User Experience of Mobile Internet - Human-Computer Interaction and Innovation in Handheld, Mobile and Wearable Technologies - page 180

The context of use may change rapidly in
mobile use, even in the middle of a usage session
(Kaasinen, 2009). Short attention spans are typi-
cal in mobile use (Roto, 2006, p. 55), requiring
good glanceability of the contents. Especially in
work environments mobile Internet usage is often
embedded in the context of a counterproductive
superordinate chain of tasks. These tasks may
interrupt the browsing session and force the user
to continue it at a later time. Such incidents may
be incoming calls, unexpected traffic situations
or the lack of pen and paper to jot down the dis-
covered information.
In everyday life users typically adapt them-
selves to widely changing usage contexts. Suri's
topic “Thoughtless Acts” (2005) presents a range
of examples such as holding a finger in the other
ear while phoning, moving to the shade to read the
phone display or moving to the sides of a room
to talk on the phone. The mobile Internet should
support this kind of adaptation to the context.

accessing only familiar sites. With the mobile
Internet a high investment of time often returned
a low value of accessed content. High investment
of time was related to difficulty in inputting text
and bandwidth constraints. Content had a high
mobile value when it addressed a special need or
when information was time- or context-sensitive.
In terms of usage scenarios, two scenarios are
specifically of interest (Maehr, 2007, p. 31): The
first scenario is the query for information where
the user looks for a specific piece of information
right now. Often only a few information channels
are available and the time pressure is high. In this
scenario the user's motivation and satisfaction of
success will be high but it also carries high stakes
as the cost of failure is high, temptation to take
any easier route is big and contextual factors are
likely to be adversarial. The second scenario is
the killing-time scenario where the user looks for
entertainment or tries to complete tasks (e.g. an-
swer an e-mail) because time is available. In this
scenario the motivation for use is low and the user
is likely to change to other entertainment sources
or activities if problems are encountered. These
two usage modes are also reported elsewhere, e.g.
in Hassenzahl (2003).

Usage Patterns

For some users, the mobile Internet is their first and
only Internet experience as they may have never
accessed the Internet from a desktop computer.
Other users may by default use desktop Internet
but have to rely on the mobile Internet as an ad-
ditional means of access when a desktop computer
is not available. While in the first usage pattern
the mobile Internet user experience is the standard
experience, the second usage pattern introduces
comparison and specific characteristics of mobile
usage. This prior expectation creates a need for
a positive user experience with the major advan-
tage of mobile access coming from the mobility
and flexibility of the handheld device; the user
can access the full Internet anywhere at any time
(Maehr, 2007).
Hinman et al. (2008) studied mobile Internet
usage with eight test users who were obliged to
use only the mobile Internet for four days. They
found that during the trial the test users were

Cultural Issues and
Developing Countries

In developing countries the mobile phone may be
the first wave of the information society. Unlike
the developed world, which has experienced a
rich, high bandwidth Internet with a desktop, large
parts of the developing world are experiencing
the Internet for the first time on a mobile phone.
Culture plays an important role in how the mo-
bile Internet-based services are used. For example,
the perception of trust is different in developed
nations than in developing ones. Furthermore,
in developed economies, transactions tend to
be performed in a more predictable manner by
both involved parties. There is often also access
to better redress, such as an efficient judiciary,