Environment Analysis as a Basis for Designing Multimodal and Multidevice User Interfaces

In this article, we present a practical approach to analyzing mobile usage environments. We propose a framework for analyzing the restrictions that characteristics of different environments pose on the user's capabilities. These restrictions along with current user interfaces form the cost of interaction in a certain environment. Our framework aims to illustrate that cost and what causes it. The framework presents a way to map features of the environment to the effects they cause on the resources of the user and in some cases on the mobile device. This information can be used for guiding the design of adaptive and/or multimodal user interfaces or devices optimized for certain usage environments. An example of using the framework is presented along with some major findings and three examples of applying them in user interface design.