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Understanding mobile contexts

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Abstract

Mobile urban environments present a challenge for context-aware computers because they differ from fixed indoor contexts such as offices, meeting rooms, and lecture halls in many important ways. Internal factors such as tasks and goals are different—external factors such as social resources are dynamic and unpredictable. An empirical, user-centred approach is needed to understand mobile contexts. In this paper, we present insights from an ethnomethodologically inspired study of 25 adult urbanites in Helsinki. The results describe typical phenomena in mobility: how situational and planned acts intermesh in navigation, how people construct personal and group spaces, and how temporal tensions develop and dissolve. Furthermore, we provide examples of social solutions to navigation problems, examine mobile multitasking, and consider design implications for mobile and context-aware human–computer interaction.

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Notes

  1. Although public transportation is used frequently in Europe, it is common in other parts of the world too. For example, in New York, the same annual figure was 152 boardings per capita in the years around 2000 [15].

  2. Discussions about this kind of “Technomethodology” can be found from [16].

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Acknowledgments

We thank Salla Hari, Sauli Tiitta, Tomi Kankainen, and Esko Kurvinen, and our industrial partners Alma Media, Elisa Communications, Nokia, Sonera, and SWelcom. The second author acknowledges a grant from the Academy of Finland.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information Ergonomics Research Group (SoberIT), Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 9210, 02015, Helsinki, Finland

    Sakari Tamminen & Kalle Toiskallio

  2. Helsinki Institute of Information Technology, Helsinki, Finland

    Antti Oulasvirta & Anu Kankainen

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  1. Sakari Tamminen
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  2. Antti Oulasvirta
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  3. Kalle Toiskallio
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  4. Anu Kankainen
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Correspondence to Sakari Tamminen.

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Tamminen, S., Oulasvirta, A., Toiskallio, K. et al. Understanding mobile contexts. Pers Ubiquit Comput 8, 135–143 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-004-0263-1

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