CityFlocks is a mobile system enabling visitors and new residents in a city to tap into the knowledge and experiences of local residents, so as to gather information about their new environment. Its design specifically aims to lower existing barriers of access and facilitate social navigation in urban places. This paper presents a design case study of a mobile system prototype that offers an easy way for information seeking new residents or visitors to access tacit knowledge from local people about their new community. In various user tests we evaluate two general user interaction alternatives – direct and indirect social navigation – and analyse under what conditions which interaction method works better for people using a mobile device to socially navigate urban environments. The outcomes are relevant for the user interaction design of future mobile information systems that leverage off of a social navigation approach.
2. Does this phone really tell you WHERE to go…?!
…or rather how to get somewhere, once you have figured out where to go?
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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7. CityFlocks* Workflow: Three Simple Steps to Gather Social Navigational Help
1
2
Tag Search
(folksonomy)
3
Relevant Places +
Average Rating
User Created Comments +
Contact Information
*URL: http://staff.ci.qut.edu.au/~foth/historyLines/login/login.html
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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11. CityFlocks improves Social Navigation using Locative Media and Mobile Web 2.0 Technology
Mobile Spatial Interaction
Location Based Services
Location Based Services
Context Awareness
Virtual Post‐Its
CityFlocks /
Mobile Web 2.0
Mobile Web 2.0*
Social Navigation
Web 2.0
Wisdom of the Crowds
User Generated Content
Knowledge Sharing
Folksonomy
Social Capital
Social Capital
Geotagging
AJAX
* A. Jaokar and T. Fish, Mobile Web 2.0
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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14. CityFlocks Connects People who Have not Known Each Other Before
Is such a social navigation system better than information from professional sources?
Do users rather prefer direct‐ or indirect link to local residents? In which situation?
CityFlocks
Finds an
expert‐resident
search for keywords
e.g.‚fast‐food‘
1
User Comments
2
Voice‐Link / SMS
Visitor
Local Resident
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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15. CityFlocks‘ Research Questions
CityFlocks […], eine Art touristischer Empfehlungsdienst:
Einheimische versehen ihre Stadt mit Annotationen über Clubs,
Restaurants und Freizeitaktivitäten, und Besucher der Stadt können
,
diese Informationen abrufen und sogar die Verfasser kontaktieren.
Schon bei diesem Beispiel zeigt sich das doppelte Gesicht der neuen
Technik. Will ich wirklich von einem Touristen angerufen werden,
der sich für das Nachtleben meiner Heimatstadt interessiert?
Christoph Drösser, DIE ZEIT, Nr. 39
(Germany National Newspaper)
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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19. Methodology
Focus Group Interviews
How do people make use of Social Navigation in their
everyday life?
What obstacles do they experience when navigating
socially?
Requirements and design implications for system architecture
User Survey
Are
A residents willing t share th i t it k
id t illi to h
their tacit knowledge?
l d ?
With whom and with whom not?
Which h
Whi h channels d residents prefer t provide
l do
id t
f to
id
access to their local knowledge?
Design implication for communication channels
Paper Prototyping
Sketch typical use cases
Refine user interface, user interaction and screen flow
Design implications for user interaction and interface design
Iterative
Development
Implementation
Mobile web application
User Study - Evaluation of a mobile information system
that follows the social navigation approach
How does the system perform
compared to professional information
sources?
Which concept, direct- or indirect social
navigation, works better as a design
and interaction approach and under
which conditions?
Which communication modes do
people prefer when using social
navigation on a mobile device?
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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21. CityFlocks‘ Research Questions
CityFlocks […], eine Art touristischer Empfehlungsdienst:
Einheimische versehen ihre Stadt mit Annotationen über Clubs,
Restaurants und Freizeitaktivitäten, und Besucher der Stadt können
diese Informationen abrufen und sogar die Verfasser kontaktieren.
Schon bei diesem Beispiel zeigt sich das doppelte Gesicht der neuen
Technik. Will ich wirklich von einem Touristen angerufen werden,
der sich für das Nachtleben meiner Heimatstadt interessiert?
Christoph Drösser, DIE ZEIT, Nr. 39
(Germany National Newspaper)
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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23. CitiyFlock‘s Database Model uses Folksonomy to Organise User Created Contents
Users define particular places, submit comments to these places and describe them with tags.
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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27. Different Stylesheets make CityFlocks easily accessible via a Web UI or a Mobile Device
Using the same backend system, different stylesheets are used to optimize the representation for
computer‐ and mobile device screens
CityFlocks – Database/Backend
Stylesheet ‐ Web
Stylesheet ‐ Mobile
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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32. Local Services in a City: When Visitors Only Could Know What Locals Know…
excellent
coffee
cheap
tztz
friendly
“ …we just walked through the town and find the place
we just walked through the town and find the place
with the most people, you know, that's where the
good food is! We would just pick the busiest
place...”
or look around for the busiest shop the place
“… or look around for the busiest shop, the place
where the most people go to is probably the
best food. I've tried it a couple of times, it
mostly turns out to be good”
Which cafe would your rather go to?
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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33. Web Users Upload Location Based Content that can be Requested by Mobile CityFlocks Users
CityFlocks
Database
Data Input
Google Maps
Web User Interface
Data Output
Mobile Device
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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34. Designing Urban Information Systems with the Collective Intelligence of Local Residents
The Wisdom of the Crowds
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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35. CityFlocks provides two different channels to let people access the pool of social knowledge
Local Residents
Location Based Comments
Contact Information
CityFlocks ‐ Server
y
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36. Focus Group Outcomes
People use three different sources to get recommendation about local services in a new city
Imagine you're new in a city and you want to find a good restaurant. What do you do…?
Direct Social Navigation
“I think I would ask the local people. I would
“I thi k I
ld k th l l
l I
ld
probably go to a shop and ask the local business
people”
“I think just about anything I would do to be
honest, my first call would be other people,
either my friends or colleagues”
h
f
d
ll
”
“I’ll ask friends who live there. How is it, where I
go. Friends first, then websites”
Indirect Social Navigation
• “
“ …we just walked through the town and find the
j t lk d th
h th t
d fi d th
place with the most people, you know, that's where
the good food is! We would just pick the busiest
place...”
Local Service
Recommendations
•
“… or look around for the busiest shop, the
or look around for the busiest shop the
place where the most people go to is probably
the best food. I've tried it a couple of times, it
mostly turns out to be good”
“Websites and even information centres. Booklets, restaurant guides”
“Outside Australia, definitely Lonely Planet!”
“I would probably Google it, if there was a language barrier with the local
people, I would just look it up in the internet
people I would just look it up in the internet”, “…I go to Wikipedia
I go to Wikipedia”
Professional Information Sources
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37. Designing a Mobile System to facilitate Social Navigation
CityFlocks bridge time and as well as space barriers
Direct Social
Navigation
‐ Voice‐link to expert residents
‐ Location based user created
comments
Indirect Social
Navigation
‐ Rating system providing
average grade for urban
public places.
‐ Context of people who have
been there before
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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39. CityFlocks Workflow II: 2 simple steps to gather direct navigational help
1
2
Select expert resident
search in the main menu
3
Enter search tag for the
wanted expertise
List of expert residents +
f
d
contact details
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44. Focus Group Outcomes
There is a need to Democratise Information about Urban Services: The Wisdom of the Crowds
Problem
“I always ask people who are like me. Sometimes it's pretty hard to actually find local people in strange
places that are not people who have a set of things to sell you anyway. So you really don't know whether
you can trust them because they're actually about to make a bargain. So I usually ask people who are like
me, because I think, well, if they had a good experience with a restaurant last night, then I am lucky to have
one as well”
“ …you can only learn from asking around. We do read a lot but you also have to talk to people... and use
any source of information you can get, that's the way you learn... I would like to hear everybody's version”
“…everybody has different thoughts and different opinions about things, so I would ask several people in
that way
that way”
Solution
We propose a system that leveraging the collective intelligence of urban residents to rate and set comments
on local public places and services
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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45. Location Based Comments Provide Navigational Help
„It takes away
from you to take a decision when you don't have
enough information to make it So it's
information to make it. So it s
somebody else who's got that information and
they can give you a shot…“
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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47. People only use the direct voice link for friends and if they knew they would not interrupt them
[afraid of talking to a stranger]
“I wouldn’t just call a random person. I would like to know at least something
about them, before I call them. If it said, for example ‘Anne, 23, medicine
student’ I would consider ringing her up for advice, but what if it’s a professor
or doctor or whatever, you know. That could be awkward. I wouldn’t really
y
y
know how to talk to them.”
[afraid of talking to a stranger]
[afraid of talking to a stranger]
“Probably no, I prefer to call people that I know. During the day, you know,
people work, I don’t know. If I had the option to send an SMS, I would always go
for the SMS.”
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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48. CityFlocks Provides Information about Urban Places as well as Urban Residents
[CityFlocks comment about a park at the KGUV]
“I love to spend time here
I love to spend time here
with my granddaughter…”
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50. Direct voice link is not appropriate for unimportant everyday questions
[after a phone call with an expert resident]
“That was kinda awkward, …I mean when it was
just about the bloody coffee I would just go,
just about the bloody coffee I would just go
I mean it’s 3 bucks...”
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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51. De.licio.us Uses Folksonomy to Organise User Created Weblinks
CityFlocks: A Mobile System for Social Navigation in Public Urban Places
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55. Current Trends make the Mobile Platform is capable to improve Social Navigation
Customised
Infotainment
Sophisticated
p
User
Interfaces
Multimedia
Capabilities
Rich
Voice/Video
Telephony
High Speed
Mobile Internet
Access
Location
Based
Services
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