Exploring Mobile End User Development: Existing Use and Design Factors

Mobile devices are everywhere, and the scope of their use is growing from simple calling and texting through Internet browsing to more technical activities such as creating message processing filters and connecting different apps. However, building tools which provide effective support for such advanced technical use of mobile devices by non-programmers (mobile end user development or mEUD) requires thorough understanding of user needs and motivations, including factors which can impact user intentions regarding mEUD activities. We propose a model linking these mEUD factors with mobile users' attitudes towards, and intent of doing mEUD, and discuss a number of implications for supporting mEUD. Our research process is user-centered, and we formulate a number of hypotheses by fusing results from an exploratory survey which gathers facts about mEUD motivations and activities, and from a focus group study, which delivers deeper understanding of particular mEUD practices and issues. We then test the hypothesized relationships through a follow-up enquiry mixing quantitative and qualitative techniques, leading to the creation of a preliminary mEUD model. Altogether we have involved 275 mobile users in our research. Our contribution links seven mEUD factors with mEUD intentions and attitudes, and highlights a number of implications for mEUD support.

1 Introduction

Mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, are everywhere. A recent survey showed that in 2013 over 73 percent of the population across 65 countries owned a smartphone, and over 33 percent owned a tablet [1]. Mobile devices are being used primarily to browse the Internet, listen to music, play games, make calls, send messages and emails, and take photos [2]. More active forms of engagement are also emerging, such as creating blogs, “rooting” mobile devices (i.e., giving administrative rights to users) and also creating mashups which basically are software applications that bring together a number of data feeds and services into one place [3], [4]. All these activities take place directly on mobile devices, so a growing number of researchers are providing specialized tools to support them. However, the majority of the proposed tools are technology-driven, especially those focused on creating mashups by integrating a number of separate service components. The result is that such systems are difficult to understand and use, especially by non-technical users [4].