Celebratory Health Technology for Everyday Life

There are numerous personal health technologies (applications designed for people to use in their daily lives) that promote healthy eating habits. From educational games to monitoring applications, these systems often take a corrective approach in that they are designed to fix the problematic aspects of people’s interactions with, and thoughts about food. We propose a complimentary approach, celebratory health technology design, in which systems promote healthy eating by highlighting positive food interactions, meanings and values. We present a case study from our research to show the benefit and feasibility of designing celebratory health applications. Our goal is to encourage a more comprehensive approach to personal health technology design, one that not only encompasses corrective systems but celebratory applications as well.