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A rapid ethnographic study of the iPad on a campus bus

Jim Hahnjimhahn@illinois.edu

2+Research questions

What are the use characteristics of the iPad in an environment like the campus bus? Is the iPad really a mobile computing device?

Does the iPad adequately meet the mobile needs of urban bus passengers?

How to design information resources for context-specific search?

3+Methods: rapid ethnography

Rapid Ethnography “…field methods intended to provide a reasonable understanding of users and their activities given significant time pressures and limited time in the field … core elements include limiting or constraining the research focus and scope, using key informants, capturing rich field data by using multiple observers and interactive observation techniques, and collaborative qualitative data analysis” (Millen, 2000, p280).

Millen, D. 2000. Rapid Ethnography: Time Deepening Strategies for HCI Field Research, In DIS ’00: Proceedings of the 3rd conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques. 280-286

4+Methods: rapid ethnography

Students (individual and groups) on the campus bus are approached to take part in the study

10 total students participate

Research takes place over three days at the end of November 2010

5+Questions for the students

I asked students if they would be willing to participate in a survey. If they agreed (only 1 said no) they answered the following:1. Where are you going?

2. Use the iPad to search for any information you need before you get there.

3. What do you think about using the iPad on the bus?

4. Is there anything special about this journey? Is this a routine trip or is there something not very routine about where you are going?

6+Results

Fail points – Two students thought iPad too large for bus use One student considered iPad too valuable for bus use The campus course management system does not support the

mobile safari browser

Unexpected- Dining hall questions (3 students searched for menu and hours), and

2 students search for topical, class related searches on chemistry and physics

Students liked iPad search (7 out of 10 thought having the iPad as a search tools was useful) “… the bus was bumpy but the iPad was fun and easy to use. I love

the size of the screen, much better than a laptop especially for a bus.”

7+Discussion

Apps for development – Dining hall resources (in development) Course content in mobile friendly form – easy one-click

authentication

Computing approaches for app development XML strings that can be ported into a number of different

mobile applications

Partnerships With residence halls and; With the computing departments which maintain the course

management systems

8+Discussion

Context of Mobile Search.. Context matters (sometimes) yet, is wrought with individualized complexity. There are sets of contextual searches. If a student is on her way to class, this does not necessarily guarantee she will want information about her class. However, the student on her way to the dining hall does wonder what will be on the menu.

I interviewed one student who was on her way to a test and she was more concerned with what to expect for the exam she was about to take. She could not focus on searching. Another student who was on her way to class, and late for class actually participated in the study.

Other students happily on their way to class search for the weather. And students returning from class had course related searches.

9+Conclusion

This is a start and was experimental on two levels; the research questions, and; the method was untested and remains new for librarians.

This is not a representative sample of all undergraduate student preferences for computing on the campus bus, rather the design and motivation was to gather ethnographic data quickly to begin to understand a new area of information search, from which we can begin to formulate a tentative understanding of mobile apps to develop.

From here we iterate app designs – test them with users, collect feedback by getting on the bus again…

10+Questions?

Jim Hahn

jimhahn@illinois.edu