How People Really Use the Mobile Web - Human-Computer Interaction and Innovation in Handheld, Mobile and Wearable Technologies - page 206

Figure 1. Percentage of behaviors exhibited for each motivation

Relationships between
Motivations and Context

ongoing situational awareness through a “support
aura” of information and connection each had
constructed for themselves. “It's kind of my ritual,
either I'm reading a topic or surfing Craigslist
either to or from work on the bus.” (Participant
7, Part 2) It became an automatic, subconscious
activity that people would perform frequently,
running through the same list of sites and loca-
tions repeatedly. “I guarantee I checked it when
I woke up. And then I probably surfed around on
MySpace and Facebook and checked my website.
That's my routine.” (Participant 2, Part 2)
By having this information “always on,” they
maintained a sense of broader connection to daily
news and events and control over their own lives.
”Kind of gives you an idea what's going on out
there…I could check like local news and everything
if I wanted to, or the weather, just try to figure
out how to prepare for the day or the upcoming
days.” (Participant 12, Part 1) For some, this
phenomenon of continuous connection prompted
a compulsive behavior of plugging in whenever
people had a spare moment. “I'm a little OCD
[obsessive compulsive disorder]. It's habit I don't

We examined the relationship between the session
motivations and the physical settings in which they
took place (see Figure 2). A substantial amount
of activity took place at work, home, at service
facilities and alarmingly even while acting as the
driver of a car. People used their phone frequently
even when a computer or laptop was available
because of comfort and convenience. “I mean it
sounds pretty lazy, but instead of having to get up
off the couch, or off the edge of the chair, I just…
got the sports score.” (Participant 1, Part 1). Figure
2 reflects the 10 settings originally derived from
and tracked in Parts One and Two.

The “Ritual” of Mobile Information
Access

The most common behavior we observed by
far was the “ritualistic” monitoring of common
information sources to see what has changed.
Participants showed a strong need to maintain an