Using MoodSnap

Controls

The controls at the bottom of the screen provide access to all the features in MoodSnap.

History feed

MoodSnap records your mood history by taking MoodSnaps, a single sheet questionaire about your mood levels, symptoms and activities. These are displayed in your feed, along with any events, diary or photo diary entries you take.

Taking MoodSnaps

MoodSnaps are snapshots of your mood levels, symptoms and activities. When taking a MoodSnap your entries should reflect the maximum respective degrees experienced since the most recent MoodSnap and within the last 24 hours.

For the statistical tools to work correctly it is best to take MoodSnaps on a regular basis, for example at the same time every evening. You can enable reminders for this within Settings.

For people with mood disorders it is recommended taking additional MoodSnaps anytime you become aware of significant changes in mood levels or symptoms, as this additional data benefits analysis. There aren’t any limits on how often you take MoodSnaps.

The sliders at the top of the MoodSnap window snap to five increments, ranging from none to extreme.

Symptoms, activities, social experiences, events & hashtags

Within the MoodSnap panel the toggle buttons allow you to specify symptoms you’ve experienced, as well as activites you’ve undertaken and social experiences you’ve had in the same period. The hardcoded list includes a number of mood-influencing activities and social experiences. These are referred to in the Insights panel, described further down.

In addition to the hardcoded list you can add any additional custom symptoms, activities or experiences using #hashtags. Any words entered as a #hashtag in MoodSnap notes, event or diary text will similarly be used as points of reference in the Insights panel.

Events are any major life changes that you might want to look back upon as a point of reference when looking at your mood history. These could include changes in jobs, relationships, place of residence, lifestyle changes, or changes in medication or treatment. In the Insights panel these can be chosen as points of reference to see how things compare before and after the event.

Diary & photo diary

Timestamped notes are for jotting down anything at all. It could be a quick note about something important that affected your mood at the time, or you could use it to keep a diary.

Sometimes words aren’t enough and only a picture can capture the moment. You can use the Photo diary feature to take photos that are inserted into your history feed.

Emergency information

If you feel unsafe or panic, have a look at the help page for information on emergency services and helplines around the world.

Insights

All the important information derived from your MoodSnap history is provided in the Insights panel.

The Insights panel provides a number of graphs that visualise your mood history and several statistical indicators that can be helpful in understanding how different activites and life events affect your mood.

Timescale

The timescale tabs at the top of the Insights panel specifies the range over which the statistics below are calculated and displayed.

Average mood

The average mood panel displays your average mood and volatility levels over the specified time period.

Mood history

The Mood history plot presents the four mood indicators as bar charts in units of days.

Moving average

The moving average plot shows a sliding window moving average of the same four indicators, showing trends over time.

Volatility

People with conditions such as bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder sometimes experience highly volatile moods. The Volatility plot visualises this as a sliding window standard deviation for each of the four mood indicators. When a mood level remains constant within the window, the volatility is zero. If it oscillates or suddenly changes within the window it increases.

Note how in the example graphics the increase in volatility of depression corresponds to the sudden major change in the depression level, and the increased volatility of elevation is associated with oscillations in the elevation level.

Tally

The tally displays the number of occurrences of different activites, symptoms, social experiences and hashtags within the specified time window.

Influences

The Influences table provides numerical correlations showing the extent to which mood and volatility levels change following different activities and symptoms. Additionally, you can use #hashtags entered in any text field within MoodSnaps, diary entries or events as additional custom points of reference.

The color-coded numbers reflects the average difference between the respective levels after and before the activity. The numbers in brackets show how many samples contribute to the calculation.

Transients

The Transient plot is centered around a particular event or type of activity, showing the mood trend going backwards and forward in time around that point, indicated by the vertical bar in the center. The value is calculated as the average from the centre point to the time shown on the axis. This provides an indication of what the mood trends are going into and coming out of different activities or events over different timescales.

The dropdown menu underneath the plot allows you to specify which activity type, symptom or event to center around.

The example above is centered around the event of drinking caffeine, indicating relatively flat changes in mood levels.

The number in brackets above the plot indicates the number of samples that contribute to the statistics, while the colored numbers show the associated Influence numbers, given by the differences between the right and left edges of the plot.

Settings

Here you can set reminders so you receive notifications to keep MoodSnapping at regular times. You can also toggle the visibility of items in the symptoms and activities lists, generate PDF reports, import/export data, and change the theme.

PDF reports

From within Settings you can generate a PDF report for the last 30 days, suitable for printing or sharing. The report shows the period’s average mood & volatility, mood history, moving average & volatility, and influences. You can optionally include diary entries into the report and choose between black & white or color PDF generation.

Visibility

Since not all activities and symptoms are relevant to everyone (and quite a few are included), you can toggle their visibility under Settings to streamline the interface and focus on what’s important to you.

Hiding items does not delete any recorded data and can always be changed again at a later stage.

Themes

Under Settings, several color themes are available. Most importantly, a color blind theme is available, based on the IBM Color Blind Safe Palette, which is deuteranopia, protanopia and tritanopia friendly.

Interpretation guide

See here for details on how to interpret MoodSnap’s plots and statistics.