• Weight Goals (14)• Activity Tracking (11)• Calorie Tracking (12)

Least common features:• Peer support• Meal planning• Incentives/Gamification

Visualization in mHealth Apps

Relatively few interactive visualizations• Line graph• Bar graph• Pie chart

Future Directions• How do visualizations impact an end-user’s attitude/belief about their

behavior and health• Apps can provide targeted messages for improving health, what role

should visualization play?• Showing social norms to people has been shown to influence

behavior, what role should visualization have in explaining social norms?

• Some work in social norms showed that deceiving individuals resulted in more accepted behavior, is deceptive visualization always bad?