Microinteraction Ecological Momentary Assessment Response Rates: Effect of Microinteractions or the Smartwatch?

Abstract

Mobile-based ecological-momentary-assessment (EMA) is an in-situ measurement methodology where an electronic device prompts a person to answer questions of research interest. EMA has a key limitation: interruption burden. Microinteraction-EMA(μEMA) may reduce burden without sacrificing high temporal density of measurement. In μEMA, all EMA prompts can be answered with 'at a glance' microinteractions. In a prior 4-week pilot study comparing standard EMA delivered on a phone (phone-EMA) vs. μEMA delivered on a smartwatch (watch-μEMA), watch-μEMA demonstrated higher response rates and lower perceived burden than phone-EMA, even when the watch-μEMA interruption rate was 8 times more than phone-EMA. A new 4-week dataset was gathered on smartwatch-based EMA (i.e., watch-EMA with 6 back-to-back, multiple-choice questions on a watch) to compare whether the high response rates of watch-μEMA previously observed were a result of using microinteractions, or due to the novelty and accessibility of the smartwatch. No statistically significant differences in compliance, completion, and first-prompt response rates were observed between phone-EMA and watch-EMA. However, watch-μEMA response rates were significantly higher than watch-EMA. This pilot suggests that (1) the high compliance and low burden previously observed in watch-μEMA is likely due to the microinteraction question technique, not simply the use of the watch versus the phone, and that (2) compliance with traditional EMA (with long surveys) may not improve simply by moving survey delivery from the phone to a smartwatch.

Keywords: Compliance; Ecological Momentary Assessment; Empirical Studies; Experience Sampling; Microinteractions; Smartwatch; Wearable computing.

Figures

Fig. 1.

(a) Single question with yes/just-a-little/no answer on watch-μEMA (from [21]), (b) One of the 6 questions in each phone-EMA question set (from [21]), and (c) One of the 6 questions in the watch-EMA question set, showing required scrolling to view all the answer options (from this study).

Fig. 2.

(Left) Response behavior of watch-EMA compared with phone-EMA and watch-μEMA (from the previous study) including outliers. (Right) Perceived burden (% participants reporting high interruption and high distraction) of watch-EMA compared with phone-EMA and watch-μEMA (from the previous study) over 4-weeks.

Fig. 3.

Trends in compliance and completion rates of watch-EMA compared with phone-EMA and watch-μEMA (from the previous study) for a period of 4-weeks.