Intimate Data as Design Material: Designing Tracking Practices for Menstruating Athletes

Authors

Alina Wundsam, Delft University of Technology, The NetherlandsFollow
Alejandra Gomez Ortega, Delft University of Technology, The NetherlandsFollow
Nazli Cila, Delft University of Technology, The NetherlandsFollow

Abstract

There is a significant knowledge gap concerning the female body in sports partly due to research in sports physiology narrowly focusing on male athletes. It means hormonal changes around the menstrual cycle have been disregarded from critical considerations and recommendations about training and planning. Similarly, digital tracking technologies, which play an increasingly important role in sports, often overlook the menstrual cycle or invite athletes to reduce a situated and embodied experience into a discrete data point. In this paper, we use intimate data as material to design tracking practices for menstruating athletes. Specifically, we use the principles of Data Feminism of examining and challenging power to (1) underline current issues and practices of menstruating athletes through a large-scale survey, and (2) propose an alternative tracking solution through a participatory co-creation session with athletes and their intimate data. We reflect on the process of designing with and for intimate data.

Keywords

personal data; intimate data; data feminism

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.540

Citation

Wundsam, A., Gomez Ortega, A., and Cila, N. (2024) Intimate Data as Design Material: Designing Tracking Practices for Menstruating Athletes, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.540

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Conference Track

Research Paper