Cui and Roto (2008) - How People Use the Web on Mobile Devices
From Inventiopedia
Cui, Yanqing and Virpi Roto (2008): "How People Use the Web on Mobile Devices" in conference proceedings WWW 2008 / Alternate Track: Industrial Practice and Experience, Beijing, China (pages 905-914). Available from http://www2008.org/papers/pdf/p905-cui.pdf.
This is a report on a series of qualitative user studies, trying to map different uses of the mobile web. The purpose was to make design recommendations for development of the Nokia S60 web browser.
Method:
Data were gathered from 47 active web users through contextual inquiry, that is interviews with participants in the context (place) where they normally use the mobile web, reconstructing their last use session. Also, a logging study in which 547 Nokia S60 smartphone users installed a logging program on their phones was used to complement the data.
Contextual factors:
- Spatial: Stationary locations are common contexts for use. (Examples: Checking the mobile web in living room while watching TV, in restaurant, in bedroom etc.) (This supports the somewhat surprising findings in Kim, Kim, and Lee 2005 - Use contexts.)
- Temporal: "Micro breaks" are important, and require careful design.
- Social: Mobile web is quite often used in groups, typically as a "conversation enhancer".
- Access: When WLAN is available, use sessions are longer and include more traffic (bytes).
Activities:
- Information seeking: Primarily fact finding, but also casual browsing - not so much information gathering.
- Communication: Almost everyone reads email, 50% webmail. Many use push email, which transforms email "etiquette" into something like text messaging - checking email much more often, in the middle of the night etc. Addiction! BUT: ALmost no-one writes email from their phones (10502 emails received, 495 sent). Some also use online communities from their phone.
- Content Object Handling: Downloading ring tones, wall papers and add-on applications. 86% claimed it important to install add-on applications (!). Users share personal content with each other: photos, video clips etc. They also use the web as a backup storing space or even remote working space.
Conclusions
The authors invent a new category of use called "Personal Space Extension", related to the use of the web for putting content online for personal access. Thus they get four categories of use:
- Information seeking
- Communication
- Transaction
- Personal Space Extension
Content Object Handling is explained as an aspect of all four categories.
The authors make some design suggestions, which all focus on making certain specific activities simpler and faster, through the use of widgets - in line with their idea that "the browser's role may diminish in the future" (page 912).
--Anders Sundnes Løvlie 16:57, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
