Mobile Social Software from the Inside Out?

Mobile Social Software from the Inside Out? Nicolas Nova, Media and Design Lab (EPFL) + near future laboratory ETech, March 6th, 2008

who I am Media and Design Lab (EPFL) http://ldm.epﬂ.ch I work at the Media and Design Lab

my work My work is about user experience research. I run user studies of mobile and pervasive technologies... using both qualitative and quantitative methods... to document usability, uses and socio-cognitive implications of these technologies. Uncover the role of the tool, context, other people, etc.

(Picture: Blast Theory) Uncle Roy: location tracking

the “where are you?” promise help mutually establish and share a spatio-temporal context allow group coordination for meetings an index of interactional availability Location-awareness relates to the communication practice of giving or asking geographical information in cell phone conversations. Various studies have shown that it helps people to mutually establish and share a spatio-temporal context (Laurier, 2001), allow group coordination for meetings (Weilenmann, 2003) or be an index of interactional availability (Arminen, 2006). Given the importance of this phenomenon, Arminen claims that a technical solution to indicate location-awareness would have a wide applicability for a majority of mobile users.

expected value of location-awareness of others affordance for social encounters, open conversations improve coordination cue to give directions or tell one’s location a resource for conversation see the progress of others support and re-ensure users in what they already know and expect about their partners Current research about the expected value of location-awareness of others have led to this lsit of roles (empirically observed, there might be others)

plenty of location-based services Examples of location-based applications... large array of purposes (security, play, serendipity...) + tom tom buddies + iphone application

Urban tapestries: digital annotation of space Urban Tapestries (http://research.urbantapestries.net)

2007 - Where we are Garmin, TomTom single-user LBS

any solution? > other forms+contents of outputs text, symbolic representation, minimaps, global mapcombination “Location is more than GIS information” as explained by Kevin Slavin (see his Where2.0 talk in 2006). It’s more than geographical coordinates, it can also be whether a user is indoor/ outdoor, whether the mobile device can hear you’re on busy street. It’s about richer information. A good example is Jabberwocky (Intel) that allows to see the presence of familiar strangers in the vicinity, anonymized. And valuable experiences might be created with disinformation. Slavin suggests that it might be valuable to get lost or to forget where where they are. An example of such idea is “isolatr”, a system that aims at helping where other people are not. The raw information (location) is the same but it’s a diquot;erence way to query it.

Take advantage of histories In addition, do not forget the asynchronous character of location-awareness. Histories of interactions as in this Jaiku example are interesting. Past interactions have an added value and can be used to create conversations AFTER the events (comments). This “history” is a social object that can be shared and serve a trigger for conversation (see Jyri Engestrom’s talks about social objects): it’s ﬂickr with locations instead of pictures. Why this is important? because in a group it gives a peripheral awareness and a way to enhance social bonds.

user experience issues > difﬁculty in interpreting • People’s expectations... and frustrations - believing the system, saying that the system was wrong or not understanding. • Automatic location awareness != self-disclose • Different levels of granularity often not supported - x,y versus name - kitchen / restaurant / London / UK / Europe • Mismatch between people’s representations - which level with whom? These are my favorite, the one I focused on in my research: the psychology of users. There is an intrinsical di!culty in interpreting the information conveyed by MLA tools. - Automatically giving each others’ location is diquot;erent than letting people explicitly disclosing it. The underlying variable = intentionality embedded in the production of a message, an act of communication (if A gives her location to B while visiting Paris, that means that she intentionally assumes that she’d like to meet A) - Diquot;erent levels of granularity are often not supported: location or geographical coordinates are not meaningful, place rather than space (naming). For example knowing that I am in this Museum building makes sense for a person who’d like to meet me here but it does not make sense to my friends in Geneva. - In terms of users’ perception: there is often a mismatch between how people perceive their environment. A has her own perception of the area (naming) and B has a diquot;erent.

any solution? > let people in control Allow the system to convey intentionality Self-disclose = maximum ﬂexibility and mutual adjustement some systems (not technically location-based applications) are interesting because they get rid of that problem

user experience issues > contextual problems bad integration in people’s practices and context The ﬁnal problem lays in the bad integration of the system in users’ practices and context. For instance, this applications by Honda is a map-based social software that gives location indications, navigation, restaurant rating, place tagging... And don’t tell me the person will stop on the highway to rate the restaurant he just left.

any solution? > user-centered design look at people/context/practices/activities/motivations (how) will they use your location-based service? users are not rich white occidental who go needs on-the spot restaurant recommendation or buddy ﬁnder every day AND exceptions are very important here

user experience issues > critical mass problem hardware + software fragmentations + carrier “walled gardens” = difﬁculty to have a critical mass The second problem = hardware + software fragmentations + carrier “walled gardens” make it di!cult to reach a critical mass of users... it’s indeed di!cult to reach cluster equot;ect, Metcalfe Law Metcalfe's law states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system. Even though the notion of “value”/usefulness is vague, this model is interesting to explain usage of multi-user applications

any solution? > *sigh*

infrastructure issue > common belief

infrastructure issue > infrastructures fails and it’s not only technical The world’s rough: infrastructures are not seamless, they can fail: unreliable network, latency, bandwidth, security, unstable topology, or network heterogeneity. So what does that mean for location-aware applications? Positioning accuracy can change, networks are patchy, gps works outdoor, not indoor, the transition gps->wiﬁ is not good,etc Additionally, cost and ownership are important issues.

infrastructure issue > space is not seamless

infrastructure issue > space is not homogeneous - continuity issues Picture by Patrick Jermann diquot;erent places, diquot;erent infrastructures, rugosity

infrastructure issue > digital is physical See Graham, S., Strategies for Networked Cities metro in paris: 20 square meters to have GSM stuquot;

infrastructure issue > location quality see fabien girardin’s work

any solution? > seamful design reveal the “seams” and the imperfections to the users (limits, boundaries, uncertainties) ...to allow users to lie ...to make them aware of the limits Second, seamful design (Matthew Chalmers, University of Glasgow) is another direction. It refers to the idea that ‘seams’ may be inevitable, and users should perceive and appropriate them for their own uses. Present it to users and make them aware of this information so that they can take advantage of it during the game and use it as a valuable resource. For example, it can be a way for people to lie: in a location-based game, giving players a representation of where there is GPS coverage and where there isn’t so that players can go there and use it as a trick. This is what happened in one of Chalmers’ experiment.

lots of issues, some solutions ???? Plazes Botﬁghters Dodgeball Loopt Active Badge Hummingbird early 90s now innovation takes time

thank you very much! nicolas.nova@gmail.com

Mobile Social Software from the Inside Out?

by nicolas nova on Jun 01, 2008

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Mobile Social Software from the Inside Out? — Presentation Transcript