A study was performed to investigate a domain for a mobile and social
service, where a web of social trails is overlaid
over a physical
space. Using a method inspired by work of the city planner Kevin Lynch,
20
subjects were interviewed about their experiences,
activities,
movements and habits related to a specific shopping mall. Design
implications for the service were drawn from subjects’ sketches of the
area, lists of places important to them, and their daily routes through
the mall as drawn on a standardized map. Three user groups were
identified based on the amount of activities and time spent in the
mall: dwellers, shoppers and exploiters. User sketches indicated that
traditional maps are not an optimal means for visualising the mall in
the service. Finally, the way subjects grouped, labelled and defined
places and objects in the mall provided valuable input to the design of
the service interface.