Better together: disaggregating mobile services for emergent users

Abstract

Mainstream mobile interactions are focused around individual devices, with any collaboration happening via `the cloud'. We carried out design workshops with emergent users, revealing opportunities for novel collocated collaborative interactions. In this paper we present Better Together - a framework for disaggregating services, splitting interaction elements over separate mobiles. This distribution supports both sharing of resources (such as screen real-estate, or mobile data); and, scaffolding of inclusive interaction in mixed groups (e.g., in terms of literacy or prior technology exposure). We developed two prototypes to explore the concept, trialling the first---collocated group-based shopping list making---with emergent users in South Africa and India. We deployed the second probe, which splits YouTube into its constituent parts across separate mobiles, in a longitudinal study with users in Kenya, South Africa and India. We describe the concept and design process, and report on the design's suitability for emergent users based on our results.