Content uploaded by Jonna Häkkilä
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Jonna Häkkilä
Content may be subject to copyright.
Personal Customisation of Mobile Phones – A Case Study
Jonna Häkkilä
Nokia Multimedia
Yrttipellontie 6
90230 Oulu
Finland
jonna.hakkila@nokia.com
Craig Chatfield
School of ICT
Griffith University
170 Kessels Rd, Nathan 4111
Brisbane, Australia
c.chatfield@griffith.edu.au
ABSTRACT
Mobile phones are highly personal, customisable mobile
computing devices that allow users to precisely control how
they interact with the device and their environment. This
paper examines the process of customisation and seeks to
identify how this customisation can be improved as the rate
of adoption of new phones increases. We present a user
case study of how 60 mobile phone users personalised their
mobile phones during the first few weeks of ownership, and
how they perceived different personalisation methods.
Author Keywords
Customisation, personalisation, mobile phones, mobile
computing.
ACM Classification Keywords
H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI):
Miscellaneous.
INTRODUCTION
Mobile phones have become common everyday devices,
and many countries are reporting close to a 100% adoption
rate for their population. Technical development has lead to
a growing number of features, and today’s mobile phones
can be regarded as versatile small computing devices often
employing cameras, colour screens, and user interface (UI)
animations.
Research into personal customisation of mobile user
interfaces has so far focused on different application
concepts rather than examining existing practices. O’Grady
and O’Hare [7] have demonstrated a personalised interface
for a tourist guide run on a PDA. Web site personalisation
for mobile users has been investigated in [1]. Trevor et al.
[8] consider personalisation in larger perspective for
ubiquitous applications, and present in their design a
framework which also considers mobile devices. However
the existing practices in customisation of mobile phones by
end-users have not yet been considered.
Personal customisation of a user interface by end-users is
already a familiar phenomenon within the computing world,
where users often customise the look and functionality of
their desktop computer, e.g. by changing wallpapers and
installing different search tools. Personal customisation of
mobile phones has gradually evolved from exchangeable
covers and ringing tones to the ability to change the UI
themes and overall graphical UI components. This
customisation is often solely concerned with the style or
appearance of the phone, and can be considered to have
more aesthetic than functional value. But in addition to
these aesthetic changes, more functional customisation has
allowed users to adapt the phones interface and how it
interacts with the network and other users (e.g. Bluetooth
security settings). Features such as user-defined shortcuts
and voice commands allow the user to improve the
interaction efficiency according to their personal needs or
usage styles.
Despite of the pervasive nature of mobile phones in
everyday life, systematic studies on personal customisation
of mobile phones have not yet been reported. Studies of
mobile phone usage have so far concentrated around
communication culture, particularly of teenagers’ usage of
mobile phones and of text message communication culture
[2, 4]. Usage of camera phones, which have lately become a
common phenomenon, have also been examined [6].
In this paper we present our survey based study that looks
at mobile phone users, who had recently started to use a
new mobile phone, and the customisations they undertook
during the first weeks of usage. The study aims to chart
how extensively customisation possibilities are used, and
examines any patterns of personalisation of different mobile
phone features. The study participants were self-selected
from a population of active mobile phone users to ensure
high levels of mobile phone use and familiarity with the
non-standard features available in newer phones.
USER STUDY
The study included 60 participants, who had recently
started using a new Nokia Series 60 mobile phone. All
NordiCHI 2006, 14-18 October 2006 Short Papers
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are
not made or distributed for profit
or commercial advantage, and that
copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy
otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists,
requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.
NordiCHI 2006: Changing Rol
es, 14-18 October 2006, Oslo, Norway
Copyright 2006 ACM ISBN 1-59593-325-5/06/0010…$5.00
409
participants were active users of mobile phones, and over
90% had had two or more phones in active use during the
last year. The respondents consisted of 42 males (70%) and
18 females (30%), and were predominately in their 20’s
(30%) and 30’s (55%). The time participants had used their
current (new) mobile phone was mostly between two weeks
and a month (43%), or from one to two months (45%). The
participants were predominately Finnish.
The study consisted of an online survey, which the
participants filled out anonymously. The survey consisted
both multiple-choice and free text questions. The following
mobile phone customisation items were investigated:
- Background image (wall paper)
- Ringing tone
- Message alert tone
- Screen saver
- UI Theme (UI skin)
- Audio profiles
- Specified a ringing tone for certain contacts
- Alarm clock tone
- Speech commands
- Adding photo to a phonebook contact
- Defining fast dial numbers
- Reorganising menu items
- Soft key shortcuts
- Active idle shortcuts
- Screen brightness
- Screen backlight off timer
- Automatic keylock
In addition, we also investigated the editing of access point
and email settings, although these are typically not
considered as personalisation items. Figure 1 illustrates
some of these personalisable elements of the Nokia Series
60 mobile phone.
Figure 1. Personalisation elements on the idle mode screen.
RESULTS
Intensity of Customisation
A primary motivation of this survey was to examine how
and when users personalise their mobile phones. We asked
each respondent to indicate when, if ever, they personalised
each of the seventeen different personalisable features of
the Nokia Series 60 mobile phone. The study results
illustrated active customisation of the phone, with most
personalisation occurring shortly after using the new phone
for the first time. Overall we found that 66% of all features
were personalised, see table 1. Note the table describes the
percentage against all of the answers.
Number of personalised items (n = 983)
First
Use First
Day First
Week Later Never
133
(13.5%) 189
(19.2%) 191
(19.4%) 133
(13.5%) 337
(34.3%)
Table 1: Personalisation time period.
Users described the act of personalisation to be both
enjoyable and frustrating. Users reported that the
personalisation was designed to make the phone feel and
appear as ‘your own’, or to make it look and feel closer to a
previous phone the users had used. The motivation ‘to make
the phone feel like the one I had before’ appeared in several
comments, and was linked with comments where the
participant wanted to be able to find device functions and
navigate the phone menus as they had done with an older
phone.
The most common features that were personalised were the
ringing tone (customised by 95% of the respondents), audio
profiles (93%) and background image (90%). Other features
that had been personalised by over 75% of the participants
were the UI theme (86%), message alert tone (83%), soft
key shortcuts (82%), and menu item reorganisation (76%).
The least customised features were automatic keylock
(45%), fast dial numbers (42%) and speech commands
(38%).
What Was Customised When
The results show that half (50%) of all personalisation
occurred during the first day, and almost four-fifths (79%)
within the first week. The study reveals that personalisation
does not happen arbitrarily, but patterns can be seen of what
kind of features are customised when.
Audio settings were typically customised very shortly after
getting a new phone, and they seem to be the first features
to be personalised. During the first time of the use, almost
half (43%) of the participants responded that they had
changed the ringing tone. The message alert tone and audio
profiles were changed almost as commonly (32% and 30%
respectively). All other settings were customised much less
frequently when using the phone for the first time.
In general, the features affecting on the outer appearance of
the phone were personalised most predominately at the
beginning. Whereas audio settings were typically
personalised in the very beginning, either during the first
NordiCHI 2006, 14-18 October 2006 Short Papers
410
use or first day of usage, graphical elements were mostly
customised during the first day or first week.
The results show active customisation not only of fun or
style features, but also of functional phone settings.
Functional phone settings (application short cuts, quick dial
keys, voice commands etc.) were most often modified in
the more long term, after a week or more of use. The more
complicated the configuration or personalisation process,
the less the features are personalised. This includes
modifying access point or email settings. Also time-out
adjustments (like the backlight or automatic keylock timers)
were often left unmodified.
Context-Aware Personalisation
In addition to their current practices, the participants were
asked about context-aware personalisation of their mobile
phones. Context-awareness, where the devices is aware of
the use situation, has been under active investigation during
recent years, and has been suggested as a potential future
trend for mobile devices [3]. The use cases chosen for these
questions were ones that have been suggested in research
before, and appear quite frequently as examples of potential
context-aware mobile phone features.
To examine this context-aware personalisation, participants
were asked to identify the usefulness of their phone reacting
to their environment to personalise specific phone settings.
This personalisation included allowing the phone to select
current ring tones, determine the user’s availability for calls
and provide the users with information on their current
location. The results are described in Tables 2-4. The
results indicate that there exists general interest for use of
context-aware features if such were available. They also
show that people are somewhat aware of the risks related to
the uncertain nature of context-aware features, and do not
trust that they would work 100% reliably. Relatively heavy
support of conditionally positive answers also indicate that
the design of such features need to provide users with
sufficient means of controlling their device’s actions.
Environmental Personalisation:
Context specific ring tones
Users
(n = 60)
Yes, I would like to use such a feature 16 (26.7%)
Yes, but the phone should ask for
confirmation before executing the action 35 (58.3%)
No - I like the idea, but I doubt it would
work reliably enough 7 (11.7%)
No, I don't find the feature useful 2 (3.3%)
Table 2: User Support for Environmental Personalisation
Environmental Personalisation:
Determining availability for calls
Users
(n = 60)
Yes, I would like to use such a feature 23 (38.3%)
No - I like the idea, but I doubt it would
work reliably enough 21 (35.0%)
No, I don't find the feature useful 16 (26.7%)
Table 3: User Support for Environmental Personalisation
Environmental Personalisation:
Providing information on your current
location
Users
(n = 60)
Yes, I would like to use such a feature 14 (23.3%)
Yes, but only selected information 38 (63.3%)
No - I like the idea, but I doubt it would
work reliably enough 4 (6.7%)
No, I don't find the feature useful 3 (5.0%)
Table 4: User Support for Environmental Personalisation
Security Features
Current Usage
The most common security features of mobile phones are
the keypad lock (to prevent accidental dialling), and a SIM
card PIN code (to restrict access to the phone to those with
the correct code). Vast majority (75%) of respondents used
automatic keylock, which activates after a certain period of
time when keys have not been pressed. The SIM card PIN
code prompting was used by 85% of the respondents. Other
security features were also used to secure a specific part of
the phone or the phone itself. Five users (8.3%) also used a
SIM Locking code to prevent a lost or stolen phone from
having a new SIM card entered. Few users also reported
using Wallet codes, Memory Card security codes and
securing their Bluetooth connection.
When the motivation behind using or not using the security
features was asked, the security features were used to
prevent data and financial loss when the phone is lost, and
to prevent accidental dialling (e.g. when in users pocket, by
user’s children etc). Some participants commented that they
did not store personal information on their phone so they
had less security concerns and could avoid using security
features altogether. Inconvenience was also reported as a
reason for not using different locking mechanisms. A
typical comment was also that the use of SIM card PIN
code was perceived to provide a sufficient level of security.
Suggested Features
The survey respondents were asked to suggest new security
features to address perceived weaknesses in current phone
functionality. Most of the respondents (73%) did not come
up with any suggestions, but the given answers are
described in the following.
Three respondents called for removable memory cards that
could be secured with encryption to prevent unauthorised
NordiCHI 2006, 14-18 October 2006 Short Papers
411
access to the card’s data. The same number also requested
more fine grained control of the phone’s address book, to
allow selected sections to be secured with a password (e.g.
friends and family’s numbers might be secured, while
common business numbers might not). A few users also
suggested biometric phone security to reduce reliance on
passcodes and to improve usability. Biometric security
access could use e.g. voice or fingerprints of the user to
confirm access rights. Users also suggested that some way
of securing parts of the phone’s functionality whilst leaving
other parts accessible would be valuable. An example of
this might be locking the dialling function of a phone whilst
leaving the call receiving on.
Other suggestions included the use of virtual SIM cards,
which could be a software only SIM card that was installed
onto a phone via a direct link or downloaded via the
internet. A virtual SIM card could, in theory, allow easy
switching between multiple mobile phones and prevent data
loss in the event of losing the phone. It could also allow the
rapid personalisation of a mobile phone, by loading the
users personal preferences from the virtual SIM card. This
would greatly reduce the personalisation required when
switching to a new mobile phone.
DISCUSSION
The study has shown that personalisation is a highly
relevant issue with the use of mobile phones. The result is
consistent with previous research identifying the personal
nature of mobile phones and users desire to control access
to their phone [5]. Mobile phones are inherently a personal
device, and any move to make them more multiple-user
friendly should focus on a method to store each user’s
personalisation preferences (either on the phone or a central
server).
The study found that complicated settings, such as email or
access point settings, which require somewhat more effort
from the user, are often not personalised. This suggests that
these add-on, ‘nice to have’ features that are not perceived
crucial may easily be left unused if unreasonable effort is
needed to configure them. Also, the evidence that time-out
adjustments are not often modified suggests that the default
settings should be well-defined.
These results are somewhat limited by the fact that the
participants were active users of mobile phones and form
quite a technology-orientated group. This group would
potentially have more knowledge of technology than
average users and therefore be better able to utilise the
personalisable features of modern mobile phones. This may
particularly affect the acceptance of context-aware
personalisation and the use of additional security features.
CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that mobile phone personalisation is a
highly relevant issue for the end-users, and most
possibilities for customising the phone are actively taken
advantage of. The results also show that patterns can be
recognised on what kinds of features are personalised when.
In addition to making the device look and feel ‘own’, much
of the early personalisation aimed at replicating the look
and functionality of previously owned mobile phones.
In general we observed that the audio settings were
personalised most predominately at the beginning, with
graphical style settings personalised mostly over the first
week. Functional phone settings such as short cuts, quick
dial keys, or voice commands were most often changed in
the more long term, after a week or more of use. The
respondents also indicated that time-out adjustments (e.g.
with keypad lock or backlight) and more complicated
settings are quite often left unmodified.
A strong motivation for personalisation was to change the
appearance of the phone to match to user’s personal style
and reflect their interaction preferences. Personalisation
was often done to make the phone resemble the one the user
had used before. The personalisation is used not only as a
‘fun feature’, but also for maintaining consistency over the
platforms. This suggests that the ability to automatically
save personal settings and transfer them a new phone would
be a valuable addition to the personalisation process.
REFERENCES
1. Anderson, C.R., Domingos, P. and Weld, D. S.
Personalizing Web Sites for Mobile Users. In Proc. 10th
International Conference on World Wide Web, 2001,
565-575
2. Berg, S., Taylor, A.S. and Harper, R. Mobile Phones for
the Next Generation: Device Designs for Teenagers.
CHI Letters, 2003. 5(1): p. 433-440.
3. Dourish, P. What we talk about when we talk about
context. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Feb.
2004. 8(1), 19-30.
4. Grinter, R.E. and Eldridge, M. Wan2tlk?: Everyday
Text Messaging. CHI Letters, 2003. 5(1), 441-448.
5. Häkkilä, J. and C. Chatfield. 'It's like if you opened
someone else's letter' - User Perceived Privacy and
Social Practices with SMS Communication. In Proc.
MobileHCI 2005, 219-222.
6. Kindberg, T., Spasojevic, M., Sellen, A. and Fleck. R. I
Saw This and Thought of You: Some Social Uses of
Camera Phones. In CHI 2005 Later Breaking Results:
Posters,. 2005., 1545-1548.
7. O'Grady, M.J. and O'Hare, G. M. P. Enabling
Customized & Personalized Interfaces in Mobile
Computing. In 9th International Conference on
Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI'04). 2004, 292-294.
8. Trevor, J., D.M. Hilbert, and B.N. Schilit. Issues in
Personalizing Shared Ubiquitous Devices. In
International Symposium on Ubiquitous Computing.
2002, 56-72.
NordiCHI 2006, 14-18 October 2006 Short Papers
412
