The Challenge

How might families share and use health data together to support care and strengthen connection?

Most health tracking tools focus on individuals, yet chronic care happens within families, especially in Thai culture where intergenerational natural caregiving is deeply embedded in daily life. How might health data become relational material that supports ongoing family care relationships rather than isolated individual metrics?

Approach

Grounded in data humanism philosophy, I explored data intimacy, the closeness that develops when people share personal data with trust and intention. Working with four Thai parent-child pairs (n=8) managing metabolic conditions, I conducted two cycles of participatory design research using contextmapping methods.

Families tracked their own health data, participated in paired co-creation sessions, and designed adaptive sharing approaches for different health situations, from calm periods to health crises.

What I Did

• Designed and Facilitated co-creation sessions with Thai family pairs

• Developed data sensitizing toolkits for personal health data reflection

• Created the "Wave of Care" framework mapping how sharing needs shift across four health journey phases

• Designed 11 principles organized around three pillars: designing with relationships, adapting to changing situations, and honoring lived experiences

• Built an interactive storytelling website communicating research insights for design practitioners

Key Findings

Three interconnected perspectives challenge individual-focused health informatics:

• People adapt their sharing patterns based on relationship dynamics and life situations—not fixed personality types

• Health data needs shift across phases—from light check-ins during stable times to intensive coordination during crises

• Data becomes collaborative memory—families combine medical numbers with personal stories to build shared understanding over time

Outcomes & Impact

The research demonstrates how families naturally practice collaborative sensemaking around health data. The framework offers design considerations for creating technologies that work with relationships rather than against them.

Recognition: Featured at 4TU Design United e-magazine for Dutch Design Week 2025

Validation: Sessions with international design students (n=5) suggest these insights extend beyond Thai contexts to other close relationships managing chronic illness across cultures.

Future Applications: The framework supports designing family conversation facilitation tools, emotionally safer health sharing approaches, and prevention-focused design that encourages connection before crisis points force difficult conversations.

Keywords

Participatory Design, Family Health Informatics, Data Humanism, Chronic Care

Links:

• Read Full Report

• Explore Storytelling Website