C.-F. Sørensen, A.I. Wang, Ø. Hoftun, and K.A. Bjørkhaugen (Norway)
: Usability, mobile work, mobile devices, data consis tency problems, mobile software systems
This paper describes an evaluation of using three different types of mobile devices as clients in a mobile task reporting system. The heterogeneity of hardware and software introduced by var ious mobile devices has made it harder for software developers to make systems that can support this broad spectrum of devices. We have made a prototype of a system to handle management of tasks for mobile workers. Mobile workers are offered to bring parts of the system on mobile devices, making it possible to up date task status and write small reports on the spot when finishing a task. We have in this paper evaluated how well the system has worked for the different devices based on several evaluation cri teria like screen size, input device, physical device size, battery life, connectivity etc. In this evaluation we have used a portable PC, a PDA, and a mobile phone. We found that the system should provide different support dependent on the device. The mobile phone was found to be useful for checking task states and for lim ited information browsing. The PDA was very useful for writing end-reports when finishing tasks (on the actual location), and the portable PC was best for managing tasks (getting overview of the different tasks and states), and for task delegating tasks. We also discuss the problem of keeping data consistent when several off line mobile devices can update the same data, and we indicate some solutions to this problem.
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