Incollection,
User Multitasking with Mobile Multimodal Systems
Spoken Multimodal Human-Computer Dialogue in Mobile Environments, volume 28 of Text, Speech and Language Technology, chapter 19, Springer-Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg, (2005)
DOI: 10.1007/1-4020-3075-4_19
Abstract
Users of mobile systems often simultaneously perform some other task, and multimodality tends to give them greater opportunities to do so. One goal in the design of mobile multimodal systems should therefore be the support of effective user multitasking. Previous research in several areas has made many contributions that are relevant to this goal, but some key issues require further work. Using the example of voice dialling with a mobile phone, we discuss task analyses of two voice dialling methods, showing how such analyses can help to identify possible obstacles to the simultaneous performance of voice dialling and other tasks. Detailed observations of users doing multitasking, supplemented with survey results, confirm that these analyses capture important aspects of the multitasking problem; but also that users' decisions and behaviour are strongly influenced by factors not covered by the task analyses, such as previous experience and beliefs about social acceptability. Conclusions are drawn concerning the implications of this research for design methods and for future research in support of user multitasking.
