Understanding contextual factors in location-aware multimedia messaging

Abstract

Location-aware messages left by people can make visible some aspects of their everyday experiences at a location. To understand the contextual factors surrounding how users produce and consume location-aware multimedia messaging (LMM), we use an experience-centered framework that makes explicit the different aspects of an experience. Using this framework, we conducted an exploratory, diary study aimed at eliciting implications for the study and design of LMM systems. In an earlier pilot study, we found that subjects did not have enough time to fully capture their everyday experiences using an LMM prototype, which led us to conduct a longer study using a multimodal diary method. The diary study data (verified for reliability using a categorization task) provided a closer look at the different aspects (spatiotemporal, social, affective, and cognitive) of people's experience. From the data, we derive three main findings (predominant LMM domains and tasks, capturing experience vs. experience of capture, context-dependent personalization) to inform the study and design of future LMM systems.