Overview:
The JustJym is an IoT device that encourages users to maintain an active lifestyle. The user can connect these shoes to their phones and select the difficulty of workout and set a goal for themselves. Sensors in the sole detect the weight of the user and increase the resistance a person feels while moving according to their preset goals. The shoes send motivational messages to a user’s phone as they move about throughout the day and also shares how many steps they’ve taken in a day! This challenges the user to not give up!
Situation:
Imagine a person is starting a new fitness regimen and buys JustJym. If someone with a higher BMI starts using Just Jym, the shoes exert greater resistance, causing the user to have to exert themselves even more to move. Eventually, they stop trying to fight the shoes and instead choose to minimize their movement. The alerts on their phone and public-ness of their inactivity may only guilt the user further until they stop using the shoes altogether.
Benefits:
Can add to a person’s quality of life by incorporating fitness into their everyday activities.
Dangers:
Can overexert user and a) make them lose interest b) increase negative body image b/c if you are more heavy, the resistance/workout will be more intensive
Recommendations:
An important aspect of IoT devices that designers should keep in mind is the fickleness of humans. If we create a device that makes people overexert themselves the system will probably fall out of their favor and not help, but harm the user. By pushing the user to much, JustJym becomes undesirable to own and also raises issues of body shaming a person for their weight and giving them constant feedback about how well or poorly they are taking care of themselves.
