Going DEEP: Public, iterative release as a mobile research strategy

Unlike traditional forms of Human-Computer Interaction (such as conducting desktop or Web-based design), mobile design has by its nature little control over the contextual variables of its research. Short-term evaluations of novel mobile interaction techniques are abundant, but these controlled studies only address limited contexts through artificial deployments, which cannot hope to reveal the patterns of use that arise as people appropriate a tool and take it with them into the varying social and physical contexts of their lives. The authors propose a rapid and reflective model of in-situ deployment of high-fidelity prototypes, borrowing the tested habits of industry, where researchers relinquish tight control over their prototypes in exchange for an opportunity to observe patterns of use that would be intractable to plan for in controlled studies. The approach moves the emphasis in prototyping away from evaluation and towards exploration and reflection, promoting an iterative prototyping methodology that captures the complexities of the real world.