What are a Location’s “File” and “Edit” Menus?

Abstract:

The promise of mobile devices lies not in their capacity to duplicate the capabilities of desktop machines, but rather in their promise of enabling location-specific tasks. One of the challenges that must be addressed if they are to be used in this way is how intuitive interfaces for mobile devices can be designed that enable access to location-specific services usable across locations. We are developing a prototype mobile valet application that presents location-specific services organised around the tasks associated with a location. The basic elements of the interface exploits commonalties in the way we address tasks at various locations just as the familiar “file” and “edit” menus in various software applications exploit regularities in software tasks.