From Paper to Play - Design and Validation of a Smartphone Based Cognitive Fatigue Assessment Application

This paper investigates the user experience design of a smartphone application for the objective assessment of cognitive fatigue. This is as an alter- native to using an established paper questionnaire that offers subjective self- assessment. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, challenges relating to the usa- bility and the efficacy of the smartphone assessment tool were explored. Fur- thermore, to enable validation of the proposed new approach, challenges relating to how best to deliver the traditionally paper-based questionnaire on a smartphone display, while retaining the validity of the measure it affords, had to be addressed. Results show that the smartphone based cognitive testing methods was comparable to outcomes from the pre validated mobile based Mental Fa- tigue Scale. Participant feedback showed that the smartphone-based approach offered a more acceptable and engaging user experience, while retaining the ability to accurately measure cognitive fatigue.