Participants’ Compliance and Experiences with Self-Tracking Using a Smartphone Sensing App
Abstract
Self-tracking studies using smartphone sensing apps provide researchers with a great deal of detailed personal behavioral data. These methods promise to provide many insights into the links between everyday behaviors and well-being outcomes (e.g., physical and mental health). However, a better understanding of participants' compliance and experiences with self-tracking using smartphones is needed. Here we report on preliminary findings from a large scale self-tracking assignment that college students (N = 575) completed within the context of an online course. Specifically, we explored (1) compliance rates during the 14 days of the self-tracking assignment, and (2) students' experiences with the self-tracking assignment (e.g., satisfaction, perceived intrusiveness, self-insight). We also explored differences among iOS and Android users and discuss how the findings can be used in future study design.