The Future of Mobile Device Research in HCI

In this paper, I present four trends that point toward the increasing importance of mobile device research in HumanComputer Interaction (HCI). These trends indicate a future in which the gap between the user and the desktop is even wider than today, mobile devices have proliferated even further in society, and computer use is more intermittent and in a greater variety of contexts than our current user models accommodate. The implications are that mobile devices must be made more accessible to an aging population, they must be designed for “situational impairments” incurred from on-the-go use, they must adopt flexible and rapid input mechanisms, and the models that describe them must be revamped to accommodate mobile use and behavior. There are also opportunities for using mobile devices in computer education and medical care in developing nations, where mobile devices are more common than desktop PCs.