Infotech Oulu Lecture Series

Issues in designing mobile applications for road users

Lecturer: Dr. Oskar Juhlin, Studio Director of the Mobility Studio, Interactive Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

Place: TS 128
Date: May 15, 2002
Time: 15:15 - 16:00 (note the changed time!)

Abstract

Our research group invents and investigates technology to increase the experience of road use, i.e. to make it more interesting and enjoyable to pass time on the roads. We evaluate our interpretation of enjoyable driving as collaborative flaneuring. We investigate the feeling of road use when interaction is increasing based on wireless ad hoc communication, e.g. broadcasting music or other sound locally. We invent support for motorbike users who have always praised the convivial aspects of driving. Further, we investigate and invent location dependent messaging as a media for road users e.g. as a resource for backseat gaming. The research is an integrated part of a broader scientific agenda called Mobile Informatics. It deals with general design issues such as support for articulation of coordination, enabling fun, proximity support, and ergonomics of mobile situations.

Biography

Oskar Juhlin is the Studio Director of the Mobility Studio at the Interactive Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology of technology at Tema, Department of Technology and Social Change, Linköping University. He has also a M.Sc. in Civil Engineering at Luleå Technical University. He has been a research fellow at the Section for Science and Technology Studies at Göteborg University, and researched at the Viktoria Institute in the Mobile Informatics programme. Oskar has worked in many fields related to the sociology of technology, including sociology of knowledge and engineering work and lately sociology of traffic and road use related to the design of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). His current approach is a combination of ethnographic fieldwork of user practices and design sessions to develop prototypes.