Development of a Conceptual Framework for Improving Safety for Pedestrians Using Smartphones While Walking: Challenges and Research Needs

Abstract The phenomenon that pedestrians use smartphones while walking has posed great threat to transportation safety. As ubiquitous computing evolves with increased mobile use ( e.g. smartphones, heads-up displays, wearable devices), safety is becoming increasingly needed, especially in urban environments. However, safety was not a major concern in human-computer interaction (HCI), and owing to the multidisciplinary nature of HCI, it is highly challenging to develop a framework to deal with safety issues. In this paper, we discussed the development of a conceptual framework for evaluating and improving safety for pedestrians using smartphones while walking in safety-critical environments. A preliminary questionnaire based study was conducted to collect smartphone users’ opinions and attitudes towards using smartphones while walking. Some safety-critical details were also collected to address the users’ needs in interaction design. The proposed framework was explored in theoretical, hardware and software levels respectively, which could provide insights for both ergonomists, application designers and researchers.