Here’s the presentation I gave in Sydney at Web Directions a week or so ago (great conference!).
Link: Context, Sensing and Mobiles (slideshare.net)
Posts Tagged: context
19
Aug 08
Context Aware vs Location Based
“I must say that it’s been surprisingly difficult, in various conversations with folks not immersed in the IxD space, to get across the essential distinction between context-aware applications and location-based services (LBS)...Mac Funamizu has actually nailed two separate things here. The first demonstrates precisely what I, at least, mean when I use the words “context aware”: but for some residual core of basic functionality, the device’s capabilities and available interface modalities at any given moment are largely if not entirely determined by the other networked objects around it. If you pair the device with a text, it’s a reader; at the checkstand, it provides a friendly POS interface; aimed at the skyline, it augments reality.”
Link: Worth a thousand words, etc. (speedbird.wordpress.com)
24
Jun 08
Mobile design basics
“Similar things happen all too often on mobiles. While typing a text message, a full-screen alert interrupts you to say a new message has arrived, maybe destroying the current composition. It’s almost impossible to type web addresses on most phones, because the useful symbols are hidden away. It takes six keypresses to find out what call you just missed because you couldn’t get to the phone on time. It’s easier to accidentally completely delete a new MMS than to send it.”
Link: The right information, at the right time (littlespringsdesign.com)
2
Jun 08
Browsing is not for Mobile
Paul Golding writes that the idea of the mobile ‘browser’ is an oxymoron. I agree wholeheartedly; the strong activity / goal orientation of mobile devices keeps bringing me back to the idea of the networked micro-application, something that lives in the cloud but is delivered through a UI that is entirely appropriate to its function and context of use.
“We insist on thinking in terms of ‘browsing,’ but is there such a thing in the mobile context? I don’t think so. A basic observation of the vast number of eye-scanning, skim-reading, link-hovering, link-clicking, page-jumping, coffee-sipping, chair-reclining, mouse-shuffling, Google-jumping activities that go on in an average desktop ‘web browsing’ session would demonstrate how nearly all of these activities are insufferably difficult on a mobile device in a mobile context – e.g. standing in the suffocatingly hot linkway between two carriages on the train leaving Paddington station…There are plenty of clever UI possibilities to achieve ‘flow’ and ‘point the way,’ should we decide that this is what the mobile is all about. The point is to forget browsing (aka ‘desktop web browsing’) and think of something else.”
Link: Mobile browsing is not the same as browsing on the mobile… (wirelesswanders.com)
20
Apr 08
7 considerations for designing converged devices
Peter Odum has written about design principles for converged devices. Here’s a summary of the principles he outlines:
- Our devices are an ecosystem.
- Design for reasonable consistency.
- For users, content drives convergence.
- Intelligent discovery encourages adoption.
- Don’t burden users with content formats, formatting and packaging of content.
- Context, not just content, is king.
- Redundancy is useful.
Link: Convergent Experiences, Diverse Devices (idlemode.com)
26
Oct 07
Context aware applications
“Our study found that users’ sense of control decreases when autonomy of the service increases, as suggested by previous research. We believed that personalization would be preferred and would be more accepted than both passive and active context-awareness, however, the results of our study do not support this. Instead we find that people prefer context-aware applications over personalization oriented ones.”
Link: Is Context-Aware Computing Taking Control Away from the User? Three Levels of Interactivity Examined (itu.dk, pdf, via)
4
Oct 07
Design challenges for mobile UI
“The single most important concept to master when designing mobile device interfaces is “context”. The context in which an application is used and the context of how information is input are both key issues; each must be understood before a well crafted design may be implemented. When these two notions of context are explored, it becomes clear that designing for a mobile device can lead to a solution that is worlds different than its desktop equivalent.”
Link: Challenges of Interface Design for Mobile Devices (yuiblog.com)
8
May 07
Adaptive systems
Christian Lindholm has published his speech from MEX, which takes the familiar contextual, adaptive system trope and presents it as a brave new world.
“We are at a stage where a new mobile operating system should be created. One that enables the creation of a cheap monoblock enabling best of breed convergence of mobility and computing. I envision an OS that morphs to accommodate both moving use and mobile use. Focused use and multi-tasking. I call it a Transformer OS.
“One way to think of this is to think of RSS in terms of comand. Each command or feature in the user experience is wrapped into a meta language of context. This language of context will drive the use cases and the rendering. We do not only separate funtion and presentation we make function and context interdependant.
“With such an operating system we would tear down classic application boundaries: like calling, camera, idle, and calendar into a fluid dynamic environment. The operating system is broader than the footprint of the silicon. It extends into the environment and the network.”
Link: My speech at MEX, The SW Transformer A Vision for a mobile OS (christianlindholm.com)
30
Jan 07
Motion sensing in mobile devices
Dean Bubley riffs on the iPhone motion sensors and thinks about how motion and context can be tied together.
“So, what could be motion-sensor based services? I reckon it comes back to a theme I’m developing about “context” being more important than “content”. If operators get access to the sensor APIs, they could determine a lot more about how you want to communicate. It should be possible for an advanced presence function to have status descriptions like “walking”, “on a train”, “in a car” and so on. How about a service which uses multi-context data – if the phone’s on charge and there’s been no vibration consistent with footsteps for an hour, then there’s a good probability that the user is either out of the room, or asleep. Or which detects the combination of a car’s movement “fingerprint” plus registers a Bluetooth headset being used – inference being that the user won’t be able to look at the screen, and therefore sends video calls straight to the mailbox.”
Link: Motion sensors – the next big thing in mobile phones? (disruptivewireless.blogspot.com)
4
Dec 05
Adaptive task based mobile UI concept
“Let�s say user typed 25. It can be the beginning of the phone number. It may be 25 minutes timer. Or perhaps it�s 25 dollars he wishes to convert in some european currency. Or some code he doesn�t want to forget.”
Link: Adaptive Task-based Interface (mobiface.com)
25
May 05
Culture and interaction design
An interesting summary of some of the cross-cultural considerations for design.
“The researchers differentiated between three different cultures by rating them across four cultural dimensions: “uncertainty avoidance” (the amount of effort someone expends to maintain predictability and minimize risk), “individualism vs. collectivism” (the degree to which someone focuses on the welfare of the group at the expense of the individual), “context” (the amount of “background information” needed to feel confident that a message is fully understood and “time perception” (“monochronic” people prefer to perform one task at a time, while “polychronics” are multitaskers who focus more on relationships than sticking to a hard and fast to-do list).”
