Surfing in the crowd: feasibility study of experience sharing in a Taiwanese night market

ABSTRACT

Social Proximity Applications (SPAs) have prompted a promising opportunity for mobile services that utilize the changes in daily life in the proximity of mobile users. This paper describes our research-in-progress about designing and developing a mobile SPA, which facilitates social interaction among visitors in a night market crowd. This application allows night market visitors to share their experiences in photos with nearby others via their Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones. The design was based on a two-week field observation in an attempt to investigate the motivations and attitudes towards applications of this type. After a three-night extensive trial we found the value of the application - privacy-sensitive, playful, and enjoyable, yields high consistency with results from field observation. The ultimate goal is to identify potential engaging design extensions to the current prototype.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors

Keywords:
collaborative communication support, proximity-based sharing, sociable experience sharing, wireless ad-hoc networking