Paper Rejected (p>0.05)

Null-hypothesis statistical testing has been seriously criticised in other domains, to the extent of some advocating a complete ban on publishing p-values. This short position paper aims to introduce the argument to the mobile-HCI research community, who make extensive use of the controversial testing methods.

SatNav or SatNag?

A wide range of in-car computing systems are either already in existence or under development which aim to improve the safety, efficiency and the comfort/pleasure of the driving experience. Several unique forces act on the design process for this technology which must be understood by HCI researchers. In particular, this is an area in which safety concerns dominate perspectives. In this position paper, I have used a case study system (vehicle navigation) to illustrate the evolution of some key HCI design issues that have arisen in the last twenty years as this in-car technology has matured. Fundamentally, I argue that, whilst HCI research has had an influence on current designs for vehicle navigation systems, this has not always been in a wholly positive direction. Future research must take a holistic viewpoint and consider the full range of impacts that in-car computing systems can have on the driving task.

Touch-Based Access to Mobile Internet

This chapter reports user experience findings from two field trials, where Mobile Internet access was supported through Near Field Communication (NFC)-based tag infrastructure, The first field trial was done in public urban environment with the infrastructure of 2650 tags and 248 users, and the other field trial dealt with mobile learning with the infrastructure of 11 tags and 220 users. The authors results show that touch-based interaction can provide enhancement to the Mobile Internet user experience. Touch-based access builds a semantic bridge between the physical context of use and the Mobile Internet experience, the user experience converges seamlessly into one where both the physical and digital worlds play a role. The authors report and analyze the subjective experiences of the end users collected during the field trials. As a result, they summarize recommendations for interface and content design.

Pickup Usability Dominates

Text entry on mobile devices (e.g. phones and PDAs) has been a research challenge since devices shrank below laptop size: mobile devices are simply too small to have a traditional full-size keyboard. There has been a profusion of research into text entry techniques for smaller keyboards and touch screens: some of which have become mainstream, while others have not lived up to early expectations. As the mobile phone industry moves to mainstream touch screen interaction we will review the range of input techniques for mobiles, together with evaluations that have taken place to assess their validity: from theoretical modelling through to formal usability experiments. We also report initial results on iPhone text entry speed.

Designing Mobile Phones for Children

The mobile phone is one of the most ubiquitous technologies in the developed world. In a market dominated by adults and older teenagers, one group of users that is relatively new to the mobile phone market is children. When children use mobile phones their needs are sometimes complicated by, or conflict with, the needs of their parents or primary care givers. As the laptop is being redesigned to make it accessible to children, it is worthwhile to ask the question ‘Do children need a different sort of mobile phone than their parents?’ By considering data about the use and usage of mobile phones, research on designing special children’s technologies, and research on the needs of children as mobile phone users, this paper presents the argument that the mobile phone needs a design re-think if it is to meet the needs of children.

Novel Technologies and Interaction Paradigms in Mobile HCI

In this chapter the authors argue that it is time for the mobile HCI community to think beyond the traditional screen-keyboard-mouse paradigm and explore the many possibilities that mobility, mobile platforms, and people on the move offer. They present a collection of ideas aiming to encourage HCI researchers to explore how up-and-coming mobile technologies can inspire new interaction models, alternative I/O methods, and data collection methods. In particular, they discuss potential applications for gesture- as well as sound-based technologies. The range of possible applications designed to make life easier for specified user populations is limited, they maintain, only by their imagination to understand novel problem spaces, to mix, match and expand on existing methods as well as to invent, test, and validate new methods.

Mobile Internet

The Mobile Internet is no longer a new phenomenon; the first mobile devices supporting Web access were introduced over 10 years ago. During the past 10 years many user studies have been conducted that have generated insights into mobile Internet use. The number of mobile Internet users has increased and the focus of the studies has switched from the user interface to user experiences. Mobile phones are regarded as personal devices: the current possibility of gathering more contextual information and linking that to the Internet creates totally new challenges for user experience and design.

Empowering People Rather Than Connecting Them

This article discusses the consequences for the fundamentals of interaction design given the introduction of mobile devices with increased sensing capability. Location-aware systems are discussed as one example of the possibilities. The article provides eight challenges to the mobile HCI research community, and makes suggestions for how the International Journal of Mobile HCI could contribute to the field.

Improving the User Experience of a Mobile Photo Gallery by Supporting Social Interaction

Today, photo gallery applications on mobile devices tend to be stand-alone and offline. For people who want to share photos with others, many add-on tools have been developed to connect the gallery applications to Internet services to enable photo sharing. The author argues that photo-centric social interaction is best supported when the gallery application is fully integrated with an Internet service. In this case, no additional tools are needed and the user’s image content is fully synchronized with the service. To research the topic, Image Exchange, a service-integrated mobile gallery application with a corresponding Internet service, was designed and implemented. Moreover, a field study was conducted with 10 participants to compare Image Exchange with a state-of-the-art gallery application combined with an add-on photo sharing tool. Image Exchange was preferred by most participants and it was especially appreciated because of the user experience. Above all, the results show that social activity increased amongst the participants while using Image Exchange.

User Experience of Mobile Internet

Mobile access to the Internet with handheld devices has been technically possible for quite a while and consumers are aware of the services but not so ready to use them. A central reason for the low usage is that user experience of the mobile Internet is not yet sufficiently good. This paper analyses the mobile Internet from the end-user perspective, identifying factors and solutions that would make Internet usage on a mobile device an enjoyable experience. User experience can be improved by a better understanding of users and usage contexts, by developing mobile services that better serve the needs of mobile users, easing service discovery and by developing the infrastructure needed for the mobile Internet. This paper discusses all these aspects and gives development recommendations. Multidisciplinary and multicultural cooperation between the various actors in the field is needed to improve user experience.