User validation of a nomadic exhibition guide

This paper reports on the user-oriented development of a nomadic exhibition guide for trade fair visitors. The system is situation aware, and personalized, supporting all phases from planning at home, over the mobile situation when visiting the exhibition, until the evaluation afterwards. The prototypical implementation of the system at a trade fair was basis for a final user evaluation. Users rated the importance of information retrieval, interactive, location aware maps and tour planning very high, while sophisticated features such as pro-active personalized tips, web-cam pictures, or locating colleagues were considered less important. Evaluation results concerning map visualization on small screens and egocentric navigation support are reported in more detail.