5 December 2017 | Volume 21, Issue 4 GetMobile conducted a review of the literature to establish an initial set of possible constructs within a model of user burden. Our initial version of the model consisted of eight types of burdens: accessibility, fnancial, social, time, privacy, physical, mental, and emotional. We then conducted a validation of the model via interviews, rounds of survey deployments and factor analysis. Te interview study with 12 participants provided a deeper understanding on user burden, several rounds of survey deployments helped to refne a set of possible items and principal component analysis (PCA) helped to fnd core constructs of user burden. Trough this process, some constructs got merged or were renamed and the fnal model of user burden consists of 6 constructs: 1) difculty of use, 2) physical, 3) mental s designers and researchers, we have been interested in trying to systemati- cally understand these diferent types of burdens to gain a broader sense of the overall user experience – both the good and the bad. We hypothesize that an application may have a positive efect on the user, but if the user burden is not also considered, users may be reluctant to adopt it, may have an overall negative experience while using it, or abandon it altogether. Tus, it is important for designers to be able to understand and assess the user burden to improve the overall design and user experience. A MODEL OF USER BURDEN IN COMPUTING SYSTEMS In our research, we set out to develop a model of user burden as well as a measure of it. Trough an iterative process, we frst & emotional, 4) time & social, 5) fnancial, and 6) privacy. Te sidebar (page 6) shows the full defnition of each construct, as well as an example mobile or wearable application that might contribute to that burden. MEASURING USER BURDEN USING A VALIDATED MEASURE In conjunction with developing our model, we also developed and validated a survey tool that can be used to help understand and measure the user burden of a given system. Te survey tool, called the User Burden Scale [3], is a 20-item questionnaire that can be given to end users of your systems to measure its user burden in 6 diferent categories, aligned with the 6 constructs of the user burden model. We validated the survey with 375 participants on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, who completed the Editor: Julie A. Kientz Julie A. Kientz and Hyewon Suh University of Washington, Seattle, WA UNDERSTANDING AND ASSESSING THE USER BURDEN OF MOBILE APPS When evaluating the design of a mobile app, many designers focus on a number of varying metrics related to the user experience, namely its usability, look and feel, usefulness, and overall delight that users experience when using it. However, even the most usable, beautiful, and delightful application can have an impact on its user in a negative way. Have you ever thought about how the application might burden the user, even in light of these positive attributes? For example, maybe the game that you designed to be irresistibly engaging makes the user feel guilty about how much time she spends with it. Or consider how a food-tracking application, which allows the user to take photos of his food to monitor his diet, may violate his family rules about no phones at the dinner table. Perhaps the ftness tracker you’ve designed to help people be more active only serves to make them feel badly about themselves for not exercising afer sustaining an injury. Illustration, istockphoto.com [ EXPERIMENTAL METHODS ]