Flexible Hardware Configurations for Studying Mobile Usability
Antti Oulasvirta and Tuomo Nyyssönen
Journal of Usability Studies, Volume 4, Issue 2, February 2009, pp. 93-105
Article Contents
Conclusion
This paper has proposed how the varying requirements of mobile usability studies could be addressed by a single mobile usability lab setup. In general, we find the approach of aiming for flexibility the key to the development of mobile usability labs in the future. The key endeavor in aiming for modularity and flexibility is the design the core of the system, in our case the belt-worn part. Flexibility can also be pursued in camera selection, attachment, and positioning, as well as their division between the user, the moderator, and the environment.
The system we developed has the following qualities:
- Support for both belt-mounted and backpack-mounted configurations, as well as totally wireless ones
- Environmental cameras, not supported by previous systems
- Wireless and wired transfer both supported and flexibility in cable positioning on the user's body
- Higher quality integrated video than our previous systems
- Increased operational duration, optimally up to 4 hours without battery change, which is more than previously achieved
- Lower or equal weight on the user than previous systems
Acknowledgements
We thank Sara Estlander, Vikram Batra, Peter Fröhlich, Kent Lyons, Virpi Roto, Antti Nurminen, Antti Salonen, and anonymous reviewers for pointers, discussion, and help. This work has been supported by the Academy of Finland project ContextCues and the EU FP-6 projects PASION and IPCity.