Place-Its: A Study of Location-Based Reminders on Mobile Phones

Sohn, T., Li, K., Lee, G., Smith, I., Scott, J., Griswold, W. (2005). Place-Its: Location-Based Reminders on Mobile Phones. Proc. Intl. Conf. on Ubiquitous Computing, 232–250.

Place-Its is a location-based reminder application that runs on mobile phones. The aim is to find how location-based reminders are used when available throughout a person’s day as well as how important is positional accuracy and timelines to the usefulness of location-based reminders. This study reveals that location-based reminders are useful. In large because people use location in nuances ways. The study participants found location-based reminders to be useful, despite relatively low accuracy.

More significantly, the other six participants said the location algorithm used by Place-Its was sometimes not accurate enough for their reminders. The participants would get the reminder, but not necessarily at the right location. This degree of this perception lessened over time as the participants adapted their behaviors.

Due to the way location-based reminders were used and the relative inaccuracy of location-sensing in Place-Its, we cannot claim location itself is essential context, even as we find it to be useful for triggering reminders. More than anything, its ready availability admits opportunistic use by those who can map their relevant (but un-sensed) context to anticipated, coarse, location cues.

Relation to my thesis: Even with coarse location-sensing capabilities, the application was found useful. However, location was widely used as a cue for other contextual information. Did the users adapted their reminders to the limitations of the location-sensing application?