Understanding mobile information needs on a large-scale: tools, experiences and challenges

ABSTRACTIt is well known that the types of information needs that arise while mobile differ significantly from the types of information needs that arise in desktop environments. Limited devices and interactions as well as dynamically changing contexts all have a role to play. However, to date, studies exploring mobile information needs have be relatively small in terms of scale and duration. The goal of this work is to understand more about mobile information needs on a larger-scale. In this paper we outline a study that employs intelligent experience sampling, an online diary and SMS technology as a means to gather insights into the types of needs that occur while mobile. Rather than reporting results, we discuss our experiences, the lessons learned and the challenges faced in terms of deployment, interacting with our participants as well as in analyzing the dataset we generated.