Small Surfaces » services

Context Aware vs Location Based

Gabriel White — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:56:20 +0000

“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)

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Do we need LBS?

Gabriel White — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:40:57 +0000

Bernhard Schindlholzer wrote that “even though I am confident that there will certainly be significant growth in some areas (i.e. vehicle tracking, in-car traffic information) I doubt that someday everyone will be using Google’s “Search nearby” feature to find the next ATM, restaurant or supermarket…the majority of people still roam in just a few locations and in general they do not move far from home. Vacations and business travel are exceptions – the percentage of time individuals spend in locations they don’t know is very small.”

Link: Do humans really need location-based services? (customer-experience-labs.com, via)

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The shell in the machine

Gabriel White — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:28:11 +0000

Yahoo! Go is one of the leaders in the growing trend to start exchange a handset’s built-in user interface with a replacement UI services shell. Once calling features are integrated then users wouldn’t ever need to leave the application (which is probably what Google’s got in the works at the moment).

Link: Yahoo! Go (yahoo.com)
Link: Yahoo Go 2.0 WM review (mobilitysite.com)

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Motion sensing in mobile devices

Gabriel White — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 03:48:44 +0000

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)

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Ease of use important for mobile data services?

Gabriel White — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 07:11:22 +0000

UsabilityNews reports that ease of use is the most important factor for purchasing mobile data services. I find this almost impossible to believe. Find something relevant and compelling to shove down the pipe, and then worry about making it easy to use. (Also, asking people what’s important to them before a purchase is often completely different from the factors that affect a real-world purchase decision).

“The Action Engine Worldwide Mobile Usability Study, a first annual worldwide study on the usability of mobile data services and application delivery, has concluded that ease of use determines take-up of mobile data services.

”...

“Usability is the main purchasing influencer. When asked which factor most influenced their purchasing decision, 59% of respondents cited ‘Ease of use/Positive user reviews� as their most important buying criteria, exceeding �Value for Price.� For respondents based in Europe, this percentage rose to 95%, demonstrating the strong impact that usability has on product sales.”

Link: Ease of Use is Key to Uptake of Mobile Data Services, suggests Study

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