Paper Summary: |
This paper presents a technique borrowed from psychology, the experience sampling method (ESM), to evaluate ubiquitous applications. Although similar to other recall-based techniques (surveys, self-reporting, interviews, diaries), ESM attempts to reduce recall errors by sampling participants about their current activities.
ESM is a time- or activity-based system that asks participants to answer a series of questions at time-based intervals or directly following a specific activity. Participants are alerted when it is time to complete a new questionnaire and are asked about their current activities or feelings, thus reducing the cognitive error involved in other recall-based methodologies.
In addition, a project team can use ESM to gather data from a sample large enough to statistically evaluate the data. Most studies typically involve 30-80 participants over one to three weeks, with each participant receiving up to 10 alerts a day.
The article proceeds to describe the type of alerts possible (random, scheduled, event-based), delivery mechanisms (audible, tactile), questionnaire design, delivery mechanism, etc. The paper points out that when setting up a study, researchers need to take all of these factors into account to ensure that the procedure is suitable for the audience and the type of information being gathered.
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