Making Local Information More Accessible: A Diary Study of Information Channel Selection of Mobile Users

Abstract

The mobile Web has been a dominant channel for mobile users to fulfill information needs. Mobile users, however, also use other information channels such as the environment and personal sources. Through a 14-week exploratory diary study with ten mobile users, we found uncertainty with the accessibility of target information in an information channel to be a significant barrier for mobile users in using that channel to address an information need. This barrier is especially apparent when the information to be sought is for an upcoming activity or plan. In addition, we found that local infrastructural information such as information of services, resources, and directions within a specific point of interest was often perceived inaccessible or difficult to access on the Web, resulting in mobile users often preferring to use other information channels to obtain the information. We provide an explanation of the impact of such uncertainty using the cognitive maps framework from environmental cognition, and provide design implications on how Ubicomp systems can make local infrastructural information more accessible to mobile users.