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A master's thesis from Aalborg University
Book cover


The hitchhiker's guide to location-aware pickup services

Authors

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Term

4. term (INF10 - Master Thesis)

Publication year

2007

Abstract

Dette speciale undersøger, hvordan man designer en stedbaseret tjeneste, der understøtter tre måder, mennesker bevæger sig på—vandren (åben udforskning), rejse (fra A til B) og besøg (ophold på et mål)—samt overgangene mellem dem. Vi brugte blafning som en praktisk case og byggede prototypen iHitch, som gør tjenesten stedbevidst via GPS-positionering og Google Maps. Vi evaluerede iHitch med brugere for at forstå, hvordan de interagerede med den, og hvordan de opfattede de tre mobilitetsformer og skiftene mellem dem. Vores resultater viser, at funktionerne til rejse og besøg gav tydelig information om tid og sted og et brugbart overblik, mens delen til vandren ikke gjorde. Vi identificerede også designgreb, der hjælper brugerne med at skifte mellem formerne, fx at kombinere statiske og aktive elementer, gentage centrale oplysninger i flere visninger og tydeliggøre årsag-virkning-sammenhænge.

This thesis explores how to design a location-based service that supports three ways people move—wandering (open-ended exploration), travelling (getting from A to B), and visiting (staying at a destination)—and the transitions between them. We used hitchhiking as a real-world case and built a prototype, iHitch, that adds location awareness through GPS positioning and Google Maps. We evaluated iHitch with users to understand how they interacted with it and how they perceived the three mobility modes and the shifts between them. Our findings show that the features for travelling and visiting provided clear information about time and place and gave users a usable overview, whereas the wandering features did not. We also identified design measures that help users move between modes, such as combining static and active elements, repeating key information across views, and highlighting cause-and-effect relationships.

[This abstract was generated with the help of AI]