Assessing the use of a portable time-geographic diary for detecting patterns of daily occupations

Abstract

Background

A time-geographic diary approach is of interest in occupational therapy due to the inclusion of the diarist’s subjective experiences. There are several methods for detecting doing in time, but details needed for analysis are still lacking. The smartphone application POrtable Diary Data collector (PODD), a 24-hr diary based on the time-geographic diary has recently been introduced.

Aim

To test the usability of PODD as a tool for diary data collection to detect and visualize sequences of daily activities.

Material and methods

An exploratory sequential design was used, where diary data was first collected and then followed by a questionnaire assessing usefulness. Thirty-one occupational therapy students participated. Usability testing was applied, exploring how participants experienced the use of the device. Data was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively.

Results

The PODD visually presents activity sequences and thus assists in detecting patterns of daily occupations (PDO). The students agreed on the supportive statements concerning learnability, efficiency and memorability. Regarding errors and satisfaction, participants agreed that the device was easy to use.

Conclusions

Using a mobile application to collect data about students’ daily activities was effective. However, the PODD needs to be further evaluated among other groups and contexts as well as for its usefulness for PDO analyses.

Keywords:

• Exploratory sequential design
• occupational therapy
• smartphone application
• time-geography
• usability

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Media Technology and Engineering students at Linköping University who were involved in refining the design of PODD and the Occupational Therapy students at Lund University who participated in the study.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. All authors are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.