GRAPHICAL INTERFACE DESIGN FOR MOBILE TV:

REPRESENTATION, INTERACTION AND USABILITY IN

ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL CITY GUIDES

Heloisa Caroline de Souza Pereira Candello

School of Computing, Mathematical and Information Science

University of Brighton
Watts Building, Lewes Road, Moulsecoomb
Brighton, BN24GJ, UK
+44 01273 642598
H.C.D.S.P.Candello@brighton.ac.uk

ABSTRACT
The aim of this project is to explore the design issues raised by the potential for viewing video on mobile phones. These
will be approached via the design and evaluation of graphical user interfaces for a mobile TV-based cultural guide
through which city tourists, students and residents will be able to find, input and exchange information on the urban
landscape, combining the strengths of digital interactive television with those of the mobile phone.
KEYWORDS
Cultural guides, mobile learning, user interface design

1. INTRODUCTION

There are currently a large number of initiatives in mobile technology related to culture and tourism (Milles
2007; Anon 2007; Agamemnon 2006). Many of the systems developed through these initiatives allow users
to find what they want to know about the city (mainly by accessing the Internet through a mobile device),
while other use new technologies such as GPS to provide location-aware services. However, most of them
don’t take advantage of the multimedia resources and the collaboration tasks that mobile TV can provide.
Mobile TV is a technology with multiple multimedia functions. Features such as radio, music player, camera
and video recorder in addition to other TV functions potentially offer a more active, interactive and personal
experience than traditional media (Nokia 2006). Hence, it can be used to enhance the educational and
travelling experiences of students, residents and tourists. Students might use this media as a guide to their
own city; understanding what occurred in historical times and comparing it to the present. They may also
collaborate with the system by publishing their assignments, pictures, oral histories (perhaps recorded from
family members) and lived experiences with landmarks. Citizens will be able to discover the history and the
relevance of the culture of their city and enhance the system with their memories. Tourists’ experience of
historical places may be enhanced with additional information created by students and residents in the town.
According to Shneiderman (2003:105) portable devices are only one manifestation of an intense desire
for personal information and communication services. Mobiles are an individual platform, so people may use
the suggested cultural guide in privacy; they might store their impressions about the city through voice,
photograph, texts and video in an interactive way. Moreover, users will check how the content on the
collaborative system has been changed by other users, which may motivate them to add more information.
2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The study aims to explore the graphic and interaction design issues involved in viewing video, in
combination with other media, on a mobile device. The main point of the application is to spread historical
and cultural information; through a guide supported by mobile TV. In order to achieve this goal, it will be
necessary to understand how people perceive graphic representations on the screen; interact with these
representations and handle the possibilities of multimedia resources on mobiles. According to Weiss (2002)
there is a lack of usability on most handheld devices; they do not provide exactly what users expect. The
majority of users expect the signs, actions and options which they are used to finding on their desktops.
Kukulska-Hulme (2005:47) concludes that any problems encountered will depend on the device itself, users’
familiarity with it and its suitability for particular activities or tasks. Therefore, we have to consider the
variety of devices and type of connectivity in order to develop graphical interfaces. If target audiences do not
have good connectivity and do not use a specific model of mobile, we will have to consider these
characteristics in the project.
Environmental aspects also have an influence on usability; outdoor use often brings problems of screen
readability or difficulties of writing and selecting information while travelling on a bus (Kukulska-Hulme
2005:52). Additionally, some devices have a combination of functionalities that can be dangerous and might
reduce the overall usability of the device (Trinder 2005). Normally, individuals who use mobiles give priority
to the length of action during their tasks. They need to find what they want as fast as possible. Weiss
(2002:66):

While desktops accommodate ‘surfing’- users meandering down the byways of the Information Superhighway for
hours at a time - wireless devices are more about instantaneous search and retrieval. The stakes for wireless usage are
higher than for desktop: per-minute charges apply, data transfer is slower, and connectivity is sketchy. Wireless user
may be using their leisure to gather information, but they typically have immediate goals.

Preece (2007) and Nielsen (2003) confirm this saying that mobile devices still fall short of the speed and
efficiency attainable using the standard PC QWERTY keyboard/mouse combination. Preece (2007:269)
indicates some issues designers must have in mind during interface design projects, such as: small screen and
limited control space available, how to map controls onto the software, restricted navigation, slow text input
entry, allowing users to view and navigate through slimmed-down, largely menu-based, small numbers of
menus and predictive form fill-ins. Nielsen (2003) complements this by suggesting that developers must
rethink applications and base them on a new task analysis situated in the mobile context and the moment of
use. Other considerations might be found in Weiss (2002), Nielsen (2003), Kukulska-Hulme (2005),
Pehkonen & Turunen (2003), Jones & Marsden (2006) and Gong &Tarasewich (2004), who also attempt to
improve the usability of mobiles interfaces.
Another extremely important issue is the target audience for the mobile application. Designers and
developers have to realize that depending on the target audience and context, features on the mobile graphic
interface may need changing. Shneiderman (2003) suggests that the way to achieve universal systems is not
by creating the same interface for all users, but creating specific versions of the content adapted to user
requirements and interface preferences. According to Shneiderman (2003:44) users vary with respect to
computer skills, knowledge, age, gender, disabilities, disabling conditions (mobility, sunlight, and noise),
literacy, culture and income. Further, the concept of user experience should not be forgotten in an interface
design project, i.e., how a product behaves and is used by someone in the real world. Preece (2007:15) gives
an example:

...the outside case of a cell phone can be designed to be smooth, silky, and fit in the palm of a hand that when held,
touched, looked at, and interacted with can provoke a sensual and satisfying user experience. Conversely, if it is
designed to be heavy and awkward to hold, it is much more likely to end up providing a poor user experience that is
uncomfortable and unpleasant.

In the case of the guide interface, I intend to design three different graphic interfaces, as well as contents,
adapted to each type of user: students, tourists and residents. Consequently broad research is required in order
to understand how these different users behave and navigate in this type of system. For instance, in
educational contexts, mobile interfaces tend to respond to new sets of requirements that may not always be
met by existing devices and services. It is important to consider some special features such as contextual use,
flexibility and collaboration (Kukulska-Hulme 2005:48). It is relevant to say that if educational users do not
have up-to-date technologies that might offer them improved usability, then educational projects have to
consider the existent technology (Kukulska-Hulme 2005:54). For this reason, which technologies are
available will be investigated, and their cost and benefit for developing the proposed prototype. Topics
presented in the prototype guide will include: cultural and arts events, history of landmarks, galleries,
museums of the city, dates, ancient and actual pictures, videos and oral histories. The guide will allow
teachers to create new categories to insert contents, according of the curriculum followed. Users might
record their visit around the city and allow others to follow it as a guided visit, and then themselves update it
on their Mobile TV. The application will allow each user to produce and exchange personal videos, pictures
of his/her visit to the city, and talk to other users surfing the guide at the same time. Furthermore, city maps
will be available for users to establish their location and discover the cultural places around them. As the
guide will contain a lot of information, a search tool will be available.

3. METHODOLOGY
In order to develop a Mobile TV graphic user interface for a cultural guide aimed at tourists, students and
residents, frameworks will have to be created for each audience as well as the content. Each interface should
be developed to support user’s behaviour and context of use (Preece 2007). Consequently, an extensive
literature review is required in diverse fields such as: Human Computer Interaction, Digital Design, Mobile
Technology, Perception and Art. The study will examine how each type of user interacts with the application,
accesses or contributes to historical and cultural information and compares the different interactions among
users.
The research is still in the initial phase, consisting of the literature review and identification of the main
requirements and limitations of mobile TV interfaces. Subsequent to this step, details of the target audience
will be established (age, educational context, knowledge) and the town the project will be based in will be
decided. After these requirements are defined, sketches of the interfaces and navigation will be developed.
Initially, low tech prototypes will be used to detect how the navigation is working and to solve technical
problems that might occur. Following this step, high tech prototypes (possibly using the LOGOS system,
Pemberton et al. 2007) will be used to test the usability of the system in an iterative development process.
Overall, the research will rely on qualitative data and interpretive methods.

4. CONTRIBUTIONS
This project will produce specific results on how mobile TV cultural and tourist guides should present
information and provide interaction for tourists, students and city residents. More generally, the development
of graphic interface models for a mobile TV collaboration system will bring contributions to the area of
adaptive hypermedia and user interface design in mobile TV. Considerations of how to design interfaces for
mobile TV city-guides may help designers to develop other types of interfaces for mobiles.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank my supervisors Dr Lyn Pemberton and Richard Griffiths for their support and patient
guidance in the first steps of this project.
Supported by the Alban Programme, the European Union Programme of High Level Scholarships for
Latin America, scholarship no(E07D401646BR).
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