Using Speculative Design to Understand Preferred Futures for the Design and Use of Tracking Data in U.S. College Sport Teams

DOI

US college sports teams are increasingly adopting personal data technologies, such as wearable sensors, with a goal of improving individual and team performance as well as individual safety. Previous research has noted the potential for these tools to reinforce the power that coaches hold over student-athletes and compromise student-athletes' needs for privacy and agency. To investigate preferred, and anti-preferred, approaches for navigating this complex sociotechnical challenge, we used a speculative design approach in which student athletes and technology design students developed three videos that portray tensions between student-athletes and coaches around the use of sports tracking technologies. We then shared these videos with 15 participants including student-athletes, coaches, and designers. Drawing on the perspectives of student-athletes, team staff, and designers embedded in the videos and expressed in reaction to the videos, we describe preferences for boundaries on tracking and sharing, how tracking data represent athletes, and for data practices. We also propose design requirements and recommendations for use to better align tracking technologies with these preferences.