Smartphones and (smart) people : How smartphones affect personal interactions

The constant presence of todays smartphones does not only enable different kinds of interactions, but also affects our personal relationships and physical interactions. The physical and digital interaction of people are quite separated and often require us to divert our attention to whatever is most important in the moment. The research presented in this paper aimed to discover how smartphone usage affects the physical interaction between people. Discovering how and why we use digital technologies may open up for greater possibilities to create more integrated and meaningful applications and artifacts in the future. A qualitative study was conducted, with observations and interviews. Smartphone use seems to be context dependent and collaborative applications are contributing more to the value of the physical interaction. The relationship between users can also affect the intention to use mobile technologies. Future artifacts and applications can be made richer in terms of user experience by being more integrated with the personal use and context.