AAAI Technical Report SS-12-05
Self-Tracking and Collective Intelligence for Personal Wellness
Design Probes into Nutrigenomics: From Data to User Experiences
Denisa Kera
National University of Singapore
denisa@nus.edu.sg
Abstract
merge with everyday situation like dining. We hope to
understand the various ways in which we can connect the
science labs with our kitchens and dining tables with data
travelling across various scales. How will these future
services and interfaces for data harvesting, crowdsourcing,
and visualizations work in our everyday life? What type of
new collectives and ecologies these data make apparent or
create?
In this position paper we identify and discuss design issues
involved in future nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics
interfaces and services based on connecting heterogeneous
data from food flows (farm to fork) to food consumption
and body interaction of nutrients with DNA, microbiome
etc. How to connect data from farm to fork to phenotype
and what type of user experiences these data enable? What
should be the function of these interfaces connecting such
heterogeneous data from DNA molecules, bacteria, food
economy to social and cultural practices of eating? In order
to answer these questions, we conducted critical design
probe into the future of dining in the form of a personalized
DNA dinner and envisioned several future scenarios on the
future of eating.
Data and User Experience
Who is interacting with who and with what on services
monitoring and visualizing data from tweets, automatic
tracking
of
software
use
on
Mypoyozo
(http://mypoyozo.com/), citizen science projects on
sampling of microorganisms in Bioweathermap
(http://bioweathermap.org/), and similar initiative on
health, environmental, and food data? Do quantified and
tweeting, heavily monitored and selfreporting animals,
humans, environments and food create some new
uniformity, a dangerously homogenous, objectified and
standardized collective or these data offer some new
opportunity for interaction? Are we creating new symbiotic
relations over these data that can lead to a new sense of
community or we are witnessing some depersonalization
and objectification? How to make meaning out of large
quantities of data and how to bring user experience to data
seem to be the key issues in any debate on the new
interfaces using heterogeneous data harvesting and
monitoring. The preference of soft forms of interaction
over these data via monitoring, visualizing, reminding and
persuading seem to be the main functions of these new
interfaces connecting data across scales and environments.
Understanding these new generation of services related to
data is important for personal genomics projects that want
to involve citizens in epigenomic studies or other emergent
fields, such as nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics. While the
scientific community is trying to understand the
interactions between our genome and the environment, the
general public seems to enjoy he serendipity behind
interactions involving DNA profiles as we can see it in the
Introduction
We are reaching a momentum in which various forms of
data related to food (monitoring food authenticity and
origin) and molecular aspects of our bodies like DNA can
converge. Consumer genomics websites, crowdsourcing of
biodata but also social networking over genes, together
with services monitoring food flows and food authenticity
can create new models of research in nutrigenomics and
projects related to dieting, health and
lifestyle choices. How to connect various scales from
molecules to institutions and what will be the function of
these interactions and interfaces?
How to create
meaningful interaction across scales and large datasets?
What are the functions of such massive data
objectifications of food, bodies etc.? Are we redefining the
new patterns in seemingly stochastic and chaotic large
datasets? How will these future apps for data savvy users
that are crowdsourcing data influence their everyday life
and practices?
In order to answer these questions we used a design probe
in form of a personalized DNA dinner to see how lay and
expert knowledge interact and how specialized databases
Copyright © 2011, Association for the Advancement of Artificial
Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved.
26
case of match-making and family tracing applications that
connect complete strangers (Kera, 2010). Integration of
genomic science with nutrition and lifestyle variables such
as cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption has not only
scientific value but also personal value for dieting and
improving lifestyle choices. The main challenge in most
health and diet oriented application is to connect the expert
and lay knowledge, persuasion with participation in a
science project, and to simply give meaning to the
monitoring efforts, to define the user experience related to
data.
The nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics interfaces present a
convergence of three important trends in recent years
related to healthy lifestyle, new media technologies and
new forms of participatory and citizen science projects.
The rise of self-improvement and enhancement interfaces
based on crowdsourcing, monitoring and visualising
personal and bio-data connected to the global Quantified
Self movement http://quantifiedself.com/ and various
Lifeblogging
and
assistive
technologies
(http://daytum.com/ and http://research.microsoft.com/enus/projects/mylifebits/ ). Related to this is the emergence
of clinical 2.0 trials in the form of social networking
services connecting DNA (SNP) data with data about
lifestyle, eating habits and nutrients consumption (for
example vitamin B and D) on platforms such as
http://www.DIYgenomics.org/. The third trend relates to
the importance of open data frameworks and the need for a
creative commons licenses supporting safe and ethical
monitoring, sharing and crowdsourcing of data among
users and various actors.
other excesses. Understanding our genetic, microbial etc.
connection with other people and our environment is as
important as these most obvious functions.
Based on our design probe into the future of dining in the
age of personalized dinner based on DNA data and data
about the food, we see a potential of integrating citizen
science projects with persuasive design. Our design probe
conducted in May 2011 in Prague based Hackerspace
consisted of a social dinner for two people with 23andme
profiles and for the rest we served meals based on most
common genetic profiles related to given genes. We were
interested how these DNA and health data influence an
everyday social situation like a dinner, how will users
connect objective data with their personal experience and a
given social situations. The performative, design probe,
which we conducted, resulted in defining some scenarios
and problems related to the emergent scientific field of
nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics. The issues of privacy and
reliability of data, but also questions of synergy between
the personal, lay knowledge and objective data and its
function were less important than questions on how data
create a feeling of belonging to a group and interacting
with our environment. That is why we became interested in
various diet tribes and food cults, in ways people build
social and personal identity around their dieting habits. By
hacking kitchen gadgets, creating special diets and
practicing extreme eating practices
are testing the limits of metabolic, technical and political
exchanges in the world today. Paleodieters identified with
DIY and hacked sous-vide (slow cooking) appliances,
locavores with foraging practices and interfaces monitoring
food authenticity, molecular gastronomes with liquid
nitrogen DIY protocols, future nutrigenomics enthusiasts
with interfaces for crowdsourcing biodata, already present
thus convergence of participatory design with citizen
science (Kera, Tuters, 2011).
Convergence of Persuasive Design with
Citizen Science
Designing services and interfaces that support individuals
and communities in their commitment to monitor health or
change habits and lifestyles and take active responsibility
(self-care, empowerment) is part of a growing body of
research in persuasive technologies and so called captology
(Fogg 1998, 2009). We expect our technologies to help us
understand and manage the different limits of our
biological, social and political existence rather than to
support the narrow technooptimist forms of enhancement
and extension. That is why user experience related to
connecting heterogeneous data is more about supporting
reflection and empathy rather than interaction between a
user and some systems per se. In most obvious cases this
involves managing our physical fitness and health or
monitoring and warning us against energy consumption or
The design fiction scenario of our DNA dinner - Eat What
was
envisioned as a social dinner in the age of personal
genomics inspired by the emergent field of nutrigenomics
(Ferguson, 2009; Kaput et al., 2006; Ordovas et al., 2004).
We tested the idea of personalized DNA dinner with
people that have 23andme profiles as a design probe into
the future of dinning. The guests were supposed to enjoy
food but also interact over available information on genes
and play with a near future scenario on dinning in the age
of personalized genomics where DNA decides on our
Copyright © 2011, Association for the Advancement of Artificial
Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2011, Association for the Advancement of Artificial
Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved.
Design Probe into Future of Dining
27
menu and we negotiate between taste and data. The menu
and the social interaction was tested only in Prague
(http://brmlab.cz/event/denisa_kera) and the original
proposal was developed in Singapore. In the future we
would like to connect the DNA data with data on the
ingredients with the help of a GoodGuide.com type of
application.
The starter in this dinner was envisioned as an introduction
into the genealogical d
was served in portions of different sizes depending on the
individual sugar intake efficiency status (ADRA2A gene).
The right balance of green veggies like asparagus, spinach
and broccoli was supposed to balance the individual needs
for folates (MTHFR gene). We also checked the 8q24
region, SMAD7, LOC120376 and 15q13.3 regions which
relate to intestines and an alternative portion of salmon was
upport meat
consumption. Drinks were served based on the opioid
receptor gene (OPRM1) that was used to decide on how
much drinks were served. The final cup of green or black
tea was based on COMT gene that also reveals some
dopamine related behavioral issues and secrets surrounding
also problem of alcoholism and dependencies.
an ancestry map where genes and food meet & create your
meaning with this starter that uses food to represents your
genetic & culinary inheritance and the closest region where
our design probe we created such plate for one of our
Discussion
Tuscan, 24% Lithuanian, and the rest Middle Eastern. The
spot on the map, which is probably a good guess, is near
Trieste. The chromosomes show clear, recent, Middle
Eastern mixing. The parts of the chromosomes showing the
Mideast are roughly 50% Middle Eastern, perhaps Jewish,
whi
The probe into the future of dining was following the limits
of current scientific knowledge and technical possibilities
in order to understand how people negotiate and connect
expert knowledge with their everyday life. We observed
the personal and
social identity. The serendipity behind these interactions
and the hybrid knowledge created through connecting
objective data with often humorous personal stories makes
such experience likable but also motivates people to take
the information seriously and contribute data to potential
research. Future interfaces for nutrigenomics and
nutrigenetics are not only about self-care but also
community building related to crowdsourced data on
bodies, habits and health. Their main motivation is often
search for serendipitous interactions with strangers as
much as curiosity about the personal genetic profile and its
relation to food.
To design nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics interfaces,
which will serve the needs of the public but still provide
valuable data source to the science community, is an
immense challenge. We need to combine the expertise
from various fields starting with health communication and
public participation in science studies and ending with
interactive media design, user experience design and social
networking research with a specific focus on food science
and food studies.
Most of the citizen science experiments by now seem to
concentrate on the technical and scientific issues related to
the use of AI and databases rather that the issues of
communication and interaction with the user which in the
case of food raise further specific questions. How to model
the interaction between lay people and experts over
plate Tuscany brochette with pecorino which is 70% of
your plate meets Ashkenazim and East European stuffed
mushrooms and to add to uncertainty we put 6% of
hummus to refer to that Middle Eastern mess. The hummus
is a celebration of your 6 chromosome which is your most
Middle Eastern part and which plays important role in the
immune response but also sexual attraction since it is the
base for the 100 genes that are part of the Major
Histocompatibility Complex closely linked olfactory
The guests at the dinner in Prague (two had profiles, the
profile) immediately switched plates for their computers to
do research rather than to eat, and to compare genes and
discuss data rather than food. The future of eating involved
digesting data as much as food which opened some
interesting question about self-discipline and reflection but
also possibility of rebellious behavior: the challenge of
eating something poisonous. What we were following was
how information and data influence taste, how scientific
knowledge influences personal experience with food and
the ways in which individuals negotiate this knowledge
and build a sense of community and belonging around such
knowledge.
The main course was made for the whole group of guests
describing how we metabolize important nutrients. Genetic
e group was placing them
somewhere in France and that is why Beef bourguignon
Copyright © 2011, Association for the Advancement of Artificial
Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved.
28
nutrigenomics data to create meaningful and useful mobile
an internet services with functions from research to health
coaching? How to build interfaces that connect very
objective and scientific data such as DNA with very
subjective experiences such as tasting and eating? What are
the challenges and dangers involved in the future
nutrigenomics and nutrigenetic services? What are the
design principles and models that govern these emerging
interfaces and interactions? How will personal genomics
and availability of DNA data over different on line and
information services change our understanding of food and
eating? These are some of the questions that the DNA
dinner provoked.
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Conclusion
We need interfaces that will help the consumers negotiate
complex and novel information on gene food interaction,
monitor food consumption and improve eating habits in
online and real-time support groups. These interfaces can
also provide valuable data to the scientific community that
can be crowdsourced and shared in order to support
advancements in epigenomics research related to food and
define a more collaborative, participatory and fair model
for the use of personal data in science. Last but not least,
tools and interfaces for involvement of citizens in serious
scientific research can prevent irresponsible selfexperimentation and pseudo-health cults that are spreading
on the internet around the illegal trade of substances such
as melanotan and similar nootropics.
The personalized used of nutrigenomics and nutrigenetic
science over nutrigenomics interfaces will balance the
rules most of the discussions related to healthy lifestyle
and eating. Our bodies are not a thermodynamic machine
that runs on calories but a complex, living community of
organisms and molecules for which we need more complex
metaphors in order to understand and influence them in the
right way. Design of nutrigenomics services needs to
connect persuasive design with citizen science projects and
form a connection to fields such as Food Science, Food
Studies, HCI (Human-Computer Interaction), Interactive
Media
Design,
Participatory
Design,
Health
Communication, Studies of Citizen Participation in
Science.
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30