Understanding and identifying useful patterns in location-based software

As mobile devices have become more and more popular, we are seeing more location-based applications on handheld devices. Since the screen size of a handheld device is very limited, using a map on such kind of devices can be quite difficult. To make these applications easier to use, we want to use a situation model to provide user a better service. In this paper, we analyze user map operations and try to identify some useful patterns that have the potential to result in a significant saving of some unnecessary user operations when used in a situation-based system. Two user studies which are quite different are involved in this research. One is used to understand patterns and another one is used for validation. The result shows that the patterns identified in first user study are still valid in the second user study.