Developing Usable Context-Aware Mobile Computing: Three Levels of Interactivity

Context-aware computing describes the area of applications that adapt according to environmental measures and it promises a smooth interaction between humans and technology. To find how this can be achieved, I separate applications into three levels of interactivity, personalization, passive context-awareness and active context-awareness. I propose to investigate which approach is appropriate for the different types of applications. It is my hypothesis that personalization-oriented applications are relevant at an early state of mobile device adoption but as the user gets experienced, context-aware applications are more relevant and useful. Finally I describe research already conducted and propose further studies to support the hypothesis.