Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
users were introduced to and provided with the
technology and related applications. These then
made a commitment to use the technology as a
tool in their everyday life, and using selected
methods, report their subjective experiences to
the researchers.
The two field trials presented are part of a larger
three-year (2006-2008) technology research proj-
ect, SmartTouch, which explores the use of NFC
technology in various domains. The field trials
were planned and implemented in co-operation
with the city authorities, service and technology
providers, and research parties. The goal was to
achieve as high an experimental reality (Aronson,
2004) as possible, i.e. the trial aimed at providing
conditions where users would be able to integrate
the evaluated technology and related applications
into their everyday life and practices.
In both field trials, the research focus was on
the subjective user experience of the trial users.
We define the subjective user experience to cover
both the sensory experience evoked by the use of
Mobile Internet, and the subjective interpretation
of the experience. This can be called, for example,
“qualia” (Ramachandran & Blakeslee, 1998);
which is to say the raw feeling of subjective sensa-
tions. Therefore, the approach for understanding
the user experience is phenomenological, i.e.
the user experience is seen as a subjective, first-
person phenomenon (Greenfield, 2000). Method-
ologically, the problem is how to capture objective
research data about a subjective experience. In
our trials, the methods for capturing an objective
account describing the subjective user experience
were tailored individually for each field trial. The
primary sources of data were the humans subjec-
tively experiencing the user experience, i.e. the
trial users. Research on psychology and experience
design shows that describing subjective experi-
ences has its challenges, for example, through
recall problems (Robinson & Clover, 2002), or
difficulty in verbalising one's emotions (Desmet,
2002; Reijnveld, 2003). However, our hypothesis
is that a subjective, first-person description of
an experience is still the most reliable source
available for understanding and characterizing
the subjective user experience, as it is impossible
for another person to experience the subjective
experience of another person (Greenfield, 2000).
Subjective descriptions of user experiences were
collected primarily through questionnaires and
semi-structured interviews. These descriptions
were complemented with observations which
provided an external interpretation of the subjec-
tive experiences. Observation included both direct
observation of behaviour triggered by the user
experience, and observation of the use and usage
patterns through automatically compiled log data.
In this chapter, we focus purely on analyzing
the user experience related to consuming Mobile
Internet content and services, and exclude analysis
of the socio-economic impacts of the applications
used, or how the applications were able to fulfil
their goals (e.g. learning goals in the case of the
mobile learning trial).
FIELD TRIALS
The results presented in this chapter are based
on the findings from two field trials. In the first
field trial, NFC tags providing access to selected
Mobile Internet content were distributed in public
places in the city of Oulu to be used by anyone
passing by. In this trial, the vision of ubiquitous
Mobile Internet access in an urban environment
was explored. The access tags were called “Infor-
mation tags”. In the second trial, a mobile learning
environment with an urban adventure realized
by the means of an NFC track was investigated.
This trial aimed to analyze touch-based Mobile
Internet access directed to specific users in a
defined context as an implementation technique
for mobile learning.
Both field trials were organized in the city of
Oulu, Finland. Oulu is the sixth largest city in Fin-
land with 130,000 residents and with a population
density of 357 people per km². Today, there are
Search WWH ::
Custom Search