Marco de Sá

Lessons from early stages design of mobile applications

This paper presents a set of lessons that resulted from the design process of several mobile applications. It starts by addressing the difficulties that emerged through the data gathering, prototyping and evaluation stages also stressing the absence of adequate techniques and methods to support these activities. We explain how these problems and challenges were solved and how they can be applied in other domains and future projects. As a result, we provide a set of guidelines for designers to apply on the development and design of mobile applications and user interfaces. The paper also addresses three case studies in which these guidelines and procedures were validated, stressing their contributions and results.

Mobile augmented reality: exploring design and prototyping techniques

As mobile devices are enhanced with more sensors, powerful embedded cameras, and increased processing power and features, new user experiences become possible. A good example is the recent emergence of Augmented Reality (AR) applications that are designed for personal use while people are on-the-go. However, designing effective and usable AR experiences for mobile devices poses challenges for the design process. In this paper we outline reasons why simulating a compelling, mobile AR experience with sufficient veracity for effective formative design is a challenge, and present our work on prototyping and evaluation techniques for mobile AR. An experiment within the context of an ongoing design project (Friend Radar) is presented along with resulting findings and guidelines. We reflect on the benefits and drawbacks of low, mixed and high fidelity prototypes for mobile AR by framing them into a set of analytic categories extracted from the existing literature on prototyping and design.

A mixed-fidelity prototyping tool for mobile devices

In this paper we present a software framework which supports the construction of mixed-fidelity (from sketch-based to software) prototypes for mobile devices. The framework is available for desktop computers and mobile devices (e.g., PDAs, Smartphones). It operates with low-fidelity sketch based prototypes or mid to high-fidelity prototypes with some range of functionality, providing several dimensions of customization (e.g., visual components, audio/video files, navigation, behavior) and targeting specific usability concerns. Furthermore, it allows designers and users to test the prototypes on actual devices, gathering usage information, both passively (e.g., logging) and actively (e.g., questionnaires/Experience Sampling). Overall, it conveys common prototyping procedures with effective data gathering methods that can be used on ubiquitous scenarios supporting in-situ prototyping and participatory design on-the-go. We address the frameworks features and its contributions to the design and evaluation of applications for mobile devices and the field of mobile interaction design, presenting real-life case studies and results.

Low-fi prototyping for mobile devices

This paper introduces a set of concepts for user-centered design methodologies that apply to mobile and multi-device applications. It ranges from initial data gathering and specification processes to the creation of low-fidelity prototypes and their evaluation. The focus is given to usability issues of ubiquitous, context and ambient intelligent applications. The papers main contributions are (1) the description of our findings on how to engage on the early stage prototyping process, involving mobility; (2) a set of details that need to be taken into consideration so that the design and prototyping process is successful; (3) a set of guidelines on how to evaluate mobile applications on their context of use at an early design stage and (4) a rapid prototyping framework which allows designers to quickly move from their hand-drawn sketches to semi-functional software prototypes, particularly for PDAs and Smart phones.

Designing and Evaluating Mobile Interaction: Challenges and Trends

Mobile technology has been rapidly gaining ground and has become intrinsic to our daily lives. As its importance within society continues to grow, features, functionalities and usage opportunities accompany such growth, turning mobile devices into essential tools. Faced with the role that mobile interactive technology has assumed, it is vital that ease of use also reaches new levels, attenuating the growing complexity within the critical status that they represent. Accordingly, mobile usability evaluation needs to re-invent itself to keep pace with this new phenomenon. This article reviews the current approaches and recent advances in the design and evaluation of mobile interaction and mobile user interfaces, addressing the challenges, the most significant results and the upcoming research directions.

Handheld devices for cooperative educational activities

This paper presents a framework that aims to support several steps of learning activities. Working either on mobile and non-mobile devices, Test-IT, allows users to learn ubiquitously and to proceed with their work at any time and place. It approaches both teaching and learning activities, allowing teachers and students to cooperate using common mobile devices to transfer information between each other.We describe the requirements for using such tool on mobile devices and comment some of the current approaches. The design process and the frameworks components, focusing particularly on the user interface and usability issues, are addressed.We also focus on the flexibility provided by Test-IT, allowing users to create specific applications, according to their field or subject of expertise.

A mobile tool for in-situ prototyping

Mobile interaction design introduces added challenges when compared with the usual design process for fixed technologies. In particular, it benefits greatly from the ability to take the design process out of the lab, creating, designing and evaluating applications within their natural usage context. However, this process requires new and deeply refined approaches to traditional techniques which are demanding and still avoided by designers. This paper presents a tool that overcomes some of these issues by offering means to support in-situ design. The tool supports prototyping of mobile applications and user interfaces on real scenarios, also providing evaluation features that allow the logging and analysis of usage information. We describe the tools concept, goals and design implications, focusing, in particular, its out-on-the-field, in-situ design and prototyping features.

Live mobile collaboration for video production: design, guidelines, and requirements

Traditional cameras and video equipment are gradually losing the race with smart phones and small mobile devices that allow video, photo, and audio capturing on the go. Users are now quickly creating movies and taking photos whenever and wherever they go, particularly at concerts and live events (e.g., shows, sport events). Still, in-situ media capturing with such devices poses constraints to any user, especially amateur ones. In this paper, we present the design and evaluation of a mobile video capture suite that allows for cooperative ad hoc production. Our system relies on ad hoc in-situ collaboration offering users the ability to switch between streams and cooperate with each other in order to capture better media with mobile devices. Our main contribution is the real-time awareness that users gain on media capturing endeavors around them and the possibility to collect that data for personal use once the event is over. This contribution is further emphasized by the geo-referenced cues that support the overall user interface and the management of the different media streams. As a secondary contribution, we report on lessons and design guidelines that emerged and apply to in-situ design of rich video collaborative experiences and with the elicitation of functional and usability requirements related to privacy, social connections, and gamification.

A framework for mobile evaluation

In this paper we present a software framework which supports the construction and evaluation of mixed-fidelity prototypes for mobile devices. The framework is available for desktop and mobile devices and allows designers and users to 1) test the prototypes on actual devices; 2) gather usage information, both passively and actively supporting contextual and ubiquitous evaluation; 3) convey common prototyping procedures with effective data gathering methods that can be used on ubiquitous scenarios; 4) support in-situ prototyping and participatory design on-the-go. We address the frameworks features and its contributions to the evaluation of applications for mobile devices and the field of mobile interaction design, presenting real-life case studies and achieved results.

Defining scenarios for mobile design and evaluation

This paper presents results from the design experiences of several mobile applications. It starts by addressing the difficulties that emerged through the data gathering, prototyping and evaluation stages. We explain how these problems and challenges were tackled, resulting in the creation of a conceptual scenario generation and selection framework. The framework and suggested guidelines aim at aiding designers on the scenario generation and selection process during design and evaluation of mobile applications. We address several case studies in which these guidelines were applied, stressing their contributions and results.