By Marco de Sá, Yahoo! Research, USA, marcosa@yahoo-inc.com | Luís Carriço, LaSIGE and University of Lisboa, Portugal, lmc@di.fc.ul.pt
Mobile technology has been rapidly gaining ground and has become intrinsic to our daily lives. As its importance within society continues to grow, features, functionalities and usage opportunities accompany such growth, turning mobile devices into essential tools. Faced with the role that mobile interactive technology has assumed, it is vital that ease of use also reaches new levels, attenuating the growing complexity within the critical status that they represent. Accordingly, mobile usability evaluation needs to re-invent itself to keep pace with this new phenomenon. This article reviews the current approaches and recent advances in the design and evaluation of mobile interaction and mobile user interfaces, addressing the challenges, the most significant results and the upcoming research directions.
Mobile devices are rapidly taking over the digital and interactive world. Their role within our lives is growing in diversity and importance. As their importance within society continues to grow, features, functionalities and usage opportunities accompany such growth, turning mobile devices into essential tools. As mobile interactive technology assumes this role, issues of usability and interaction become paramount. Consequently, mobile usability evaluation needs to re-invent itself to keep pace with this new phenomenon. Designing and Evaluating Mobile Interaction: Challenges and Trends reviews the current approaches and recent advances in the design and evaluation of mobile interaction and mobile user interfaces. In particular, it focuses on the two stages that present the biggest challenges, but are also the most important for the design and validation of mobile interaction, namely the prototyping and evaluation stages. It presents an overview of the current state-of-the-art, addressing recent and emerging work on these two stages of the design process. Designing and Evaluating Mobile Interaction: Challenges and Trends is an invaluable reference for developers, engineers, designers and researchers with an interest in mobile usability and interaction. It addresses the challenges, the most significant results and the upcoming research directions.