Design of an experience monitoring and sampling system for context-aware mobile applications

Abstract

This thesis discusses about an empirical study to design an experience monitoring and sampling system for context-aware mobile phone applications. We designed a new experience sampling method (ESM) research system, and the research system is characterized by context-aware experience sampling, synchronous data management for real-time monitoring of user contexts and experience, supporting data analyzing tools, and integrating ESM with ex-situ diary. This thesis aims to design a better ESM research system and to provide an experience report for researchers who want to develop another experience sampling system. We can report design considerations, design specifications, and qualitative and empirical result of two experiments. With the implemented system, we held two experiments that evaluated three applications and proposed design of ESM system. From the experiment, we could confirm the experience sampling system has enough ability to evaluate the mobile phone applications, and what functionalities are required in the future. Also, we could discover usefulness of monitoring, diary and new data analysis tools. Finally, we discuss about how we can design a better experience sampling system.