Live and Enjoy!!!!—LAE system 🥳

What is this?

This is a personal motto I’ve formed during my university years! Life is not easy, and I truly wish that I and others can achieve this goal!

It also reflects my simple understanding of life, which is that happiness and joy require effort! “Enjoy” requires efforts!

Of course, happiness in this world is not something that can be guaranteed with equal effort… That’s another grand issue!

LAE Program and Academic Interests

foreword

Starting from my junior year, I began to write a series of simple programs with the goal of LAE to help myself achieve happiness better. With the study of theory, I gradually realized that what I was doing was actually assisting self-regulation through digital tools.

For detailed descriptions of the program, please refer to the explanation on GitHub.

As I continued to learn and explore, I slowly realized that I wanted to learn more knowledge and technology to better accomplish this task. At the same time, I also questioned and pondered whether doing this alone (assisting self-regulation) could lead to true happiness and joy.

With these questions in mind, I decided to continue my research in the field of HCI×Welfare during my master’s studies. However, this path may not be very smooth.

I don’t know if I am fortunate enough, or if I can persist to the end amidst pressure and uncertainty. Everything is still uncertain. But as long as there is hope, then let’s continue to strive!

Keep going!!!!

Theoretical Basis

HCI→self-regulation→well-being

Leveraging HCI methodologies to enhance human well-being is a field I am committed to for my career, largely due to the profound impact of digital technology. This technology is omnipresent and creates myriad possibilities for understanding and manipulating our environment. Currently there is an increasing emphasis on humanistic approaches in computing, notably through the concept of ‘positive computing’. My vision aligns with this perspective: to use HCI to develop digital tools that promote personal wellness. Through academic study, literature reviews, and personal experiences, I have identified the development of self-regulation digital tools as a particularly promising direction. These tools, powered by computing, could significantly improve individual well-being.

1. Self-regulation to Well-being:

Self-regulation involves an individual monitoring and regulating their own behaviors, thoughts, and emotions to achieve specific goals. The essence of this process is making responses that are beneficial to ultimate objectives. Effective self-regulation can align behaviors and emotions with both hedonic and eudaimonic forms of happiness , thereby promoting well-being.

2. HCI to Self-regulation:

In daily life, humans often make erroneous responses that detract from well-being. However, using personal electronic devices to collect, record, analyze, identify, and then prompt interventions holds great potential. Generally, there are two aspects:

• Firstly, with the widespread use of electronic devices and their daily operation by humans, accessing large amounts of data becomes convenient and meaningful. Devices can both automatically generate extensive passive data and reduce the burden of gathering self-reported data. This data encompasses real-time insights into an individual’s cognition, emotions, behaviors, and contexts, forming valuable time series. Based on this:

• Secondly, utilizing data for identification, prediction, and intervention facilitates self-regulation. The mechanisms that enhance self-regulation can be explained using the Habit Alteration Model (HAM).

HAM posits that situational cues are filtered through two types of attention processes: automatic and unconscious (Type I), and deliberate and slower (Type II), before entering memory. This may generate competing behavioral drives (impulses and intentions) forming potential response options. These options compete and are influenced by self-control. Ultimately, the choice that surpasses the threshold becomes the individual’s actual response, which is also recorded through self-monitoring and tracking.

HAM model diagram (screenshot from literature)

And computer technology plays a crucial role in the “environment → behavioral intentions/impulses → actual response” process.

• ①Digital tools alter the environment an individual is in, undoubtedly affecting their emotions and behaviors. As electronic devices are a significant component of our environment, digital technology can foster a conducive setting and provide appropriate cues, increasing the likelihood of desired emotional and behavioral outcomes.

• ②Digital tools also influence the connection between situational cues and behavioral intentions/impulses. On one hand, these tools help link an individual’s intentions with corresponding situations, gradually automating them (i.e., the situation automatically triggers impulses), known as “Implementation Intentions.” On the other hand, programs can automatically detect situations and provide “just-in-time reminders” to stimulate intentions, leading to actions. Both directions are worthy of exploration.

• ③Digital tools can provide feedback or even intervene in an individual’s actual responses. On one hand, by recording, digital tools offer precise information for self-monitoring and suggest remedial measures, aiding in the formation of healthier, conscious behavioral intentions— a core focus of Personal Informatics. On the other hand, they can respond to individual reactions, such as using gamification mechanisms to alter the expected rewards of specific behaviors or even directly block certain actions, like screen locking.

To sum up, the core mechanism of HCI-assisted self-regulation is providing information to aid decision-making and helping induce appropriate behavioral intentions and impulses in response to situations.

LAE System Overview (including Interest&Direction) and Progress

Current Plan Diagram

check here to see more

Core Interest

Since starting university, I have been deeply interested in how theories and technologies can assist in regulating emotions and behaviors, thereby promoting achievement and positive emotions conducive to well-being. Information technologies offer the potential to acquire meaningful data to understand an individual’s cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and situational states, including environmental factors like natural surroundings and social contexts. Therefore, they aid in identification, prediction, and intervention to support decision-making and appropriate behaviors, with enhanced accuracy from incorporating environmental data such as air quality, noise levels, and social interactions.

Technical Means

Core: Common Personal Electronic Devices

• PC & Mobile Phones (Current)
  • Self-assessment data and electronic device usage data (automatically obtained)
  • Utilizing digital sensor technology to monitor individuals’ daily activities in real-time, such as steps taken, heart rate, and sleep quality. This technology provides multi-modal data collection, enabling analysis and understanding of individual health status from multiple dimensions.
• Wearable Devices (Future Aspiration)
  • Wearable devices can continuously collect data in natural environments, enhancing the ecological validity of research and providing significant cost-efficiency, making large-scale deployment feasible.
  • Using spatial big data and spatiotemporal analysis to further enrich data sources, providing comprehensive insights into the interactions between individuals and their environments.

Research Goals

Core: Promoting Positive Emotions & Achievement

• Anxiety & Procrastination (Current)
  • Identification, monitoring, and intervention
  • Developing effective interventions by integrating environmental factors to improve mental health and quality of life, acknowledging the significant influence of both technology and environment on well-being.
• Enhancing Overall Self-Regulation (Future Aspiration)
  • A more complete self-regulation framework (incorporating other key influencing factors)
  • Context-aware technology to analyze and respond to environmental changes, providing intelligent and personalized services, thus enhancing user experience.

Research Levels

• Individual Level (Current)
  • Utilizing context-aware technology to identify current contexts from data, with a focus on environmental impacts.
  • Providing smarter, safer, and more comfortable user experiences by analyzing environmental data and user behavior, meeting personalized needs, and improving well-being and self-regulation capabilities.
• Group Level (Future Aspiration)
  • Expanding research focus from individual self-regulation to group behavior and collective health, considering both internal dynamics and the influence of the environment on groups.
  • Researching from a team perspective to fill gaps left by individual-focused studies, providing insights into collective benefits such as overall health improvements.
  • Social support and interactions within teams can enhance motivation and participation, helping individuals overcome obstacles and maintain healthy behaviors.
  • Understanding how spatial interactions influence collective well-being by studying the impact of the environment on group dynamics.

Conclusion

My current research interest focuses on utilizing information technology to enhance self-regulation and promote well-being. By integrating environmental factors and broadening research perspectives, we can develop effective interventions to improve mental health and quality of life, providing intelligent and personalized services for both individuals and groups.