"I Got Some Free Time": Investigating Task-execution and Task-effort Metrics in Mobile Crowdsourcing Tasks

Using a mixed-methods approach over six weeks, we studied 30 smartphone users’ task choices, task execution and effort devoted to two commercial mobile crowdsourcing platforms in the wild. We focused on the influence of activity contexts, characterized by breakpoint situations and activity attributes. In line with their stated preferences, the participants were more likely to proactively perform mobile crowdsourcing tasks during transitions between activities than during an ongoing activity and during long breaks, respectively. Their task choices were influenced by various activity attributes, and more impacted by their current and preceding activities than their upcoming ones. Two of our three target outcomes, task execution and task choice, were also influenced by individuals’ stress and energy levels. Our qualitative data provide further insights into participants’ decisions about which crowdsourcing tasks to perform and when; and our results’ implications for the design of future mobile crowdsourcing task-prompting mechanisms are also discussed.