Gaze Patterns and the Temporal Organization of Multiple Activities in Mobile Smartphone Uses

Abstract

We have analyzed the temporal organization of gaze switches (to and away from the mobile screen) of mobile smartphone users in urban environments, and we discuss how such patterns of gaze switches can help us understand how users jointly manage mobile communication as well as other activities in everyday urban settings. More specifically, we report on the findings of an empirical study of smartphone use in transport situations, in which we have combined video recordings made with user-worn camera glasses with mobile screen capture data. First we show how being oriented toward multiactivity appears as a particular form of attunement to the potential sequential implicativeness of events occurring on screen or in the mobility environment. This provides the opportunity to treat them as possible occasions to switch the orientation of one’s gaze from one activity-relevant field of activity to another. Second we discuss how interfaces with a “rugged” sequential texture. We argue that such rugged interfaces offer frequent sequential opportunities that might be especially useful in multiactivity situations in public places, where balancing the demands of two or more activities may constitute a serious moral and/or safety concern.