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.

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) is a method of in situ data collection for assessment of behaviors, states, and contexts. Questions are prompted during everyday life using an individual’s mobile device, thereby reducing recall bias and increasing validity over other self-report methods such as retrospective recall. We describe a microinteraction-based EMA method (“micro” EMA, or μEMA) using smartwatches, where all EMA questions can be answered with a quick glance and a tap – nearly as quickly as checking the time on a watch. A between-subjects, 4-week pilot study was conducted where μEMA on a smartwatch (n=19) was compared with EMA on a phone (n=14). Despite an ≈8 times increase in the number of interruptions, μEMA had a significantly higher compliance rate, completion rate, and first prompt response rate, and μEMA was perceived as less distracting. The temporal density of data collection possible with μEMA could prove useful in ubiquitous computing studies.