Colloquium announcement

Faculty of Engineering Technology

Department Design, Production and Management
Master programme Industrial Design Engineering

As part of his / her master assignment

Mantziari Zafeiri, A. (Amalia)

will hold a speech entitled:

Understanding the Training Load Management Practices of Recreational Runners through Design

Date12-05-2022
Time09:45
RoomOH 111

Summary

Running has become one of the most popular activities worldwide with millions of people running on a regular basis. Simultaneously the vast majority of them use a form of running monitoring technology to track their runs, such as wearable devices (e.g., sports watches) or mobile phone applications. However, the interpretation of the data provided by the technology is not always an easy task, as advanced data can require training knowledge, which many recreational runners do not have. 

 

The use of wearable technology can contribute to training load monitoring and management. 

Training load monitoring and management can contribute to performance enhancement, and provide feedback on how a runner responds and adapts to training. Also, it can potentially minimize the risk of injuries, as training errors are one of the most important potential injury-related risk factors. 

 

As the data that makes sense to a machine does not necessarily make sense to a human, it might be difficult for many runners to interpret their data, learn from it and apply their knowledge in their future training. 

 

Through literature research, the running-related data interpretation from sports trackers (e.g. sports watches, mobile apps) by the recreational runners and the way that can best be presented to them has been underexplored.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate recreational runners’ training load management knowledge and training decisions through sports trackers and their running-related data. The goal is to discover how recreational runners perceive training load management and how they understand their training load presented in running-related data. 

 

To achieve this, the thesis followed a three-step study. The first part was an online survey that tried to understand the current runners’ practices in training load management by using sports trackers. The second part was the design of data representation for training load management where static smartphone and smartwatch screens were designed. Finally, the last step was research through design (RtD), where eight participants provided feedback on these screens in semi-structured interviews.


In the end, this thesis will provide research directions for interaction design to better design the interfaces of sports trackers and apps for training load management of recreational runners and recommendations for future studies.