A Framework for Analysing Mobile and Ubiquitous Service Scenarios

It is becoming more evident that the future wireless mobile and ubiquitous telecommunication systems need to be developed starting from the users needs and wishes rather than starting purely from advanced technology platforms. In this paper we will describe and give examples of a scenario-based analysis and design approach for future service and user-interface development for future systems. Wireless systems need to be developed in harmony with the services they carry and in conjunction with the users. The interface between the service and the user needs to be rich enough to fulfill the users need, yet simple enough to be easy to use and learn. There are several conflicting needs that make the design very difficult. In our approach we propose separation of concerns an incremental, iterative approach for development. To speed up development we propose early visibility of services through partial service scenarios and use of different levels of abstraction and detail during the lifecycle of development in order to narrow-down design choices yet allow creativity and innovation. 1. Motivation In real life there is no single, objective user, but a numerous human consumers with time and culture varying in subjective preferences. This makes it difficult to design new services, because the users’ explicit needs are not known. Traditionally engineers guestimate the needs and rename them “requirements”. The design progresses continues on refining these requirements into design specification, etc. The weaknesses in the design process front-end explains why recent major service development efforts by the wireless industry, such as WAP and GPRS, didn’t sufficiently meet user expectations and thus are not ramping up sales as expected. Instead of traditional engineering design approaches, we propose to start looking into a biological view of system development through Darwinian evolution, i.e. try to encourage diversification through experimentation (“mutations”), and to evaluate and constrain the best variations for further development (“breeding”) through a value function framework (“selection by nature”). In the highly competitive field of wireless services, a growing diversity of service offerings is foreseen anyway because of each companies need to differentiate themselves from the competition and add value. What is needed is an accelerated evolutionary/Darwinian development process to speed-up development and increases the service deployments to the users. 2. Analysis Framework Our proposal, in this paper, is to create a common design space for the service providers that is well linked to the user model in such a way as to allow sharing the experience of designers in their service creation process. We are considering the use of three orthogonal dimensions, service scenarios, interaction elements, and application elements as a combination of permutations in the design space that will help describe the exploratory research and design. These three dimensions have been identified within WWRF WG1 work as essential research directions and they are, for the purpose of this paper, sufficiently explained in WWRF Book of Visions 2001 [BoV2001]. The idea of three-dimensional orthogonal design space had been derived from CIM-OSA reference model [Rambold93] for computer-integrated manufacturing and business process re-engineering fields. The service scenario viewpoint is the starting point for the service to be developed. Instead of full specification of the service, its interfaces and data, we use partial descriptions that describe a thread of actions in a typical use of the service. The service scenario is a rich visual representation, e.g. a video of a traditional Use Case method used in object oriented design methodologies. To capture the service scenario starting from basic ideas a typical chain of storyboard -> video(s) -> virtual prototype(s) -> physical prototype(s) usability studies field trial(s) is followed. The interactions viewpoint brings the channels and modalities of the user interaction with the service. Beside traditional displays, keyboards, switches, microphones, loudspeakers, tone generators, etc., advanced modalities such as augmented reality, head-mounted-display and haptic interfaces can be incorporated in future mobile services. Going beyond the conventional modalities is important to reach better broadband access to the senses. Traditional modalities have been mainly designed from narrowband interaction in mind. The primitives’ viewpoint brings in the standardization issues, enforcing the use of well-thought, easy-to-learn basic building blocks for service development. The aim is to share as much as possible the primitives already used by existing services. Introduction of new primitives need to be supported with metaphors that are conceptually clear, understandable and reusable for other services in the cultural target region of the service whether it is global or restricted. As a value function framework we propose understanding the user as a combination of economic (consumer), social (community) and behavioural (components. As a starting point to develop this model we have studied the divided self model proposed in [Timor97]. We are also studying the potential to use Quality Function Deployment (QFD) techniques [Day93] as a multi-dimension, matrix-based value function bookkeeping technique to be used for propagating the understanding of the user needs as constraints to design process. QFD is heavily used in automobile industries to design for customer satisfaction. 3. Cyphone Taxi-Trip Example In the following we present an example of analysing an future mobile ubiquitous communication scenario Cyphone Taxi Trip. The scenario can be downloaded as a videoclip from [Cyphone99]. The purpose of this example is only to illustrate the use of the proposed “Rubik Cube” (see Figure 1) analysis framework as it is currently under research. Figure 1 The proposed analysis framework based on the WWRF/WG1 research dimensions forming the three dimensional design space/“Rubik Cube” constrained by the needs deriving from understanding the user. Figure 2 The Taxi trip scenario analysis. Field Name Description See through The interaction with a see through type of device (ex. AR see through glasses) Messaging The interaction based on messages (ex. SMS) Filters The interactive filters based on profiles (ex. Ring tones profiles) Bluetooth Communication Standard RF-identifiers RFId Standard for identification between devices Profiles Profiles as they were described in Cyphone (a primitive) ServiceDescovery The way the device is seek and finds a service Navigator The way the user can navigate indoors or outside Secretary Digital assistants Mcommerce Mobile Commerce (the way the user can use the device to pay) 4. Acknowledgements The study has been carried out within Wireless Strategic Initiative project (EU/IST/WSI). The example scenario derives from Cyphone and Paula projects. The Cyphone scenario and figures is originally designed by Prof. Kari Kuutti. An earlier version of this paper has been submitted to Wireless World Research Forum WG1 User in the driving seat –Working Group. List of References [Kuran97] Kuran, T., (1997) Private truths, public lies. The social consequences of preference falsification. Harward University Press, Cambridge. 423 p. Second printing 1997. [Rambold93] Rambold,N., Storr, (1993), Computer Integrated Manufacturing, McGrawHill [BoV2001] The Book of Visions 2001, Wireless World Research Forum, 275p., (2001) also web page: http://www.wireless-world-research.org/ accessed February 2002 [Day93] Day, R.G., (1993), Quality Function Deployment: Linking a Company with Its Customers, ASOC Quality Press, Milwaukee, WI, USA, 1993 [Cyphone99] Internet, Paula Project web page (accessed February 2002): http://paula.oulu.fi/index.php3?dir=Publications&click=Cyphone