Usage Practices with Mobile TV - A Case Study - CiteSeerX

Usage Practices with Mobile TV - A Case Study Sara Belt Anne Elsilä

Jenni Saarenpää Jonna Häkkilä

Nokia Group Yrttipellontie 6 90230 Oulu, Finland

Nokia Group Yrttipellontie 1 90230 Oulu, Finland

{sara.belt}{anne.elsila}@nokia.com

{jenni.saarenpaa}{jonna.hakkila}@nokia.com

ABSTRACT

practices and enable new kinds of services. Moreover, the mobile platform is most likely to cause use patterns that differ from the traditional television watching practices.

Use of mobile phone multimedia applications have emerged rapidly during recent years, and here the mobile television is a step that is been taken right now. In this paper we present a long-term user study on mobile phone integrated TV, including an in-depth study of seven and an additional survey on fifty participants who used mobile TV for two months. We report experimental data on patterns of use, which are strongly driven by situational and ad-hoc usage, user perceptions on the technology, and concerns related to mobile TV.

Use of mobile multimedia applications has emerged with the increasing number of cameraphones and mobile music players, and has provoked a number of studies on people’s usage of the technology. In a study on cameraphone use, Kindberg et al. [3] report on user behavior in capturing and sharing the images, describing the affective and functional reasons when capturing the photos. Mobile music consumption has become a central phenomenon, and especially the rapid adaptation of iPods has created a strong usage culture [8]. However, despite of the industrial development and first commercial products already available, there still exists very little published research on mobile TV usage.

Author Keywords

Mobile TV, mobile phones, user studies. ACM Classification Keywords

H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): Miscellaneous.

Research literature on mobile TV usage has so far mostly described a small number of technology trials and studies which seek design implication or aim to predict the usage culture. Typically, this research uses focus groups or ethnographical methods on studies of current TV or multimedia consumption [4, 7]. Roibas & Johnson have researched potential future trends related to the use of mobile and pervasive television in ethnographical study on current practices with multimedia content and (conventional) TV. They estimate that mobile TV broadcasts in the future include a wide segment of user created content consumption, creating a ‘do-it-yourself community’ around the media [7]. Other estimated future trends emphasize transient or low commitment viewing habits, and social concerns of being too absorbed or socially wary when watching mobile TV [4]. Short-term case studies on using mobile TV service during ice-hockey match [5] or emulated broadcasting for train commuters [4] have also been reported. Although the existing studies offer interesting viewpoints to the design space and potential future usage culture, they lack input and confirmation from real life long-term user experiences with functional technology.

INTRODUCTION

In the digital age, our perception of television is changing. In their study on personal video recorders, Brown and Barkhuus report on how the technology has changed the watching habits of the users [1]. Change from analog to digital broadcasts has enabled a variety of new features, such as more flexible recording schedules, instant playback, and automation of numerous functions. In research, new concepts related to interactive television [2] and collaboration between users [6] have been developed. Recent technological development has introduced mobile phone integrated television, which brings new aspects to the entire area. Mobility together with communication and interaction characteristics associated with mobile phones will add interesting phenomena to the television watching

Mobile Multimedia – Content Creation and Use workshop at MobileHCI 2008, September 2–5, 2008, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Copyright owned by the authors

In this paper we describe a first published study charting real life long-term usage practices with mobile phone integrated television. The study was conducted during a

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period of approximately two months, during which the participants actively used mobile TV. The study consisted on two separate sections. First part consists of in-depth study on seven participants’ usage practices with mobile TV. The second part of the study was an online survey, which engaged fifty users. STUDY SET-UP Technology

There exist several broadcasting standards which dominate the broadcasting technology in different parts of the world: ISDB-T (in Japan), DVB-H (particularly in Europe and the US), and DBM (especially in Korea), where several mobile terminals on the market already support it. Our research was carried out with devices employing DVB-H technology. However, in this paper we neglect distinguishing between technologies as they fall outside of the scope of our research, and simply call the mobile phone integrated television application under investigation as mobile TV. The device used in the study was Nokia N92, illustrated in Figure 1. The device employs a 2.8 inch color display with 240 x 320 pixel screen. The device employs all traditional mobile phone features, which can also run simultaneously with the mobile TV application. .

All participants were active mobile phone users, and they used N92 as their primary (and only) mobile phone during the study. We wanted to catch the authentic use situations with mobile TV, and thus no specific instructions about what and when the usage should happen were given. Participants’ expenses for using the phone, including mobile TV, were covered. The first part of the study included seven participants, and consisted of eight-week usage period (June-July 2006) in Finland. During this time the users answered five online questionnaires (one in every two weeks), and one-hour semi-structured interviews both in the beginning and in the end of the study. In the first interview session, the users were familiarized with the mobile TV application, and their expectations on different features (e.g. interactive services) and their estimated utility value as well as first impressions with the applications were charted. Consecutive online surveys were used for charting usage behavior related to both traditional and mobile TV usage, and how participants’ practices with mobile TV evolved during the time. The end interview concentrated on users’ experiences as mobile TV users. The in-depth study functioned as the primary data collection source in our study. The second, supplementary part of the study was an online survey including fifty participants using the N92 with integrated mobile TV as their primary phone. The survey consisted of thirty questions charting key elements in usage practices and experiences. Survey results were used as complementing the results of the in-depth study. Participants

The study was run among employees of a large mobile phone company. However, the long term user study participants were selected to be employees that had less than a month work experience in the company to avoid bias e.g. in familiarity with technical features. Majority of the in-depth study participants also had a non-technical background. Both genders were represented (four female, three male), and their ages varied from 25 to 35. STUDY RESULTS

Figure 1. N92 mobile phone with integrated DVB-H mobile TV application used in the study.

The study was conducted in the neighborhood of a large IT company, where the coverage of mobile TV was set-up. The study participants attending the long-term user study were selected so that they lived in the broadcast coverage area and could use mobile TV application at home, work, and when commuting. The accessible area covered also some areas of a city center, including shops and restaurants. Design of the Study

The aim of the study was to find usage practices, preferences and overall experiences on mobile TV usage.

Reported results are based on the in-depth study with seven participants. The presentation of survey results is explicitly mentioned when taking place. Context of Use

Our study indicated three typical domains for the use of mobile TV: home, work, and when commuting. In each use context, mobile TV was typically used in ad hoc manner. Participants mostly opened the application impulsively, especially in order to ‘kill time’. Using public transportation and waiting times related to commuting were the use contexts that were mentioned most frequently during the end interview sessions. Situations such as waiting at a bus stop or at airport were also perceived as the ones where mobile TV was seen the most useful.

Once the TV application had been opened, selecting the channel was done by choosing a program, which best matched to user’s preferences, i.e. what type of program they would normally watch from TV. Watching news was found to be almost the only exception to general behavior. With news, the use of mobile TV was timed to match the broadcasting schedule. Other than news flashes, the participant claimed that they hardly ever watched any program in its full length via mobile TV.

In addition to ad hoc usage, some participants took a habit of having mobile TV on at the background especially while working. Here, the device was used in the peripheral of attention, often replacing a radio. One participant kept the device under a PC screen so that (s)he was able to glance it every now and then while working with the computer. With background usage, the form factor of the phone had a great influence as it could be kept conveniently on a table without hands, see Figure 1. The survey results also reported on background usage, as 14 (of 50) participants reported on using mobile TV mainly and additional 7 occasionally in this manner.

When investigating the long-term temporal patterns of the watching behavior and when comparing the use to traditional TV, several changes were detected. Number of watched music videos grew, especially if participant started having mobile TV on in the background when focusing some other tasks, e.g. in the office. Although all participants followed drama series or soaps with normal TV, only half of them reported watching any of those on mobile TV – and if that happened, only rarely episodes in their full length. With movies the change was even more dramatic. Whereas all participants regularly watched movies from TV, none of them did that with a mobile device. Long broadcasts were unanimously avoided, as participants preferred to have their larger TV screen and home environment when engaging with TV for a longer period of time.

At home, some participants developed routines with mobile TV. Again, the use was initiated because of the convenient time and use context, not because of the content. Examples of user routines were using mobile TV during breakfast or in bed before falling asleep. Except public transport, mobile TV was rarely used in other public places. Here, social acceptability issues played a big role. The participants mentioned they felt uncomfortable for using such a (new) technology in public or among crowds, or this being impolite and neglecting the surrounding people. Also concerns related to making too much noise in the public (if headphones were not used for audio) were raised. The screen visibility in outdoors lighting conditions was poorer compared to indoor usage e.g. due reflections and brightness of ambient light, which also impacted on the use.

Features and Technology

The image and sound quality were perceived good. This became especially evident in the beginning of the study, as participants expressed their surprise on image quality, which they found better than they had expected. This finding was also supported by the survey results. Negative user experience took place with switching the channels, as this was perceived rather slow (typically 5-10 seconds). The delays were too long e.g. to encourage surfing between channels, which remained rather rare in comparison with traditional TV. Time delays were also critical when starting mobile TV, as the participants reported that sometimes they did not bother to turn the application on as setting it up took too long. The disproof of long delays in channel switching was also evident from the survey. Other technical difficulties during the study related to limited network coverage, reported especially by survey participants.

When social context is considered, the usage of mobile TV differed greatly from traditional TV, as the first one was used strongly individually whereas the latter had a significant social function. Moreover, our study did not find any changes in the usage patterns of a normal TV during the study period. Mobile TV was not used for replacing the normal TV, but more in complementary manner – in situations where access to normal TV was impossible or just inconvenient. Temporal Patterns and Content

A fundamental phenomenon with the use of mobile TV was that its use was more determined by the moment than any desired content. Participants mostly opened the application due an impulse, especially in order to ‘kill time’. Having a break from other tasks or waiting e.g. for a bus or another person to come were typical situations triggering the use, and the watching continued as long as the primary, more important task interrupted it. Active watching sessions lasted typically from 5 to 30 minutes, the emphasis being on short periods. This behavior was strongly linked with the impulsive manner of usage and having the application for filling idle moments. In addition to this, some participants adopted background use of mobile TV. This behavior, however, was strongly divided between participants, as some participants did not demonstrate background use at all whereas others did that frequently.

When mobile TV functionalities were assessed, reminders and recording were perceived valuable. This finding was evident, although technical difficulties restricted the use of recording options in full scale during the study. One participant commented using recording to download content for commuting in bus, as ‘there was nothing interesting on at that time [in the morning]’. However, the money the participants would have been ready to pay for additional downloads or other services was very little. More advanced features such as instant reply and interactive services did not appeal to the study participants, and they remained mostly unused. Survey results gave a similar outcome. Recording was used by 16 (of 50) respondents, but the use

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of services and replay features was reported only by 8 participants in both cases. The biggest concern with the use of mobile TV related to the mobile phone battery life. Users were worried that watching mobile TV would drain the device battery, and thus they were reluctant to use the application intensively especially when on the move. Use of headphones was perceived another issue that discouraged opening the application. Use of headphones was perceived important especially on public places, where participants wanted to avoid making noise mainly because of the social reasons. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

In this paper we have reported user experiences on using mobile phone integrated TV. The research consisted on two parts: 1) in-depth study where use data was collected over 8 weeks period of use from seven participants, and 2) a supplementary survey of 50 users that had the device for approximately for two months. Most of the data and thus the main results reported in this paper are derived mainly from the in-depth study. The restricted broadcast neighborhood set some difficulties for the study. Spatially limited access to the functioning service somewhat limited the free use of mobile TV, especially with the survey participants, who were not necessarily living in the broadcast area. Hence, the results of the study are somewhat limited. The main domains where mobile TV was used were home, work, and while commuting. The use in all situations was more situationally than content-wise orientated, and the application was typically turned on spontaneously regardless of the current broadcasts. Ad hoc behavior dominating the usage, active watching periods were short, between 5 and 30 minutes. In addition to ad hoc usage, another way of using mobile TV was to have it on in the background while focusing on doing something else. This behavior was demonstrated by some of the study participants. Valuing recording options and personal prime time instead of relying on broadcasting schedules has been reported with digital video recorders in earlier research [1], and our study found similar aspects with mobile TV usage. Reminders and recording were seen as valuable features, whereas more advanced functions were largely neglected by the study participants. However, this usage behavior may change when these functions become more familiar for large audiences. Similarly, despite of the numerous research concepts and expectation related to interactive TV, our study did not report any user activities in this area. Again, this condition may easily change over time when people get more acquainted with the technology and when new services with interactive features appear.

The main concerns related to mobile TV usage were on battery life, time delays in starting the application and when switching the channels, and social context when using the application in public. Concerns with social acceptability were hardly surprising, as they often appear with new technology. Another social aspect related to the relationship between mobile and traditional TV. The research literature has pointed out that whereas traditional TV is social, mobile TV is personal [7]. Our experimental results agree with this assumption. In our study we did not log any device data on the mobile TV application or using headphones with it. This data would offer valuable insights into the usage behavior, and it offers an interesting topic for further studies. Moreover, the content broadcasted during the study was not designed for mobile TV particularly. This may change in the future, and have effect on the usage patterns of mobile TV. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors want to thank the study participants and the technical personnel who contributed to the practical arrangements of the study. REFERENCES

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