Mobile Data Services Usage - a Methodological Research Approach

摘要

This paper classifies the existing research methods that are used to study mobile services and applications wishing to put things into an order. The paper examines these methods and proposes a combined methodological technique. This technique has been used as a research tool in a research study which explored mobile data services adoption of different features by existing users and usage process. Mobile networked technologies and mobile data services have become inextricable part of people’s daily lives since they are accessible anytime anywhere throughout a day. Conventional research methods that are used to study the use of mobile devices and applications are unable to collect useful fieldwork data in versatile use situations and thus methodological challenges still exist. Researchers have responded to these challenges by developing research methods that enable new ways of collecting data concerning mobile technology use. The research method presented here is based on conventional research methods, on the use of mobile phone camera for capturing video and photographs during the use of mobile data services and on a commercial application to establish communication contact between users and researchers. The paper suggests that simple commercial systems can be used by researchers to conduct field studies.