How People Really Use the Mobile Web - Human-Computer Interaction and Innovation in Handheld, Mobile and Wearable Technologies - page 209

information, monitoring and sampling information
opportunistically to meet unfolding needs and
impulses and to stay abreast of the facets of the
world most important to their lives. Information
needs of any depth or complexity, on the other
hand, drove these users to the stationary Web.
“Honestly it's for the little gaps of time that you
have to check something or get something done
immediately. But as for being super productive and
getting things done quickly, I still have to carry
my computer.” (Participant 2, Part 2)

need to build from the familiar PC experience to
create successful mobile-Internet “moments” and
should consider developing “micro-services” that
deliver consumption-ready information and allow
users to “skim the surface” of the Internet. Our
findings directly support this conclusion.

Convenience Factor

Mobile does not always mean in motion or on
the go. We found that the contexts of use varied
widely among participants but the majority of
access was at home or work rather than while
en route someplace (walking, driving, on public
transit). Participants used the mobile Web from
their bed or while lounging on a couch or floor
even when a PC is often available in the same
house. “I don't have wireless and I was probably
in bed or like not close to my laptop. So it's just
easier to hop on my phone, especially when I'm
in my bedroom because my laptop is in my living
room.” (Participant 14, Part 2) All our participants
had access to a PC, and many had laptops they
frequently carried with them, but most cited con-
venience and start-up time as the main reasons to
use the mobile Web instead. “I have Internet [sic]
at the house, and I don't use it as much as I use
it on my phone. It's just right here in my hand, or
I'm already thinking to myself, just look up that
real quick.” (Participant 13, Part 1)
Karlson et al. (2009) researched patterns of use
across mobile devices, laptops, and PCs. Their
results concurred with ours in many findings.
People access email and Web from their mobile
phones outside of working hours and throughout
the day to stay up to date. People found it more
convenient to use their phones even when a com-
puter was nearby.

Complement to Stationary Web

The mobile Web is also a complement to the
stationary Web when access is either restricted
or inconvenient. With mobile Web access, people
maintain some connection to the information
most important to them, providing flexibility in
how and where they consume content. “I take
it everywhere. I just hate not being able to find
something out if I need to.” (Participant 14, Part
2) The reasons most often given for waiting to
use the stationary Web were time and difficulty
required to access the information on a mobile
(for example, complicated e-commerce sites),
and difficulty in typing anything of length. Most
participants indicated that they read e-mail and
blog postings on their phone but wait to respond
until at a PC unless it is something really urgent.
“Just to see if I have any [e-mail]—maybe just like
a update from my teacher or something urgent that
I would want to know about before I got home.”
(Participant 2, Part 1)
Hinman, Spasojevic, and Isomursu (2008)
explored the question of mobile-Internet user
needs via a PC Internet deprivation study; by ask-
ing users to rely solely on phone-based Internet
access, they were able to delve into the perceived
shortcomings of mobile access, and found that
false expectations of performance based on
people's experience with PC-based Internet ac-
cess constituted a main barrier to a satisfactory
user experience. They concluded that designers

Security Concerns

Participants expressed a concern about conducting
online transactions. There was a lack of trust that
the wireless network would sufficiently protect