Wellness informatics
is a human-centered
computing science
focused on the design,
deployment, and
evaluation of human-
facing technological
solutions to promote
and manage wellness
acts such as the
prevention of disease
and the management
of health.

January + February 2010

interactions
[ 5] Maloney-Krichmar,
D. and Preece, J. “A
Multilevel Analysis of
Sociability, Usability,
and Community
Dynamics in an Online
Health Community.”
ACM Transactions
on Computer-Human
Interaction, 12, 2 (2005):
201–232.
[ 6] Siek, K. A.,
LaMarche, J. S., and
Maitland, J. Bridging
the Information
Gap: Collaborative
Technology Design with
Low-Income At-Risk
Families to Engender
Healthy Behaviors.
OzCHI 2009, 89-96.
[ 7] Consolvo, S.,
Everitt, K., Smith,
I., and Landay, J. A.
“Design Requirements
for Technologies that
Encourage Physical
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ACM Press (2006):
457–466.

make sense of it on the screen
size in use. An additional chal-
lenge is that the end user will
presumably be using wellness
tools throughout their lives in
different capacities; thus, we
must be able to present 80-plus
years of an individual’s data
in an understandable way that
encourages reflection and an
understanding of appropriate
cause and effect.
The individual, group, and com-
munity are emphasized as the
appropriate levels of data granu-
larity. Wellness is personal:
Consider systems that support
individual reflection and learn-
ing [ 4, 7]. But many wellness
informatics systems also sup-
port communication among
friends, family, and cowork-
ers [ 2]. Such collaborations
provide either emotional (e.g.,
through praise) or informational
(e.g., through education about
healthy lifestyles) support. This
contrasts with health informat-
ics that often emphasizes pop-
ulation-based data (e.g., public
health and hospital information
systems).