mobility, context, interactions and data

Copyright © C. Enrique Ortiz 2008 http://CEnriqueOrtiz.com

Mobility and People’s Context, Interactions and Data

C. Enrique OrtizSeptember 24, 2008

(Updated: Oct 1st 2008)


About C. Enrique Ortiz

• Long time mobile technologist, strategist, implementer, blogger

• Founder of Artemis Wireless Werks, eZee inc., MobileMonday Austin, other…

• Implementer of current mobile technologies who spends quite a bit of time thinking about mobile futures


Goal of this Presentation

To make you Think…

About interactions, the mobile context and data when designing your next

mobile application & user experience

Because designing the User Experience goes beyond UI Elements. And designers must embrace “People Data” as a function of Human-Computer Interfaces.


Why Context, Interactions & Data?

Individualize the experience(made for or directed or adjusted to a particular individual)

People-Centric (Mobile) Computing

It is about designing software that is

Practical, Relevant and Interesting!(to a particular target individual)


Why Context, Interactions & Data?

• Practical is about maximizing usability – i.e. quick access to information with less clicks

• Relevant is about the information that matters– i.e. tell me about deals in my current area

• Interesting is fun, and keeps users coming back t your application– i.e. “what a neat app”


Why Today?

Faster networks, flat-rates, fewer walled gardens, better interoperability…

Advanced features and capabilitiesMost personal

gadget ever!


How to Enable?

• Make it easy for users to Reach and Interact– Support many interactions

• Capture the Interactions and related Data– the activities, the digital footprints

• Understand the Interactions– Give the interactions meaning by applying the user’s

(mobile) context

• Classify, Analyze, Understand the Data; and adjust


Interactions• Initiate application interactions

– Interact with physical objects, search, indentify

• The Interactions to support will all depend– On your target audience– Your application requirements, and existing

technology adoption gaps

• Interaction support can be costly

NFC / RFID 2D Barcodes

1-800-723-8421

Voice Call

Text “sub” to 32342

Short Codes


Interacting with the Physical World

Short Codes

Visual Tags

Radio Tags Proximity : Ticketing, payments, other

Contactless


Interactions & Information Ubiquity

• Information Ubiquity is information everywhere• Addressable (and thus identifiable) information, and/or

workflows for that matter• Physical interactions, application triggers and physical

browsing. A number to call, a URL, a short-code, barcodes, radio tags

– On books, magazines, posters, soda cans, billboards– For advertisement, for authentication, for control, for quick action,

access to information• Some interactions are more manual than others, some are

one way, others two-way• The Mobile Handset is at the center of this ubiquity

phenomena


Supporting Interactions

Low-MedEasyDepending on Region

Visual Tag (barcodes)

Low-MedEasyDepending on RegionNFC

Low-MedDepends on handset & demographicHighMobile Web

HighDepends on handset & demographicHighTexting

Med-HighEasyHighVoice

CostEase of UseAvailabilityInteraction

* Some interactions are user-initiated (pull-push) only, while others can be push as well


Interactions – Actions vs. Intentions

• An interaction can express Intent or Action (i.e. fully realized transaction)– Think about intent vs. action as weights applied

to the meaning of an Interaction– Action has more weight than Intent

• Yet both are extremely valuable and provide both explicit and hidden information

• Capture both; classify appropriately


Mobile Context

• “The user’s mobile context can be defined as the set of and the intersection between facts, events, circumstances, and information that surrounds the (mobile) user at a given point in time.”

• Enhances and augments the meaning of each interaction, by providing additional information about a given interaction


Mobile Context – Augmenting the meaning of Interactions

• Interactions are more Informative• Timely• Accurate information (accuracy)• Useful information (relevant)• Connected (to friends and family, and other)• Dynamic (always changing)• Adaptive (to current circumstances)• Transformational (promotes behavioral changes)


People’s Data


Data vs. Time

• Provides meaning only over time

• Over time can be costly to store.– Leverage Web 2.0

services such as Amazon S3


Data Analytics

• Interactions typically result on a Query• Real-time analysis of interaction + context + digital

footprints + relationships to business data yields relevant information– Key to this is business data classification– And the correlation algorithms such as time-based,

history, usage, probability-based recommendation, business-rules, other

• Non real-time trend analysis of same data yields hidden information over time for an individual or groups


Data Analytics

• Interaction analysis can provide useful information:– Popular handsets; optimize application for

particular handset?– Important regions; translate application to new

languages?– Popular application features; features to

enhance– Popular business data


Privacy, Users and Identity

• The young demographics seem not to care as much for privacy (as long as something of value is provided

• What about those who care?– Provide identity abstractions that allows for

interaction and analysis without identifying individuals


Effects on the UI

• The end result is a more practical UI, one that requires less navigation and yields the right information, faster

• The UI can be designed to take advantage of the different Interaction-types, and even make such Interactions simpler to use

• The UI can take advantage of user context to improve or filter searches, and similar


People-Centric Mobile ComputingHow all of this fits in?

1) Macro, 2) Contextual and 3) Micro Views.

Behavioral economics or computing is about understanding human and social factors to better understand (economic) decisions and better influence the user.


Use Cases

• Retailers maximize promotions by delivering promotions that matter to the user

• A user searches for a particular kind of store. The query returns past stores of interest and recommends new ones, all at walking distance

• User learns about or identifies a product or retrieves a promotion by waving the handset (or taking a picture of barcode) by object, poster or magazine


In Conclusion

Because designing the User Experience goes beyond UI Elements, designers must embrace “People Data” and “Behavioral Computing” i.e. People-Centric Mobile Computing, as a function of Human-Computer Interface design.


Of Interest

• People-Centric Mobile Computing (Enrique’s weblog)

• Physical World Interactions (Enrique’s weblog)• Data-mining our identity, digital footprint, and social context

(Communities Dominate Brands)• Backtracking on our digital footprints

(Communities Dominate Brands)• Social Advertising Intelligence (Xtract)

http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/mobile-context/

http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/physical-world-interactions/

http://communities_dominate.blogs.com/brands/2008/04/datamining-our.html

http://communities_dominate.blogs.com/brands/2008/07/backtracking-on.html

http://www.xtract.com/analytics/2008/06/17/social-advertising-intelligence-white-paper/http:/www.xtract.com/analytics/2008/06/17/social-advertising-intelligence-white-paper/


Contact C. Enrique Ortiz

• Emails: – [email protected],– [email protected]

• Twitter: eortiz• Website: http://CEnriqueOrtiz.com• Weblog: http://CEnriqueOrtiz.com/weblog

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://cenriqueortiz.com/

http://cenriqueortiz.com/weblog

mobility, context, interactions and data

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