Context-awareness and Mobile HCI: Implications, Challenges and Opportunities

Context-awareness endows mobile devices and services with the capability of interacting with users in an efficient, intelligent, natural and smart fashion. Consequently, context-awareness makes a significant difference to mobile HCI. However, the challenges brought by context-awareness to users of mobile devices are rarely examined in depth. In this paper, previous conceptions of context and their contribution to context-awareness in mobile HCI is scrutinized and a preliminary context-computer interaction (CCI) model is advanced to illustrate the interaction characterized by mobile context-awareness. Furthermore, the paper examines the limitations of information processing models and review alternative models of context. We also address user experience challenges related to the enablement of mobile context-awareness and highlight avenues for future research issues. Specifically, we found that context-awareness has been employed broadly in developing applications and services on mobile platform, has had a huge impact on mobile user experience, and has altered the interaction between humans and computers by giving the latter a more active role to play. The significance of context-awareness in the usage of mobile systems calls for systematic and in-depth appreciation of its impact on mobile HCI.