Heed: Exploring the Design of Situated Self-Reporting Devices.

In-situ self-reporting is a widely used data collection technique for understanding people's behavior in context. Characteristics of smartphones such as their high proliferation, close proximity to their users, and heavy use have made them a popular choice for applications that require frequent self-reporting. Newer device categories such as wearables and voice assistants offer their own advantages, providing an opportunity to explore a wider range of self-reporting approaches. In this paper, we focus on exploring the design space of Situated Self-Reporting (SSR) devices. We present the Heed system, consisting of simple, low-cost, and low-power SSR devices that are distributed in the environment of the user and can be appropriated for reporting measures such as stress, sleepiness, and activities. In two real-world studies with 10 and 7 users, we compared and analyzed the use of smartphone and Heed devices to uncover differences in their use due to the influence of factors such as situational and social context, notification types, and physical design. Our findings show that Heed devices complemented smartphones in the coverage of activities, locations and interaction preferences. While the advantage of Heed was its single-purpose and dedicated location, smartphones provided mobility and flexibility of use.