Designing for totality of mobile and non-mobile interaction: a case study

ABSTRACT

The focus of the project is to design for mobile needs of users to support activities that closely relate to non-mobile contexts. We selected the real estate industry for a case study and conducted an in-depth research to gain a deeper understanding of the office (non-mobile) and mobile work environments of realtors and the social context of interaction with their clients. We identified some unique challenges that such a mixed work environment proposes. Recording contextual data in the mobile environment and streamlining it with huge amount of other related unorganized information in the non-mobile environment was identified as the main challenge. We designed an integrated system of a web-based application "REMAP" (for information analysis) and a mobile device "NotePod" (for information capture). The paper talks about some of the main research and findings, the design concept proposed, and finally some lessons learnt that we could extend to similar mixed contexts.

REFERENCES

• 1: Jason Pascoe , Nick Ryan , David Morse, Using while moving: HCI issues in fieldwork environments, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), v.7 n.3, p.417-437, Sept. 2000 [doi>10.1145/355324.355329]
• 2: Sakari Tamminen , Antti Oulasvirta , Kalle Toiskallio , Anu Kankainen, Understanding mobile contexts, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, v.8 n.2, p.135-143, May 2004 [doi>10.1007/s00779-004-0263-1]
• 3: Kevin Crowston , Steve Sawyer , Rolf Wigand , Marcel Allbritton, How do information and communication technologies reshape work? Evidence from the residential real estate industry, Proceedings of the twenty first international conference on Information systems, p.612-617, December 2000, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
• 4: Beyer, H. & Holtzblatt K. Contextual Design. Morgan Kaufman, San Francisco, CA, USA, 1997.
• 5: Graduate Capstone Project -- Shweta Aneja. http://shvetaaneja.com/capstone.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Evaluation/methodology

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Prototyping; User-centered design
      H.5.m Miscellaneous

General Terms:
Design

Keywords:
evaluation, information capture, information management, mobile context, mobility, non-mobile context, real estate industry, shared interaction, user centered design, user experience, user research