A software tool to relate technical performance to user experience in a mobile context

Abstract

Users in todaypsilas mobile ICT environment are confronted with more and more innovations and an ever increasing technical quality, which makes them more demanding and harder to please. It is often hard to measure and to predict the user experience during service consumption. This is nevertheless a very important dimension that should be taken into account while developing applications or frameworks. In this paper we demonstrate a software tool that is integrated in a wireless living lab environment in order to validate and quantify actual user experience. The methodology to assess the user experience combines both technological and social assets. User experience of a Wineguide application on a PDA is related to signal strength, monitored during usage of the applications. Higher signal strengths correspond with a better experience (e.g. speed). Finally, difference in the experience among users will be discussed.