108,663 research outputs found

    Designing and evaluating mobile multimedia user experiences in public urban places: Making sense of the field

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    The majority of the world’s population now lives in cities (United Nations, 2008) resulting in an urban densification requiring people to live in closer proximity and share urban infrastructure such as streets, public transport, and parks within cities. However, “physical closeness does not mean social closeness” (Wellman, 2001, p. 234). Whereas it is a common practice to greet and chat with people you cross paths with in smaller villages, urban life is mainly anonymous and does not automatically come with a sense of community per se. Wellman (2001, p. 228) defines community “as networks of interpersonal ties that provide sociability, support, information, a sense of belonging and social identity.” While on the move or during leisure time, urban dwellers use their interactive information communication technology (ICT) devices to connect to their spatially distributed community while in an anonymous space. Putnam (1995) argues that available technology privatises and individualises the leisure time of urban dwellers. Furthermore, ICT is sometimes used to build a “cocoon” while in public to avoid direct contact with collocated people (Mainwaring et al., 2005; Bassoli et al., 2007; Crawford, 2008). Instead of using ICT devices to seclude oneself from the surrounding urban environment and the collocated people within, such devices could also be utilised to engage urban dwellers more with the urban environment and the urban dwellers within. Urban sociologists found that “what attracts people most, it would appear, is other people” (Whyte, 1980, p. 19) and “people and human activity are the greatest object of attention and interest” (Gehl, 1987, p. 31). On the other hand, sociologist Erving Goffman describes the concept of civil inattention, acknowledging strangers’ presence while in public but not interacting with them (Goffman, 1966). With this in mind, it appears that there is a contradiction between how people are using ICT in urban public places and for what reasons and how people use public urban places and how they behave and react to other collocated people. On the other hand there is an opportunity to employ ICT to create and influence experiences of people collocated in public urban places. The widespread use of location aware mobile devices equipped with Internet access is creating networked localities, a digital layer of geo-coded information on top of the physical world (Gordon & de Souza e Silva, 2011). Foursquare.com is an example of a location based 118 Mobile Multimedia – User and Technology Perspectives social network (LBSN) that enables urban dwellers to virtually check-in into places at which they are physically present in an urban space. Users compete over ‘mayorships’ of places with Foursquare friends as well as strangers and can share recommendations about the space. The research field of Urban Informatics is interested in these kinds of digital urban multimedia augmentations and how such augmentations, mediated through technology, can create or influence the UX of public urban places. “Urban informatics is the study, design, and practice of urban experiences across different urban contexts that are created by new opportunities of real-time, ubiquitous technology and the augmentation that mediates the physical and digital layers of people networks and urban infrastructures” (Foth et al., 2011, p. 4). One possibility to augment the urban space is to enable citizens to digitally interact with spaces and urban dwellers collocated in the past, present, and future. “Adding digital layer to the existing physical and social layers could facilitate new forms of interaction that reshape urban life” (Kjeldskov & Paay, 2006, p. 60). This methodological chapter investigates how the design of UX through such digital placebased mobile multimedia augmentations can be guided and evaluated. First, we describe three different applications that aim to create and influence the urban UX through mobile mediated interactions. Based on a review of literature, we describe how our integrated framework for designing and evaluating urban informatics experiences has been constructed. We conclude the chapter with a reflective discussion on the proposed framework

    Collaboration or competition: The impact of incentive types on urban cycling

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    Bicycling is an important mode of transport for cities and many cities are interested in promoting its uptake by a larger portion of the population. Several cycling mobile applications primarily rely on competition as a motivation strategy for urban cyclists. Yet, collaboration may be equally useful to motivate and engage cyclists. The present research reports on an experiment comparing the impact of collaboration-based and competition-based rewards on users’ enjoyment, satisfaction, engagement with, and intention to cycle. It involved a total of 57 participants in three European cities: MĂŒnster (Germany), CastellĂł (Spain), and Valletta (Malta). Our results show participants from the study reporting higher enjoyment and engagement with cycling in the collaboration condition. However, we did not find a significant impact on the participants’ worldview when it comes to the intentions to start or increase cycling behavior. The results support the use of collaboration-based rewards in the design of game-based applications to promote urban cycling

    The influence of travel, residential location choice and leisure activities on well-being

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    Well-being has recently found acceptance in mobility studies. Travel can influence well-being in numerous ways, going from feelings experienced during travel to participation in activities facilitated by travel. However, most of these studies have emphasized on experienced feelings and moods and levels of satisfaction. This is however only one approach to well-being. Other approaches, stressing (among others) on achieving important goals in life and strengthening social bonds have only received limited attention. Besides, longer term perspectives (e.g., residential location choice and daily activity patterns) have not been included in the analyses. In sum, there is still a lot of space for future research

    Capturing in-situ Feelings and Experiences of Public Transit Riders Using Smartphones

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    High-density urban environments are susceptible to ever-growing traffic congestion issues, which speaks to the importance of implementing and maintaining effective and sustainable transportation networks. While transit oriented developments offer the potential to help mitigate traffic congestion issues, transit networks ought to be safe and reliable for ideal transit-user communities. As such, it is imperative to capture meaningful data regarding transit experiences, and deduce how transit networks can be enhanced or modified to continually maintain ideal transit experiences. Historically speaking, it has been relatively tricky to measure how people feel whilst using public transportation, without leaning on recall memory to explain such phenomena. Recall memory can be vague and is often less detailed than recording in-situ observations of the transit-user community. This thesis explores the feasibility of using smartphones to capture meaningful in-situ data to leverage the benefits of the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), while also addressing some limitations. Students travelled along Grand River Transit bus routes in Waterloo, Ontario from Wilfrid Laurier University to Conestoga Mall and back using alternate routes. The mobile survey captured qualitative and quantitative data from 145 students to explore variations in wellbeing, and the extent to which environmental variables can influence transit experiences. There were many findings to consider for future research, especially the overall role anxiety played on transit experiences. In addition, the results indicate that the methodology is appropriate for further research, and can be applied to a wide range of research topics. In particular, it is recommended that a similar study be applied to a much larger, and more representative sample of the transit-user community. Future considerations are discussed as key considerations to leverage the benefits of ESM research, and the promise it can bring towards the enhancement of transit experiences and the cohesion of transit-user communities

    Towards mobile learning deployment in higher learning institutions : a report on the qualitative inquiries conducted in four universities in Tanzania

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    Over the past two decades, mobile learning (m-learning) has been a purposeful area of research among educational technologists, educators and instructional designers whereby doubts and controversies over its relevancy and applicability have been keenly addressed. This paper explores stakeholders’ perceptions of m-learning deployment in Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs). Spe- cifically, we examine the potential of m-learning for HLIs in Tanzania and the challenges that hinder successful m-learning deployment. We adopt a comparative qualitative case study design in which four HLIs in Tanzania were purposefully selected. The study uses a combination of de- sign science research approach and qualitative methods including grounded theory, document re- views, and observation. The respondents included university lecturers, students and ICT experts, who were selected for the interviews through theoretical sampling. The transcripts were loaded, coded and analyzed in NVIVO software. The results indicate that mobiles (smartphone, tablets, laptops, feature-phones etc.) are widely used in the HLIs. Stakeholders perceive that m-learning deployment is important and useful because it improves the quality of the learning experience. The results further indicate that there are financial, pedagogical, technological, infrastructural, individuals – and policy – related challenges that hinder successful deployment of m-learning in HLIs in Tanzania, such as limited network coverage, some students ́ inability to afford mobiles, lack of qualified staff for preparation of mobile content and administration, gaps in the exist- ing policies, and faulty course design. However, our results show that participants are optimistic about the potential of m-learning in the HLIs of Tanzania. They expect that m-learning will im- prove access to learning resources, teacher-student and student-student interaction without being restricted by time or place. Thus, m-learning is considered to have the potential to address issues of crowded classrooms, expertise, access to learning materials, flexibility of the learners as well as remote connectivity.
 We recommend that HLIs should prioritize m-learning and commit resources to the success of the related projects. We also recommend that the governments and stakeholders provide policy interventions, subsidize mobile technologies, expand network coverage, build capacity within and outside HLIs, and improve digital literacy by integrating ICT education at all levels of education

    INVESTIGATING USER PREFERENCES FOR SERVICES IN RURAL AREAS OF SCOTLAND: A TERRITORIAL APPROACH

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    Territorialisation of rural policies requires moving from a sectoral approach to service provision, and policies that focus exclusively on health and education, for example, to an understanding of overall service provision and quality, differentiated by rural area definition, not primarily by sector. An investigation of the expectations of stakeholders in rural Scotland, relating to availability, quality and accessibility of services, revealed that preferences were often different within different areas. The results input to the debate about the need to territorialise rural policy, and provide information for allocation decisions relating to resources aimed at creating sustainable rural communities in Scotland.Services, participatory methods, Scotland, user preferences, territorial rural policies, Community/Rural/Urban Development,

    First experiences with Personal Networks as an enabling platform for service providers

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    By developing demonstrators and performing small-scale user trials, we found various opportunities and pitfalls for deploying personal networks (PNs) on a commercial basis. The demonstrators were created using as many as possible legacy devices and proven technologies. They deal with applications in the health sector, home services, tourism, and the transportation sector. This paper describes the various architectures and our experiences with the end users and the technology. We conclude that context awareness, service discovery, and content management are very important in PNs and that a personal network provider role is necessary to realize these functions under the assumptions we made. The PNPay Travel demonstrator suggests that PN service platforms provide an opportunity to develop true trans-sector services

    Connecting elders by facilitating mobility

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    A key aspect of staying connected is the ability to travel and visit friends and family, yet mobile situations often pose difficulties for the older population. In this paper, we discuss how technology can support older people on the move, describing work which we have done and are doing in this area and outlining some of the challenges that lie ahead. We focus on providing support for navigation, which is a key part of travel, and outline some of the results of our work, showing that electronic aids can effectively help older people with this activity
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