Assessing Stress with Mobile Systems: A Design Science Approach

Psychological stress is detrimental to individuals’ health and incurs immense societal costs. A prerequisite for effective assistance in stress management is assessing individuals’ stress. The sensing capabilities of modern mobile devices can aid in stress assessment and form a foundation for mobile stress assessment systems. These systems provide insights into user stress levels, provide targeted feedback, and enable stress management and coping efforts. Following design science research methodology, we iteratively designed and developed five mobile stress assessment system prototypes. In addition, we reviewed the existing literature on mobile stress assessment. By combining learnings from prototyping and reviewing existing approaches, we developed design knowledge for mobile stress assessment systems. We subjected this design knowledge to an applicability check involving qualitative interviews with research, system design, and work practice experts. The design knowledge we present in this article comprises six design requirements, seven design principles, and six design features. From a practical point of view, we identified and discussed the trade-offs that system designers may face when implementing mobile stress assessment systems.