How People Really Use the Mobile Web - Human-Computer Interaction and Innovation in Handheld, Mobile and Wearable Technologies - page 207

Figure 2. Percentage of settings for each motivation

know why, but when I step on the elevator I check
my e-mail.” (Participant 2, Part 2)
Karlson et al. (2010) conducted mobile task
flow analysis of smartphone usage and found that
the situational constraints of the mobile context
influenced users' behavior and choice of activ-
ity. Users have adapted to the limitations of the
mobile medium and have gravitated towards tasks
that don't require continuous focus such as quick
information checks. Just as we found with personal
users, information workers' most common behav-
ior was habitually checking specific information
to keep abreast of changes in status (e.g., do I
have a new email). The lines between personal
and business usage are increasingly blurring as a
greater number of users adopt smartphones and
use shared mobile Internet access for both personal
and business purposes.

daily lives. Participants freely admitted accessing
the mobile Web even while driving. “My dog had
to be picked up from the groomers at the same
time I was checking out a restaurant---yes I did
this while driving. I called them.” (Participant
14, Part 2) Participants would frequently start out
with one motivation and wander into one or more
others (for example, Awareness leading to Time
Management). “As I was walking I remembered I
had to look on eBay, and then looking at one thing
led to another.” (Participant 5, Part 1)

Information-Based Decision Making

Participants were also making remarkably ef-
ficient use of their time by utilizing information
from the mobile Web to inform and support the
decisions affecting the actions of their daily lives.
“I'll go do things I need to get done. Yeah, like try
to find a store or look up a store.” (Participant 6,
Part 1) We observed active decision-making and
changes in people's daily plans of action directly
influenced by information obtained real time from
the phone. “I was in Everett and I wanted to find

Opportunistic Access

Mobile Web sessions are frequently short, con-
ducted in between, around, and sometimes in
conjunction with the many activities of people's