Analyzing User Confusion in Context Aware Mobile Applications

In Analyzing User Confusion in Context Aware Mobile Applications by K. Loer and M. D. Harrison analyse that would allow designer of context-aware interfaces to predict potential pitfalls before the design is fielded. Instead of building and explore experimental prototypes, their exploration highlights the possibility that early models of an interaction system might be used to predict problems with embedding in context before costly mistakes have been made. The goal is of course to make user interfaces more intuitive and prevent subtle and confusing mode changes in context-aware environment. It can also be used to find recovery strategies in a “fail-over” situation.

The benefits that context awareness brings can be obscured by difficulties. Techniques are required to help predict these difficulties at design time. The work underlying this paper uses formal modeling techniques and model checking. In this case study the environment is described simply in terms of physical positions in the environment and transitions between these positions (the context is oversimplisticly modeled).

In their scenario (operators in a power plant), context is used in identifying position of an operator, checking validity of a given action, inferring an operator’s intention, checking action against an operator’s schedule assessing and indicating urgency. Confusion can arise if there is more than one plant component in close proximity, if the operator forgets which component they have saved, if one operator forgets that another operator is nearby. These problems can be exaggerated by poor design. Context confusion can be avoided through design by changing the action structure (for example, using interlocks) so that these ambiguities are avoided or by clearly marking the difference to users.

One question require more exploration is “What are the key features of the design that are relevant to these context confusions?“