Tools and techniques mobile interaction design

Abstract

Design methodologies and techniques are essential tools that have been successfully used by developers and designers to create usable applications for a wide variety of purposes. However, the recent burst of mobile devices and their constant use amongst several contexts has introduced new challenges that are awkwardly or scarcely handled by these methodologies. Their characteristics impose restrictions and incorporate potentialities that present new usage paradigms. This thesis addresses these challenges, providing and extending concepts that are particularly devoted to mobile applications. The main umbrella goal is to facilitate the design process of mobile applications by updating and introducing several practical techniques that target the most affected design stages. Overall, besides providing conceptual directives that point specific concerns and concepts that need to be regarded during the entire process, the main focus is directed to (1) initial requirements gathering and specification; (2) low-fidelity prototyping and sketching for mobile devices; and (3) both early and final stage evaluation. Through these several stages, specific notations and procedures are assessed and used, providing new tools to define, prototype and test mobile applications. Additionally, and based on the results from experiments with these techniques, a mixed-fidelity prototyping framework is also be presented. It includes mechanisms to create and use low-fidelity and software prototypes on actual devices, allowing designers to define presentation and interaction, arrange navigation and gather usage and behaviour information on realistic usage settings.