Human-Computer Interaction in Mobile Context : A Cognitive Resources Perspective

A thorough appreciation of physical, social, interactional, and psychological contextual factors is crucial in the design of ubiquitous computing applications. This paper investigates the benefits of a method, called bodystorming, for carrying out design sessions in the original context, “in the wild”, instead of the office. A location is selected that is identical or similar to the original environment. Innovation, carried out on-site, is based on ethnographical data presented as concrete design questions. Individual solutions to design questions are brainstormed and discussed on-site. Facets of data collection and preparation, formulation of design questions, selection of locations, session admistration, and evaluation of design ideas are presented. We found that bodystorming permits immediate feedback for generated design ideas and can provide a more accurate understanding of contextual factors. Bodystorming sessions were found memorable and inspiring. It is best suitable for designing for activities that are accessible and unfamiliar to the researchers. As the first author, Antti Oulasvirta has, together with co-authors, designed and conducted the experiment. He has carried out the evaluation of results and written most parts of problem setting, motivation, and discussion. II Tamminen, S., Oulasvirta, A., Toiskallio, K., & Kankainen, A. (accepted). Understanding mobile contexts. Accepted for publication in Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Springer-Verlag. Abstract. Mobile urban environments present a challenge for context-aware computers, because they differ from static indoor contexts such as offices, meeting rooms, and lecture halls in many important ways. Internal factors such as tasks and goals are different—external factors such as social resources are dynamic and unpredictable. An empirical, user-centered approach is needed to understand mobile contexts. In this paper we present insights from an ethnomethodologically inspired study of 25 adult urbanites in Helsinki. The results describe typical phenomena in mobility: how situational and planned acts intermesh in navigation, how people construct personal and group spaces, and how temporal tensions develop and dissolve. Furthermore, we provide examples of social solutions to navigation problems, examine mobile multitasking, and consider design implications for contextaware computing. Mobile urban environments present a challenge for context-aware computers, because they differ from static indoor contexts such as offices, meeting rooms, and lecture halls in many important ways. Internal factors such as tasks and goals are different—external factors such as social resources are dynamic and unpredictable. An empirical, user-centered approach is needed to understand mobile contexts. In this paper we present insights from an ethnomethodologically inspired study of 25 adult urbanites in Helsinki. The results describe typical phenomena in mobility: how situational and planned acts intermesh in navigation, how people construct personal and group spaces, and how temporal tensions develop and dissolve. Furthermore, we provide examples of social solutions to navigation problems, examine mobile multitasking, and consider design implications for contextaware computing. Antti Oulasvirta’s contribution to this article is the cognitive and design implications of the found phenomena. He has contributed significantly also to carrying out the research and writing the problem setting and motivation parts of the paper.

[1]  A. Welford.  THE ‘PSYCHOLOGICAL REFRACTORY PERIOD’ AND THE TIMING OF HIGH‐SPEED PERFORMANCE—A REVIEW AND A THEORY , 1952 .

[2]  E. C. Cherry.  Some Experiments on the Recognition of Speech, with One and with Two Ears , 1953 .

[3]  G. A. Miller.  THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW THE MAGICAL NUMBER SEVEN, PLUS OR MINUS TWO: SOME LIMITS ON OUR CAPACITY FOR PROCESSING INFORMATION 1 , 1956 .

[4]  Richard C. Atkinson,et al.  Human Memory: A Proposed System and its Control Processes , 1968, Psychology of Learning and Motivation.

[5]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Attention and Effort , 1973 .

[6]  E. Schegloff,et al.  A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation , 1974 .

[7]  R. Shiffrin,et al.  Controlled and automatic human information processing: I , 1977 .

[8]  Walter Schneider,et al.  Controlled and Automatic Human Information Processing: 1. Detection, Search, and Attention. , 1977 .

[9]  J. Fodor.  The Modularity of mind. An essay on faculty psychology , 1986 .

[10]  Allen Newell,et al.  The psychology of human-computer interaction , 1983 .

[11]  D. Navon.  Resources—a theoretical soup stone? , 1984 .

[12]  Edward L. Deci,et al.  Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior , 1975, Perspectives in Social Psychology.

[13]  Lucy Suchman.  Plans and situated actions: the problem of human-machine communication , 1987 .

[14]  Dennis E. Egan,et al.  Handbook of Human Computer Interaction , 1988 .

[15]  K. Miller,et al.  Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior , 1975, Perspectives in Social Psychology.

[16]  M. Weiser.  The Computer for the Twenty-First Century , 1991 .

[17]  David E. Meyer,et al.  Dual-Task Interference and Elementary Mental Mechanisms , 1993 .

[18]  Bill N. Schilit,et al.  Context-aware computing applications , 1994, Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications.

[19]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Long-term working memory. , 1995, Psychological review.

[20]  Victoria Bellotti,et al.  Walking away from the desktop computer: distributed collaboration and mobility in a product design team , 1996, CSCW '96.

[21]  Sue Long,et al.  Cyberguide: prototyping context-aware mobile applications , 1996, CHI 1996.

[22]  Hiroshi Ishii,et al.  Tangible bits: towards seamless interfaces between people, bits and atoms , 1997, CHI.

[23]  Gregory D. Abowd,et al.  Context-awareness in wearable and ubiquitous computing , 1997, Digest of Papers. First International Symposium on Wearable Computers.

[24]  Gregory D. Abowd,et al.  Context-Awareness in Wearable and Ubiquitous Computing , 1997, SEMWEB.

[25]  Thomas K. Landauer,et al.  Behavioral Research Methods in Human-Computer Interaction , 1997 .

[26]  David E. Kieras,et al.  An Overview of the EPIC Architecture for Cognition and Performance With Application to Human-Computer Interaction , 1997, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[27]  Bo Dahlbom,et al.  Mobile Informatics , 1998, Scand. J. Inf. Syst..

[28]  Christian Heath,et al.  Mobility in collaboration , 1998, CSCW '98.

[29]  Steinar Kristoffersen,et al.  Exploring support for knowledge management in mobile work , 1999, ECSCW.

[30]  Steinar Kristoffersen,et al.  “Making place” to make IT work: empirical explorations of HCI for mobile CSCW , 1999, GROUP.

[31]  Chris Schmandt,et al.  Nomadic radio: speech and audio interaction for contextual messaging in nomadic environments , 2000, TCHI.

[32]  David L. Tennenhouse,et al.  Proactive computing , 2000, Commun. ACM.

[33]  Kristof Van Laerhoven,et al.  How to build smart appliances? , 2001, IEEE Personal Communications.

[34]  Sara A. Bly,et al.  Quiet calls: talking silently on mobile phones , 2001, CHI.

[35]  Anind K. Dey,et al.  Understanding and Using Context , 2001, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[36]  Michael D. Byrne,et al.  ACT-R/PM and menu selection: applying a cognitive architecture to HCI , 2001, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[37]  John Thackara,et al.  The design challenge of pervasive computing , 2001, INTR.

[38]  Kenton O'Hara,et al.  Dealing with mobility: understanding access anytime, anywhere , 2001, TCHI.

[39]  N. Cowan.  The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity , 2001, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[40]  Mahadev Satyanarayanan,et al.  Pervasive computing: vision and challenges , 2001, IEEE Wirel. Commun..

[41]  Antti Oulasvirta,et al.  Keskeiset väestöparametrit ubiquitous computing- tuotekonseptien suunnittelussa , 2002 .

[42]  Antti Oulasvirta,et al.  Design Ideas for Everyday Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing Based on Qualitative User Data , 2002, User Interfaces for All.

[43]  Maria Ebling,et al.  The importance of translucence in mobile computing systems , 2002, TCHI.

[44]  Alain Karsenty,et al.  Unremarkable computing , 2002, CHI.

[45]  Connor Graham,et al.  A Review of Mobile HCI Research Methods , 2003, Mobile HCI.

[46]  Roel Vertegaal,et al.  Attentive User Interfaces , 2003 .

[47]  Anu Kankainen,et al.  UCPCD: user-centered product concept design , 2003, DUX '03.

[48]  George Buchanan,et al.  Using a Mobile Device to Vary the Pace of Search , 2003, Mobile HCI.

[49]  Antti Oulasvirta,et al.  Understanding contexts by being there: case studies in bodystorming , 2003, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[50]  Finland oulasvir.  Temporal Tensions and Human – Computer Interaction , 2004 .

[51]  Antti Oulasvirta,et al.  Understanding mobile contexts , 2003, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[52]  Antti Oulasvirta,et al.  Finding meaningful uses for context-aware technologies: the humanistic research strategy , 2004, CHI.

[53]  Antti Oulasvirta,et al.  Towards socially aware pervasive computing: a turntaking approach , 2004, Second IEEE Annual Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications, 2004. Proceedings of the.

[54]  Antti Oulasvirta,et al.  Long-term working memory and interrupting messages in human – computer interaction , 2004, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[55]  Mikael Wiberg.  "Anytime, Anywhere" in the Context of Mobile Work , 2005, Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology.

[56]  Albrecht Schmidt,et al.  Implicit human computer interaction through context , 2000, Personal Technologies.

[57]  David R. Morse,et al.  Developing personal technology for the field , 1998, Personal Technologies.