Mobility Mapping – A Discount Technique for Exploring User Needs for Future Mobile Products and Services

Mobility Mapping can be used to help designers and human factors practitioners encapsulate in scenario form the variability in usage patterns and usage contexts that must be considered within mobile product and service design.

Abstract

This paper describes a 'low cost' or discount technique termed 'Mobility Mapping' designed to explore user needs for future mobile products and services during concept design and user requirements specification. It can be used to help designers and human factors practitioners encapsulate in scenario form the variability in usage patterns and usage contexts that must be considered within mobile product and service design. Mobility Mapping can also be used to complement field studies by providing a framework for stretching consideration of the context of mobile product use beyond the normal temporal and practical bounds of observation and shadowing activities. This paper introduces the technique and the rationale behind its development.