The capability to present advanced graphics in the present mobile devices can be utilized to improve their usability and overall user experience. Mobile devices have limitations compared to PCs due to their inferior computing power and small screens, but a successful design of animated transitions can hide processing delays and make the user experience smoother. In this paper, we describe the design of animated transitions and present a user study on how they are perceived. The results show that in the transition between two images, bringing up the next image earlier dominates the perception of a fast transition over other variables examined in the study.

Despite the availability of other mobile messaging applications, SMS has kept its position as a heavily used communication technology. However, there are many situations in which it is inconvenient or inappropriate to check a message's content immediately. In this paper, we introduce the concept of audio previews of SMS. Based on a real-time analysis of the content of a message, we provide auditory cues in addition to the notification tone upon receiving an SMS. We report on a field trial with 20 participants and show that the use of audio-enhanced SMS affects the reading and writing behavior of users. Our work is motivated by the results of an online survey among 347 SMS users of whose we analyzed 3400 text messages.

Mobile communication technology has become an integral part of our everyday lives. Yet, do we recognize the patterns how we communicate with each other? In this paper we describe our work on increasing users' self-awareness of their communication with their social network with a mobile phone. We have developed two mobile phone applications, which log and visualize different elements of these patterns, enabling users to recognize the activity and responsiveness of their communication behavior more easily. We conducted a user study with 50 participants, where we compared the two applications and derived information of visualizing personal mobile communication patterns. Our research showed that although people were mostly well aware of the patterns of their social activity, still the majority of them found the applications interesting enough to view on a daily basis. We also report on findings on increased awareness of communication gaps, unexpected activity histories, and unbalanced communication behavior with incoming and outgoing calls/messages.

In their role as personal communication devices, mobile phones are a natural choice for sharing and communicating emotions. However, their functionalities are currently very limited in power to express affective messages. In this paper, we describe the design of a system that allows users to easily compose melodies and share them via mobile phones. We show that by using these melodies information about the current emotional state of the sender can be expressed and recognized synchronously by the receiver in a simple, quick, and unobtrusive way. Further, we reveal that self-composed melodies have a stronger impact than pre-composed or downloaded messages, similar to crafted pieces of art offered to a beloved person. We then present findings from a user study that assesses the implementation of a functional prototype and the adequacy of the system for emotional communication.

Recent development in indoor navigation systems and related studies imply that these applications will become common in the future. A variety of solutions utilizing different mediums is being developed. Lately, a range of mobile devices have started to support outdoor pedestrian navigation, and these devices presumably keep guiding the users also when moving indoors. However, the design patterns from the outdoor world do not necessarily work indoors. In order to understand the distinctive UI requirements of indoor navigation, we conducted a user study involving 23 people using a mobile phone-based, location-sensitive service. In this paper, we reveal our findings that the visualizations and UI designs resembling conventional outdoor maps or floor layouts are not optimal for indoor navigation, and present recommendations for the future design of indoor navigation systems.