Presentation at MIDI 2013.

1. A Sample of
Technology
Substitution
Ilya Shmorgun
Mattias Saks
David Lamas
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2. Introduction
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3. Technology
Substitution
• Our activities are being supported by a
wide range of digital artifacts.
• These artifacts can be dynamically
substituted based on the context of the
activity.
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4. Goal of Research
Gain an understanding, which artifacts are
being used and continuously substituted
and under which circumstances.
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5. Research Questions
• Which types of devices people use?
• In which circumstances people use their
devices?
• Which types of services people use on
their devices?
• Which specific features of those
services are used on which devices?
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6. Survey
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7. Method
• Semi-structured questionnaire.
• Quantitative data about users’ activities.
• Qualitative data through open-ended
questions.
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8. Pilot Study
• Accidental sampling with 4 respondents
for online and 3 for face-to-face testing.
• Insights into completion times and
potential areas of misunderstanding.
• Improvements to the list of service
types.
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9. Deployed Study
• Self-selection sampling.
• People were invited through Facebook
and university mailing lists.
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10. Structure
• Section 1: Personal information
• Section 2: Services and devices
• Section 3: Additional questions
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11. Results
• 101 full responses.
• 58,4% - male; 41,6% - female.
• 53,5% - under 26 years old; 46,5% - 26
and older.
• 9 countries represented, with most
respondents from Estonia and Cape
Verde.
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12. Usage of Devices
0
25
50
75
100
Laptop Smartphone Desktop Tablet Smart TV
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13. Device Ranking
Rank 1st Rank 2nd Rank 3rd Rank 4th Rank 5th
Smartphon
e
22.8% 36.6% 21.8% 5% 4%
Tablet 3% 9.9% 21.8% 15.8% 5%
Laptop 53.5% 30.7% 12.9% 1% 0%
Desktop 20.8% 17.8% 21.8% 11.9% 3%
Smart TV 0% 3% 2% 11.9% 22.8%
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14. Regularly Used
Services
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Communication
Social networking
Office applications
File sharing
Calendars
Reading
Blogging
Note-taking
Task management
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15. Service Usage on
Devices
Smartphone Tablet Laptop Desktop
Communication 96.1% 96.9% 94.5% 94.4%
Social
networking
90.9% 84.4% 87.9% 90.7%
Office
applications
84.4% 90.6% 85.7% 85.2%
File sharing 71.4% 68.8% 65.9% 70.4%
Calendars 62.3% 68.8% 54.9% 61.1%
Reading 51.9% 62.5% 47.3% 48.1%
Blogging 48.1% 46.9% 42.9% 40.7%
Note-taking 48.1% 43.8% 42.9% 44.4%
Task
management
40.3% 46.9% 37.4% 37%
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16. Additional Analysis
Based on the collected demographics we
compared:
• Men and women
• Estonians and Cape Verdeans
• People under and above 26
The significance threshold was 10%.
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17. Device Usage by
Gender
• Men use more desktops, tablets, and
Smart TV-s.
• Women use more laptops and
smartphones.
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18. Device Usage by
Country
• Estonians use more devices in general
than Cape Verdeans.
• The most significant difference is in the
usage of smartphones and Smart TV-s.
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19. Device Usage by Age
• Older people use more devices.
• There was an almost 2x difference in
usage of desktops and tablets.
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20. Device Ranking
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1st place 2nd place 3rd place 4th place 5th place
Laptop Smartphone Desktop Tablet Desktop Smartphone Desktop Tablet Smart TV
All Men Cape Verdeans Men Women Cape Verdeans Men Cape Verdeans All
Women Estonians Under 26 Estonians
Estonians Over 26 Over 26
Under 26
Over 26

21. Service Usage
• Social network usage is skewed more
towards women.
• Men prefer to use calendaring, reading,
note-taking, and task management
services.
• Estonians use more calendaring, file
sharing, blogging, and task management.
• Usage of file sharing, calendaring, and
blogging is skewed towards those above
26.
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22. Service Usage on
Devices
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Men Women Estonians Cape Verdeans Under 26 Over 26
Blogging and task
managements
done most on
tablets, the least
on desktops.
Use laptops the
least across all
services.
Use laptops the
least for reading
and calendaring.
Do not use
smartphones for
calendaring at all.
Service usage is
unevenly
distributed,
especially in case
of file sharing,
calendaring,
reading, and
blogging.
Tablets are
preferred for
reading and
blogging.
In case of file
sharing there is a
preference
towards desktop
usage, whereas
reading is done
more on tablets,
less on laptops.
For file sharing,
calendaring,
reading, blogging,
note-taking, and
task
management,
service usage is
very unevenly
distributed.
Smartphones are
quite commonly
used as well,
while laptops are
used less.
Task
management is
preferred on
mobile devices
instead of the
desktop.

23. Discussion
• People want to be up-to-date anytime,
anywhere, and on any device.
• Cross-device services and the
possibility to synchronize data put users
on top of things.
• Yet survey results also show that there
are differences in all of the analyzed
segments across both device and
service usage.
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24. Conclusion
• Take a close look at unique features of each
target group when designing solutions for
technology substitution.
• Understand whether people want to have
access to services across all of their devices,
but are currently not able to, or whether they
prefer to use specific devices for specific
purposes.
• Address the implications of designing for
ever-changing software and hardware
configurations.
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