Customisation can make health tracking on smartwatches more meaningful and engaging, yet children are rarely given the opportunity to shape the design of these wearables. To address this, as part of a technology probe, we developed a low-burden online customisation process for children with ADHD and their parents. This enabled 10 children (aged 8-11) with ADHD and a parent to rapidly customise a smartwatch application and smartphone SMS system to track their personal health data. The process had three main benefits: 1) it enabled real-time customisation of self-tracking technology probes which could be deployed with minimal development time; 2) it deepened our understanding of participants' self-tracking needs and preferences, including the importance of accessibility for children with ADHD; and 3) it enhanced children's short- and long-term engagement with the technology probe. We discuss these benefits, alongside the challenges encountered, and discuss how this approach can be applied in future studies.

Drawing is a fundamental communication tool in research involving children, offering familiarity and ease compared to writing. However, despite its use in co-design to convey ideas, children’s drawings are rarely the central focus of analysis. We aimed to gain a deeper understanding of drawings created by 10 - 11 year olds in co-design workshops that focused on developing smartwatch health data visualisations. To achieve this, we developed an initial analysis framework by combining and refining three existing taxonomies to ensure that we categorise a wide range of meaningful features efficiently. We show that this framework can systematically identify common themes and previously unnoticed elements of designs while also supporting the comparison of children’s drawings in broader literature using validated tools. Although this framework is currently focused on analysing data visualisations, it could be extended and used to analyse other types of children’s drawings.

The rise of commercial wearables for children has sparked ethical concerns about surveillance and autonomy. At a UK science fair, we engaged children aged 7-14 in a public involvement activity. Using visual analogue scales, we assessed their comfort levels in sharing wearable health data with different recipients (parents, teachers, doctors, and neighbours). Primary school children (aged 7-11) exhibited greater comfort in data sharing than their older counterparts, but they were still influenced by trust in recipients and the justification for data sharing. Notably, location data was highly sensitive with most children reluctant to share it, while they considered it advantageous to share allergy information. Secondary school children (aged 12-14) favoured sharing with doctors over parents and highlighted concerns about stigmatisation regarding their step count data due to associations with fitness. This initial involvement activity develops research questions related to children’s wearables as well as introducing design considerations for future work.