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Planners, navigators, and pragmatists: collaborative wayfinding using a single mobile phone

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Abstract

Shared use of mobile devices is increasingly prevalent in both research prototypes and in practice, however, little is known as to how to support best this interaction paradigm. In this paper, we present a study examining how pairs share a single mobile phone during a collaborative wayfinding activity. We provide a classification of strategies, role relationships and phone interactions employed to conduct the wayfinding activities in our study. While acknowledging that the factors determining how the phone was shared are nuanced and intertwined, our results illustrate how differences in the mobile application’s interface influenced shared use, wayfinding strategy and outcome.

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Notes

  1. This proportion is likely higher: there were a number of cases where conversation was inaudible or garbled.

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Acknowledgments

We are greatly indebted to Jennifer Milne of Dalhousie University’s GIS Centre for her work creating the maps used in this study. We also thank the WTCC and Halifax Developments, Inc. for permission to use their buildings. This research was supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Network for Effective Collaboration Technologies through Advanced Research (NECTAR).

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Correspondence to Derek Reilly.

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Reilly, D., Mackay, B., Watters, C. et al. Planners, navigators, and pragmatists: collaborative wayfinding using a single mobile phone. Pers Ubiquit Comput 13, 321–329 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-008-0207-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-008-0207-2

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