Browsing by Author "von Kügelgen, Maria"

A significant number of people have problems with the batteries of their mobile devices. There are several energy saving applications available to tackle those problems. Most of them increase battery life mostly by automatically closing applications or operations. The user is for the most part unaware of what the energy saving application actually does. Therefore, even though the battery might last somewhat longer, the user may continue using behavioral patterns that drain the battery. There is little evidence to support the assumption that battery awareness applications lead to behavioral changes. Therefore, we decided to conduct a research on how a mobile awareness application called Carat is used, and how the behavior of its users changes over time. The study was carried out in two phases. In the first part of the study, we conducted a user survey, and studied the Carat log data of the devices represented in the survey. We found out that the behavior changes over time; there were significant differences between new Carat users, and the more experienced ones. The more experienced users had reduced their use of problematic applications more, were interested in different features of Carat, and opened it less often. In the second part of the study, we studied how new Carat users used Carat and what they thought of using it. They were interviewed twice, and they also wrote in a web diary about their experiences. We found out that the main difference in their thinking was the increase in overall awareness about applications as something that affects battery life. We also found out that inadequate, uninteresting and unclear information causes confusion and frustration, and decreases the likelihood of users sticking with Carat.