Ju-Youn Lee

Designing Mobile Social Networking Service Through UCD Process: LifeDiary

Socialization is one of the basic human needs that has been capitalized on by various industries. The main features of socialization include content sharing and people networking. These features from web service have been expanded to mobile devices and provide users the same experience in the context of these devices. However, most of the mobile web services merely push data to the mobile device and do not fully utilize the nature of mobility itself. The present article argues that these mobile web services presented to customers do not match the users expectation due to a lack of interactivity between mobile and web. The present study uses a user-centered design process to better understand social network users needs and pattern of device usage within this service. Through this process, the main concept of the service is initially to be decided and followed by personas and functions. Then, the role of each device is set by analyzing users expectation around each device. Finally, a design prototype is proposed and its quality is estimated by conducting usability evaluation. As a result, the present study illustrates the differences among traditional mobile social networking services and shows how mobile phones may improve the traditional social network service experience while interacting with websites and PCs.

Media sharing and collaboration within mobile community: self expression and socialization

The importance of social relation has never been as vital as of now, in an age of sound bites, aging population and busy work schedule, contemplating social behavior has become a rarity. The Structuration theory elaborates the fact that how much social relations are important in human life. Here we re-define basic concept and category (types) of mobile community. A realization of mobile communities through unified UI for mobile devices is believed to provide users efficient communication ways while satisfying properties of various communities. Such unified UI led to drive an adaptive and intuitive user interfaces that depict real-time interaction involving multiple parties, contents and activities. Many different scenarios emerge with the proposed UI to give a deeper thought and understanding about the role of mobile community in everyday life and help promoting users communication experience.