Continuous Wellness Tracking with Firstbeat - Usability, User Experience, and Subjective Wellness Impact.

Current wellness technologies are capable of monitoring wellness related parameters even 24 h a day for multiple days. The aim of the current research was to study the usability, user experience, and wellbeing impact of the wellness analysis Firstbeat, which is based on continuous measurement of heart rate variability (HRV) and user activity. 42 persons in working life participated in an intervention study, in which their wellbeing was continuously monitored for 3–7 days and they received a detailed wellness report and a personal plan for improvement. In a follow-up questionnaire, the participants reported good usability and user experience for the system, as well as significantly reduced stress and increased self-esteem, while no significant changes were observed in the other measured aspects related to subjective wellbeing. The results suggest that the usage of continuous wellness measurement systems using electrodes in the chest area, such as Firstbeat, can be experienced positively by their users. Further research is needed on effective methods for utilizing the rich information from the measurements in achieving lasting positive changes in lifestyle.