A playful experience sampling method to report emotions using smartwatches and emojis

Understanding daily emotional fluctuations has many benefits, and the Experience Sampling Method can be used to assess daily emotions. However, this method requires frequent reporting throughout the day, making continuous reporting difficult, and a simpler reporting method is required. Therefore, this study proposed a simple Experience Sampling Method using emojis and smartwatches in a playful way. To examine the usefulness of the proposed method, we conducted a 14-day survey on daily emotional fluctuations using the proposed method and the conventional text-based Experience Sampling Method and compared their reporting rates. The results showed that the proposed method had a significantly higher reporting rate than the conventional method. The new ESM method developed in this study can easily capture emotional fluctuations and is expected to be used for the evaluation and analysis of emotional states and user experiences in daily life. • Introduction of a Novel ESM System: Proposed an innovative Experience Sampling Method (ESM) combining smartwatches and emojis to simplify and enhance the process of recording emotional fluctuations in daily life. • Significant Improvement in Reporting Rates: Demonstrated that the proposed ESM method achieves significantly higher reporting rates compared to traditional text-based ESM methods, making it more practical for continuous emotional data collection. • Intuitive and Accessible Emotional Indicators: Leveraged emojis as reporting indicators, which reduced cognitive load and improved usability, particularly on the smaller screens of smartwatches. • System Design and Implementation: Developed a smartwatch application using the Fitbit Sense, which includes features such as regular nudges and an emoji-based emotion reporting interface, ensuring seamless and frequent emotion logging. • Potential for Mental Health Applications: Highlighted the system’s potential to support mental health by enabling individuals to continuously record and intuitively understand their emotional states, contributing to mood improvement and metacognitive awareness.