DAYNAMICA
Platform
Sensing that runs quietly in the background of someone's real life
Traditional methods for collecting time use, activity, and travel behavior data are cumbersome, putting excessive burden on study participants. Daynamica leverages cutting-edge mobile sensing to automatically capture highly granular digital trails of human mobility and daily experiences with minimal user burden.
Our research-grade smartphone application discreetly collects precise details on activity patterns, travel behaviors, and environmental contexts that shape real-world decisions and outcomes. Both iOS and Android versions provide seamless, passive data collection tailored to each study's requirements. The app detects each activity and trip on its own; participants see what it found and add what sensors can't know, such as purpose, companions, or how they felt.
Why researchers choose Daynamica
- Comprehensive data. Daynamica captures many more dimensions of travel behavior data than either travel surveys or GPS sensing alone.
- Lower respondent burden. Because it automatically collects data on several trip attributes, Daynamica puts a much lower time burden on respondents than traditional travel survey methods, and participants don't need to carry any extra device.
- More accurate data. Because users can see trip information derived from sensor data before entering additional information, Daynamica minimizes recall bias and reporting errors.
- Richer data. Lower user burden lets you lengthen the study period from a typical day to a week or more, enabling analysis of weekday/weekend differences and other variation.
- Reduced post-processing and cost. Daynamica collects and processes data in real time, locally on the smartphone, reducing the post-processing burden on your team.
Customizing it for your study
Daynamica's platform can be customized for research settings investigating the impacts of the built environment, transportation systems accessibility, urban design influences, neighborhood and environmental effects on health behaviors, and more. Surveys can be attached to specific kinds of episodes, such as the end of each trip, and can carry validated instruments from your field.
In the time toxicity of cancer care study, for example, health care episodes prompt questions about what kind of care it was and how long the participant waited. Answers arrive already attached to the visit's time, place, and duration.
Our technologies also enable delivering personalized just-in-time interventions triggered by objectively observed contexts and behaviors. In the University of Minnesota's parking contract holder study, for example, the app took car trips participants had actually made and showed them a transit, park-and-ride, bike, or walking alternative for that same trip, with its time, cost, and emissions.
Wearable sensor integrations
We can work with you to build custom integrations that capture data from wearable sensors, link it with data from the Daynamica app, and store it securely on the cloud — for example, our integration with the Empatica E4 wristband.
Where the data goes
Complementing our data collection capabilities, Daynamica provides an integrated suite of secure cloud tools for data storage and study management: a data quality dashboard for your study team during collection, and exports for analysis when it's done. See Data Storage & Management for details.
Participants with questions about battery, data use, or privacy can start with the Participant FAQ.
See it running against your study design
Tell us your population, protocol length, and any wearables you're already using. We'll walk through your protocol and tell you exactly how the app would capture it.