Designing with Emerging Science Developing an Alternative Frame for Self-Tracking TOM JENKINS Department of Digital Design, IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, tomje@itu.dk LAURENS BOER Department of Digital Design, IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, laub@itu.dk SARAH HOMEWOOD Department of Digital Design, IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, shom@itu.dk TERESA ALMEIDA Department of Informatics, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden, teresa.almeida@umu.se ANNA VALLGÅRDA Department of Digital Design, IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, akav@itu.dk The emerging science of the “gut-brain axis” has been used as the basis for self-tracking technologies assuming that this connection can be used productively for better regulating mood, supporting digestive health, and avoiding disease. Taking this emerging science as a source of design inspiration, this paper presents a design research process to uncover opportunities for novel interaction design and generate alternative approaches to self-tracking. We explored how this emerging scientific knowledge might be experienced and used and what these design spaces might look like through designing a self-tracking probe and asking science communicators working with the gut-brain axis to live with that probe. Their reactions led to a set of exploratory interaction design briefs and a more refined research product that collectively articulate how design can engage with emerging science to inspire a new perspective on self-tracking practices—one of cultivation rather than control. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centred computing~Interaction design process and methods Additional Keywords and Phrases: Self-Tracking Devices, Probes, Expert Involvement, Gut-Brain Axis ACM Reference Format: TBD 1 INTRODUCTION Self-tracking technologies facilitate the production of knowledge about the body through the collection of data. Self- tracking devices are used to document the data over time in relation to inner body processes, such as menstrual cycles, heart rate and pulse, and external behaviors such as diet and exercise habits, such as step counting [44,50]. HCI has been