THE DESIGNING PROCESS OF CAMPUSMOVIL.NET

The CampusMovil.net Project consists of an online community that is connected mainly by using mobile devices and is focused on serving Spain’s universities and colleges. This online community is accessed exclusively and transparently using student’s university-assigned email accounts. This approach effectively constitutes an unofficial mobile device-based virtual campus.

As opposed to other online applications that offer non-unique services, CampusMovil.net aims at unaddressed communication needs in Spain’s colleges and universities. These needs are those associated with the lack of a ubiquitous, multifaceted Internet-based service that improves on what the conventional use of personal computers on campus and in the classrooms themselves can offer today. Its novelty lies in that is a platform conceived around the use of mobile devices that is complemented by desktop access and not the other way around. The market differentiation strategy in our segment is based on our emphasis on its closed nature (only registered student on campus are invited to join) and mobile device-based interaction.

CampusMovil.net addresses three existing needs:

1) to capture the point of inspiration in the academic context;
2) to leverage time away from the computer (commute time, time between classes, library time, off-campus public spaces) with the goal of continued interaction with the university community, both at the level of services as well as the at the level of academic knowledge management;
3) to generate clips of information that can be recovered and reused in other contexts;

The two elements of the differentiation strategy of the product are its closed character – only open to the university community – and the focus on mobile device-based internet access, although traditional web access will be available for integrative uses (mobile web/desktop web integration).

This abstract introduces a summary of the issues that are deeply described in the paper of CampusMovil.net: 1. Process of development; 2. case study; 3. Main concepts (Partnerships with university Institutions / Exclusivity, transparent identity and real user profiles / Mini-apps / Voice equals value / Short texts on mobility / Production and recovery of information clips (snippets); 4.Technical sources; 5. Interface design.



References:

- Pardo Kuklinski, Hugo (GRID-UVic); Brandt, Joel (HCI Group, Stanford University, USA):Puerta, Juan Pablo (Craigslist.org, Inc. San Francisco, USA). “Mobile Web 2.0. Theoretical-technical framework and developing trends”. International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM). October 2008. Available on: http://online-journals.org/i-jim/issue/view/16

- Scolari, Carlos; Navarro, Héctor; Pardo Kuklinski, Hugo; García Medina, Irene; Soriano, Jaume.(GRID-UVic); Comunicació i dispositius mòbils a Catalunya: actors, continguts i tendències. Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya.
Available on: http://www.cac.cat/pfw_files/cma/recerca/estudis_recerca/dispositius_m_bils.pdf