August 22, 2007: A while back I was thinking about the overlapping layers of context within which mobile interactions take place (more on the word "mobile" in another post). I quickly sketched out a visual model to help me (and other designers working on situated experiences) keep these various layers in mind. Here's the resulting paper (200k pdf), which my collaborator, Jared, will be presenting later this year at Mobile HCI in Singapore.

And, here's the abstract:

Designers of mobile applications have long understood that mobile devices are operated within a context of significant constraints and environmental distractions. Despite this knowledge, however, many mobile applications are designed as if they were merely shrunken desktop or Web applications.

To encourage consideration of the specifics of context for mobile interactions and to highlight new user-meaningful opportunities latent in always-on, always-carried devices, this article describes a context model for mobile interaction and a set of design heuristics for successful mobile interactions.

Feedback welcomed!