arXiv subjects

Amon Rapp

Publications and source records attributed to Amon Rapp.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Constructing Everyday Well-Being: Insights from God-Saeng for Personal Informatics

While Personal Informatics (PI) systems support behavior change, everyday well-being involves more than achieving individual target behaviors. It is shaped by cultural narratives that give actions meaning. In South Korea, the God-Saeng phenomenon, encompassing disciplined, collective, and publicly documented self-improvement practices, offers a lens into how well-being is negotiated in daily life. We conducted a 10-day probe (N=24) with bite-sized missions to examine how young adults engaged in God-Saeng. Participants relied on planning practices, accountability infrastructures, and datafication to stabilize themselves, yet these same routines also intensified pressures toward self-monitoring and performance. They navigated tensions between consistency and flexibility, authenticity and visibility, and productivity and broader values such as relationships, and reinterpreted ordinary activities through sociocultural contexts. These insights suggest design opportunities for PI systems that move beyond tracking, toward digital instruments that help users negotiate tensions, make meaning, and reflexively understand how technologies participate in their culturally and existentially situated well-being.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

When Workout Buddies Are Virtual: AI Agents and Human Peers in a Longitudinal Physical Activity Study

Physical inactivity remains a critical global health issue, yet scalable strategies for sustained motivation are scarce. Conversational agents designed as simulated exercising peers (SEPs) represent a promising alternative, but their long-term impact is unclear. We report a six-month randomized controlled trial (N=280) comparing individuals exercising alone, with a human peer, or with a large language model-driven SEP. Results revealed a partnership paradox: human peers evoked stronger social presence, while AI peers provided steadier encouragement and more reliable working alliances. Humans motivated through authentic comparison and accountability, whereas AI peers fostered consistent, low-stakes support. These complementary strengths suggest that AI agents should not mimic human authenticity but augment it with reliability. Our findings advance human-agent interaction research and point to hybrid designs where human presence and AI consistency jointly sustain physical activity.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2021

Underground Astronauts: Understanding the Sporting Science of Speleology and its Implications for HCI

In this paper, we present a qualitative study on speleology that aims to widen the current understanding of people's practices in Nature and identify a design space for technology that supports such practices. Speleology is a practice based on the discovery, study, and dissemination of natural cavities. Speleologists are amateur experts who often collaborate with scientists and local institutions to understand the geology, hydrology, and biology of a territory. Their skills are at the same time physical, technical, and theoretical; this is why speleology is defined as a 'sporting science'. Being at the boundary between outdoor adventure sports and citizen science, speleology is an interesting case study for investigating the variety and complexity of activities carried out in the natural context. We interviewed 15 experienced speleologists to explore their goals, routines, vision of the outdoors, and attitude towards technology. From our study, it emerged that i) the excitement of discovery and the unpredictability of an explorative trip are the strongest motivations for people to engage in speleology; ii) physical skilfulness is a means for knowledge generation; iii) the practice is necessarily collective and requires group coordination. From these findings, an ambivalent attitude towards technology emerged: on the one hand, the scientific vocation of speleology welcomes technology supporting the development of knowledge; on the other hand, aspects typical of adventure sports lead to resistance to technology facilitating the physical performance. We conclude the article by presenting design considerations for devices supporting speleology, as well as a few reflections on how communities of speleologists can inspire citizen science projects.

cs.HC↗