Presented at the Mobile Communications: Understanding Users, Adoption, and Design workshop at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2001.

Activity-Based Mobile Interfaces - Towards a user model for Hybrids between Mobile Phones and PDAs

Staffan Björk


PLAY research group, The Interactive Institute
c/o Viktoria Institute, Box 620, 405 30 Göteborg, SWEDEN
staffan.bjork@interactiveinstitute.se
http://www.interactiveinstitute.se/

Abstract

This paper outlines the basis for an activity-based view of user interaction on mobile computing devices. PowerCom, a system that provides users with integrated access to the most commonly-used types of information on PDAs (contacts, e-mail, meetings, and notes) as well as the advanced call handling functionality found on mobile phones, is used to exemplify some of the requirements for user interfaces that are used in social and collaborative environments. The concepts of user-defined activities, task/activity division, and task views are introduced to describe the difference between stationary and mobile computing. The PowerCom prototype shows how these concepts are used to provide information and communication functionality to users while at the same time enabling them to easily switch between activities on the device and activities in the users’ surroundings.

Keywords

Personal Digital Assistants, Mobile phones, Hybrid devices, Call handling, Information Visualization, Activity-based interfaces

© 2001