Remote and Autonomous Studies of Mobile and Ubiquitous Applications in Real Contexts

Abstract

As mobile and ubiquitous applications become increasingly complex and tightly interwoven into the fabric of everyday life it becomes more important to study them in real contexts. This paper presents a conceptual framework for remote and autonomous studies in the field and two practical tools to facilitate such studies. RECON is a remote controlled data capture tool that runs autonomously on personal mobile devices. It utilizes the sensing and processing power of the devices to capture contextual information together with general usage and application specific interaction data. GREATDANE is a tool for exploration and automated analysis of such rich datasets. The presented approach addresses some key issues of existing methods for studying applications in situ, namely cost, scalability and obtrusiveness to the user experience. Examples and experiences are given from remote and autonomous studies of two mobile and ubiquitous applications where the method and tools have been used.