About me

👋🏼 I’m an HCI researcher at the intersection of technology, behavior, and health.

I am currently a Ph.D. candidate studying health informatics at the School of Information, University of Michigan. Co-advised by Dr. Mark W. Newman and Dr. Pedja Klasnja, I study how mobile health (mHealth) technologies can help people build a healthy and positive relationship with health behaviors for sustainable behavior change.

Google Scholar Behance LinkedIn

Soo Ji Serisse Choi

soojc@umich.edu

I focus on advancing mobile health (mHealth) interventions that help individuals build healthy, long-term relationships with health behaviors such as physical activity, with a focus on middle-aged to older adult demographics. By integrating insights from behavioral health psychology with human-centered design, my work aims to understand the underlying causes and mechanisms of health behaviors and create interventions that are both effective and tailored to users' dynamic and personal needs. My goal is to bridge the fields of HCI and health, designing solutions that empower individuals to make lasting, meaningful changes and improve their well-being in their everyday lives.

Keywords: Human-centered Design (HCD), User Experience (UX), Long-term Behavior Change, Physical Activity, Intrinsic Motivation, Affective associations and Beliefs, Perceived Value, Personalized and Adaptive Interventions.

Relative fields: mobile Health (mHealth), Human-computer Interaction (HCI), Behavioral Science and Psychology, Personal Health Informatics, Preventive Medicine, Digital Therapeutics (DTx).

Research Methods: Needs Assessments and Interviews, Participatory Designs and Co-designs, Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs), Factorial Designs, Just-in-time Adaptive Interventions (JITAIs), Micro-randomized Trials (MRT).

Selected Publications

Improving Affective Associations with Physical Activity via Message-Based MobileHealth Intervention: A Proof-of-concept Study of the WalkToJoy Hybrid Factorial,Micro-randomized Trial

First author, JMIR
Pre-submission

Evaluating An mHealth Just-In-TimeAdaptive Intervention (JITAI) For Managing Hypertension: Findings On Dynamic Shifts In User Needs And Perceived Value Of Intervention Support

First author
Pre-submission

Improving affective valuations of physical activity with mobile technology: A protocol for a hybrid factorial/micro-randomized trial

First author
Submitted on August 2022

Master's Thesis

Choi, S. J. (2022). Improving affective valuations of physical activity with mobile technology: A protocol for a hybrid factorial/micro-randomized trial. Deep Blue. https://dx.doi.org/10.7302/5862

A Physical Activity Just-in-time Adaptive Intervention Designed in Partnership With a Predominantly Black Community: Virtual, Community-Based Participatory Design

Co-author, JMIR Formative Research
Published on March 2022

Journal Article

Robles, M. C., Newman, M. W., Doshi, A., Bailey, S., Huang, L., Choi, S. J., ... & Skolarus, L. E. (2022). A Physical Activity Just-in-time Adaptive Intervention Designed in Partnership With a Predominantly Black Community: Virtual, Community-Based Participatory Design Approach. JMIR Formative Research, 6(3), e33087.

Evaluation of Visual Induced Motion Sickness from Head Mounted Display using Heartbeat Evoked Potential: A Cognitive Load-Focused Approach

Co-author, Virtual Reality
Published on December 2021

Journal Article

Park, S., Kim, L., Kwon, J., Choi S. J., & Whang M. (2021). Evaluation of visual-induced motion sickness from head-mounted display using heartbeat evoked potential: a cognitive load-focused approach. Virtual Reality. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-021-00600-8

Method and apparatus for measuring emotional contagion

Co-inventor, Virtual Reality
Published on December 2021

Patent

Park, S. I., Whang, M. C., Choi, S. J., Lee, D. W., & Mun, S. C. (2021). U.S. Patent Application No. 16/906,791.

Measurement of emotional contagion using synchronization of heart rhythm pattern between two persons: Application to sales managers and sales force synchronization

Second Author, Journal of Physiology & Behavior
Published on March 2019

Journal Article

Park, S., Choi, S. J., Mun, S., & Whang, M. (2019). Measurement of emotional contagion using synchronization of heart rhythm pattern between two persons: Application to sales managers and sales force synchronization. Physiology & behavior, 200, 148-158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.04.022

Development of ‘LightMeCup’ prototypes using entry-level 3D printers

First Author, HCI Korea 2019 Conference
Presented on January 2019

Conference Presentation

Choi, S. J., Lee, S., & Won, M. (2019). Development of ‘LightMeCup’ prototypes using entry-level 3D printers.
HCI Korea 2019 Conference of the HCI Society of Korea (pp. 932-937).

Recent Projects

Walk2Joy 2.0. Improving Affective Associations and Identity with Physical Activity for Middle-aged to Older Adults with an Adaptive mHealth Intervention. MRT Study.

In preperation

2025 - Ongoing

MOVIN-HF. MObile health intervention to INcrease activity in Heart Failure. Human-Centered Design Study.

NHLBI (NIH) Grant Funded

2025 - Ongoing

ADAPT. A mHealth Physical Activity Intervention for Cardiac Rehab Patients. A Formative Study, and A Micro-Randomized Trial.

NIH Grant Funded

2024 - Ongoing

myBPmyLife2. A mHealth, Multi-behavioral JITAI Intervention for Managing Medication Adherence for Hypertension Management.

Part of the WIRED-L Center, AHA funded

2024 - Ongoing

myBPmyLife. A mHealth, Multi-behavioral JITAI Intervention for Hypertension Management. A Participatory Design, RCT with embedded MRT Study.

Part of the WIRED-L Center, AHA funded

2021 - 2024

WalkToJoy. Improving Affective Associations with Physical Activity with Message-based mHealth Intervention: An Intrinsic Approach to Behavior Change. Proof-of-concept Study.

Funded by the School of Information, University of Michigan

2021 - 2024