Is Wellness Informatics a
Field of Human-Centered
Health Informatics?
Rebecca E. Grinter
Georgia Tech | beki@cc.gatech.edu
Katie A. Siek
University of Colorado at Boulder | katiesiek@gmail.com
Andrea Grimes
Georgia Tech | agrimes@cc.gatech.edu
[ 1] By human facing we
mean technologies that
people are using i.e.,
adopting, accepting,
and appropriating it into
their lives; people are
empowered through
their usage; and it’s
readily accessible tech-
nology.
[ 2] Pratt, W., Unruh,
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[ 3] Maitland, J., Siek,
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interactions
[ 4] Grimes, A., Bednar,
M., Bolter, J.D., and
Grinter, R.E., “Eat Well:
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The past decade has seen an
explosion of health-related,
human-centered computing
research and practice focused
on wellness (e.g., good nutrition and exercise promotion) to
help people avoid the need for
medical care. And while health
informatics may appear to be
the obvious home for these
activities, it is a discipline that
has focused on the design and
evaluation of systems to process
health care data and, through
that, aid in patient treatment.
Given the ubiquity of wellness
systems, we think it’s time to
create a wellness informatics
community of researchers and
practitioners, and through this
define opportunities and challenges in the design and evaluation of information and communications technologies (ICTs)
that help people stay well.
Wellness informatics is a
human-centered computing
science focused on the design,
deployment, and evaluation of
human-facing technological
solutions to promote and man-
age wellness acts such as the
prevention of disease and the
management of health [ 1]. It
is human-centered because it
requires that technologies are
married with innovations in
how the ICT communicates with
the user, in ways that are psy-
chologically, sociologically, cul-
turally, and societally relevant—
without which wellness will
not be promoted and sustained.
It is also a computing science
because it requires hardware
and software innovations to
make devices that people can
use anywhere and everywhere
wellness occurs.
Example: During a design
workshop with low-income
caregivers, we met single moms
Maria and Sophia, who each
have three children and work
long hours at multiple jobs.
They told us about their typical
hectic day. After 12 hours on
her feet working at McDonald’s,
Maria picks up dinner at Burger
King and heads home. She
cannot eat fast food anymore
because of a health issue.
