Contextual Experience Sampling of Mobile Application Micro-Usage

Research suggests smartphone users face "application overload", but literature lacks an in-depth investigation of how users manage their time on smartphones. In a 3-week study we collected smartphone application usage patterns from 21 participants to study how they manage their time interacting with the device. We identified events we term application micro-usage: brief bursts of interaction with applications. While this practice has been reported before, it has not been investigated in terms of the context in which it occurs (e.g., location, time, trigger and social context). In a 2-week follow-up study with 15 participants, we captured participants' context while micro-using, with a mobile experience sampling method (ESM) and weekly interviews. Our results show that about approximately 40% of application launches last less than 15 seconds and happen most frequently when the user is at home and alone. We further discuss the context, taxonomy and implications of application micro-usage in our field. We conclude with a brief reflection on the relevance of short-term interaction observations for other domains beyond mobile phones.