Cross-Modality Matching for Evaluating User Experience of Emerging Mobile EEG Technology

Emerging technology for brain-state monitoring offers the possibility to conduct measurements outside the laboratory. However, user-experience research is lacking. In this article, we present and test an approach for determining the development of user experience in the course of time using the so-called cross-modality matching (CMM). We conducted experiments with 24 subjects and evaluated seven mobile electroencephalography (EEG) devices. Using the CMM method, we registered the headset pressure of the EEG devices and subject's mood. We are able to identify a correlation between headset pressure and mood and to observe time trends. Subjects rated the heaviest, pin-based device as less comfortable in the course of time. The gel-based EEG cap is the most comfortable device regarding its long-time properties. The CMM approach for user-experience evaluation of new EEG technologies is direct, rapid, and easy to perform. This fact creates new opportunities for future studies in the field of user experience and human factors.