It is well appreciated that physical activity is beneficial for health and that long periods of sitting can be detrimental. Individuals use wearable activity trackers to inform themselves of salient data necessary for completion of activity goals (e.g. 10,000 steps per day). However, to date, devices do not provide movement information in context of overall activity patterns, rather they focus on only one metric of behavior. Thus, a user may not fully appreciate how much time they engaged in sedentary behaviors vs. active behaviors during a day or how much overall effort they used.
To address this problem, Dr. Tudor-Locke and her team have devised a simple, dynamic goal driven triangle graphic that display movement and non-movement data in an integrated fashion that can be displayed on wearable devices. Specifically, the arms of the triangle represent step number, effort, and sedentary time. As this information changes throughout the day based on behavior, the triangle will shift in both shape and size. This simple representation will allow the user to visualize their physical activity and exercise in the context of overall activity behavior. The use of simple, intuitive figures that provide individuals with integrated metrics of movement behavior may encourage individuals to make small tweaks in daily behavioral patterns, namely increasing the amount and intensity of physical activity and decreasing sedentary behavior, which could lead to significant health benefits.
