Utilizing Emoticons on Mobile Devices within ESM studies to Measure Emotions in the Field

Assessing emotions in situ while people are using technology is a difficult endeavor. Several assumptions on the concept of emotion exist in the research field of HCI and similarly several methodological approaches how to measure them. In this position paper we propose the usage of emoticons on mobile devices within experience sampling method (ESM) studies to measure emotions in-situ while the mobile device is used. Since ESM studies often requires high efforts form the participant in terms of being interrupted several times a day it is especially important for ESM studies to have a means to be able to capture quick emotional user states and responses. We present a set of five emoticons, which cover two dimensions of emotions (strength and arousal) within one scale. To our conviction these emoticons allow an intuitive option for users to state their emotions on a mobile device during an ESM study. Using a case study, we investigated the feasibility of emoticons as answer categories for questions aiming at emotional states and feelings. We found that besides the space-saving aspect of the emoticons, which is an important aspect in conducting mobile studies on small displays, findings were not biased and participants had a positive user experience towards these question types. Furthermore, the usability of the emoticons was evaluated.