Conclusions

This performative perspective on user experience builds on phenomenology and dramaturgical metaphors to highlight the importance of a mixed methods approach that combines traditional ethnographic methods from the humanist tradition of sociology with quantitative usability methods from computing science. This provides a compelling approach to the evaluation of mobile technology, especially for interfaces that exploit the whole body for interaction while on-the-move. Many of the techniques that make interaction on-to-go possible are highly visible or noticeable, such as gesture or speech input and multimedia feedback. By viewing these actions as performances, the design, evaluation, and analysis of these applications can be led by the key concepts described above. For example, interview questions and sensor systems can be designed to capture key information based on this approach for an analysis that builds on many sources. By guiding both qualitative and quantitative analysis in this way, this approach provides designers with a novel perspective on mobile UX.