Paul Hammond shows us with his MiniMuni app. how complicated context can become. He designed his personal tripadvisor tool helping him in that place and time in that specific situation. A helpful tool JUST FOR HIM.

This shows us with the big challenge around mobile. Designing services for individual context has the highest value but also has the highest cost.

Read his story here:

Every SF Muni streetcar line runs within walking distance of my house, but they all stop in different places. I can’t wait in one place and be sure to catch the next train that goes past.

I used leave the house and hope that I wouldn’t have to wait too long for a train to turn up. I’d often get to Duboce Avenue just in time to see a train disappear into the tunnel. I’d then end up waiting 10 minutes at the corner of Duboce and Church for the next J or N, wondering the whole time if I should walk to Church station and catch a K, L or M.

That got a bit much for me, so I made this:

It puts arrival information for all the stops near me on one page, and puts the emphasis on when I need to leave the house to catch a train. It tells me whether I need to get going right now, or whether I have 5 minutes to play with my kid before leaving.

I’ve had a beta version running for a few weeks, and it’s completely changed my mornings. I’m getting to work earlier and a lot less stressed.

As the about page says, if you live exactly 6 minutes from Sunset Tunnel East Portal, 8 minutes from Duboce and Church, and 10 minutes from Church Station you may find it useful too.

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Just read a post from Helen Keegan (who joined the MoMo London team..yeahh) about the relevant simple approach of the current wave of Location Based Services. I totally agree with her that we are still not very creative nor intelligent with the context information we currently have to our disposal. As I commented on her blog I believe that having the complete context in place is necessary to offer relevant contextual services. The first step after having the context information in place is being great in pattern recognition.  Spotting the Nodal Points(as Jyri calls them).

Well what is the complete context? Here is my list:

• Taskrelated context: What are you doing?
• Social context: With whom are you?
• Spatio-Temporal context: Where are you? What time is it?
• Physiological context: Heartrate, movement, temparature(see post about the pill below)
• Environmental context: In what environment are you?
• Mental context: How are you feeling?

These context domains are all about the NOW! So not ” what are you plans tomorrow?” or “what is your favourite music?”.  These are all legitimate profiling questions and offer great insight about a person BUT I question if in a mobile services context(hehe) they are relevant..

Some questions I am still puzzling with is what to do with informaton about your history or the complete context of the people which are important to you. Would you need to have this information to become more relavent to people in specific situations?

Curious about your thoughts..

P.S. Image is from Helen’s blog.. Just had to post it. LOVE IT!!

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