How People Really Use the Mobile Web - Human-Computer Interaction and Innovation in Handheld, Mobile and Wearable Technologies - page 210

Non-Mobile Services their personal information, and that the network

would be sufficiently reliable to successfully
process their request. “Especially if it involves
credit cards, I don't really trust the phone. If you
lose connection, then Oh no!” Did the transaction
go through?” (Participant 13, Part 2)

Our research found that the home was the top loca-
tion for accessing the mobile Web. Nylander et al.
(2009) conducted a diary and interview study to
investigate where and why people use cell phones
to access the Internet and similarly found that
in 50% of the cases, participants chose a phone
even though they had access to a computer, and
the most frequent location for cell phone Internet
access was the home. Much recent mobile product
design has focused on location-aware applications
for use on the go. Since people are frequently us-
ing the mobile Web in non-mobile settings, with
the home being the most common, mobile Web
services can also be targeted to stationary settings.
As mobile phones become more capable,
Web-based mobile services could begin to sup-
plant other in-home media players and controls.
Tufegdzic (2010) of the research firm, iSuppli
Corp., predicted that in 2010 factory shipments
of game-capable mobile phones would increase
11.4% while game consoles and handhelds would
experience flat or declining growth.

DESIGN IMPLICATIONS

Mobile Web services that support people's daily
lives and decision-making with faster and more
immediate access to relevant information are
likely to have a broad universal appeal. Although
the advent of more powerful phones and network
connections may change the types of idle-time
activities people engage in (for example, watching
movies or playing games), there is a fundamental
opportunity now for mobile Web to offer access
to the information people want to shape their
daily lives and sphere of awareness. Based on
the findings of this study, we can propose several
design directions that would address the user
behaviors and desires we discovered: providing
information snacks, non-mobile services, custom
content aggregation, voice-enabled services, and
richer Web experiences.

Custom Content Aggregation

Our early adopters reported combining a host
of different browsing and searching interfaces,
showing a willingness to piece together a patch-
work of information that fits their complex and
multi-motivational goals. The effort required
for this re-articulation of technology has been a
major deterrent in the mass adoption of mobile
Web services. Aggregating content of interest
from multiple sources, and for use in specific
settings (for example, home, work, transit) into a
single location with a consistent interface would
provide tremendous value. Mobile services can
take advantage of non-location-based cues such as
time of day and users' patterns of access to tailor
information implicitly based on context of use.

Information Snacks

People value quick, short bursts of information on
the mobile Web and are willing to wait until they
can use the stationary Web to access lengthy or
complicated content. The more quickly and easily
people are able to access relevant information, the
more likely they are willing to do soon a mobile
phone. Simplifying access to the most important
information, and avoiding loading phones with
extraneous features and content, will help facili-
tate fast and routine access to the most relevant
content that people value.