Ecological Momentary Assessment Tools: Lessons Learned from an {HCI} Perspective

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) is a popular family of tools in behavioural research that is known for its ability to capture in detail fluctuating phenomena while minimizing bias. They consist of short questions to be answered many times per day. Still, participants often perceive EMA-based studies as burdening, resulting in a low compliance rate. A good design of the EMA study - in terms of what to measure, how to put questions to the users, and when - is fundamental to minimize the above drawback and improve participants’ compliance. Our research focuses on the “how” dimension of EMA design, looking at it through the lens of HCI. We performed an empirical study devoted to explore this specific design aspect, exposing 20 users to different formulations of EMA questions in the same domain for 2 weeks. From the study results, we distilled some lessons learned related to the design of the EMA User Experience, which can benefit future designers of this assessment tool.