The research conducted for this thesis was focused on supporting mobile users, developing "bring your own support" solutions in order to ensure that minimum levels of computational support are always available to the user. The first line of research developed ways to minimize the negative social consequences arising from technology use. The second line of research concentrated on garment integrated devices, their use construction, and management of smart garments. The third line of research concentrated on device deployment which are another aspect of the "bring your own support" approach to supporting the mobile user.

The increasing demand for mobile apps is out the current capability of mobile app developers. In addition, the growing trend in smartphone ownership and the time people spend on mobile apps has raised several opportunities and risks for users and developers. The average time everyday a user spend on smartphones to use mobile apps is more than two hours. The worldwide mobile app revenue increase is estimated to grow 33%, $19 billion. Three quarter of the time used on mobile apps is solely for using game and social networking apps. To provide more customized services and function to users, mobile apps need to access to personal information. However, 80% of mobile apps put people's information privacy at risk. There is a major gap in the literature about the privacy concerns of mobile device users in the context of mobile apps. This dissertation addresses one fundamental research question: how does individuals' privacy change in the context of mobile apps? More precisely, the focus of this dissertation is on information privacy role in individuals' and mobile app developers' protective behaviors. We investigate the information sensitivity level influence on mobile app developers' emphasis on privacy across mobile app categories. The results show information sensitivity level has a significant impact on developers' emphasis on secondary usage of information. Moreover, we analyze the privacy trade-off dynamism in using a new social networking app and how it could result in emotional attachment. Results show initial use and initial disclosure influence the privacy trade-off from pre-use to initial-use period. Finally, the effect of privacy concern and engagement on emotional attachment is demonstrated. This dissertation addresses one fundamental research question: how does individuals' privacy change in the context of mobile apps? More precisely, the focus of this dissertation is on information privacy role in individuals' and mobile app developers' protective behaviors. We investigate the information sensitivity level influence on mobile app developers' emphasis on privacy across mobile app categories. The results show information sensitivity level has a significant impact on developers' emphasis on secondary usage of information. Moreover, we analyze the privacy trade-off dynamism in using a new social networking app and how it could result in emotional attachment. Results show initial use and initial disclosure influence the privacy trade-off from pre-use to initial-use period. Finally, the effect of privacy concern and engagement on emotional attachment is demonstrated.

<p>This study focuses on cell phone usage. By comparing how a group of students use their cell phones in Sweden with that in China, alterant cell phone usage behaviors will be concluded. The study includes a case study. In order to do the research, the author selects a specific group and holds interviews. Three theories are used in this thesis which are: 1) mobile context, 2) switching behavior of mobile users and 3) transaction utility and reference situation. After introducing these three theories, the author concludes six theoretical factors which are combined into one competent framework. Base on the new framework, the author analyzes the result from the case study. After presenting the interview and the results, the author finds that Chinese students use their cell phones less frequent in Sweden compared to that in China. In order to find out the reasons, the author creates goal, emotion, fee, location and habit as the five matching factors which result in those changes. The matching factors are the bridge between the theories and the case study. After generalizing how those factors affect people while using cell phones, future work is to raise up some thoughts of how cell phones will be like in the future which is relevant to how to adapt information technology to human lives.</p>

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The latest developments of mobile devices include a variety of hardware features that allow for more rich data collection and services. Numerous sensors, Internet connectivity, low energy Bluetooth connectivity to other devices (e.g., smart watches, activity tracker, health data monitoring devices) are just some examples of hardware that helps to provide additional information that can be beneficially used for many application domains. Among others, they could be utilized in mobile learning scenarios (for data collection in science education, field trips), in mobile health scenarios (for health data collection and monitoring the health state of patients, changes in health conditions and/or detection of emergency situations), and in personalized recommender systems. This information captures the current context situation of the user that could help to make mobile applications more personalized and deliver a better user experience. Moreover, the context related information collected by the mobile device and the different applications can be enriched by using additional external information sources (e.g., Web Service APIs), which help to describe the user’s context situation in more details. The main challenge in context modeling is the lack of generalization at the core of the model, as most of the existing context models depend on particular application domains or scenarios. We tackle this challenge by conceptualizing and designing a rich generic context model. In this thesis, we present the state of the art of recent approaches used for context modeling and introduce a rich context model as an approach for modeling context in a domain-independent way. Additionally, we investigate whether context information can enhance existing mobile applications by making them sensible to the user’s current situation. We demonstrate the reusability and flexibility of the rich context model in a several case studies. The main contributions of this thesis are: (1) an overview of recent, existing research in context modeling for different application domains; (2) a theoretical foundation of the proposed approach for modeling context in a domain-independent way; (3) several case studies in different mobile application domains.

This study focuses on cell phone usage. By comparing how a group of students use their cell phones in Sweden with that in China, alterant cell phone usage behaviors will be concluded. The study includes a case study. In order to do the research, the author selects a specific group and holds interviews. Three theories are used in this thesis which are: 1) mobile context, 2) switching behavior of mobile users and 3) transaction utility and reference situation. After introducing these three theories, the author concludes six theoretical factors which are combined into one competent framework. Base on the new framework, the author analyzes the result from the case study. After presenting the interview and the results, the author finds that Chinese students use their cell phones less frequent in Sweden compared to that in China. In order to find out the reasons, the author creates goal, emotion, fee, location and habit as the five matching factors which result in those changes. The matching factors are the bridge between the theories and the case study. After generalizing how those factors affect people while using cell phones, future work is to raise up some thoughts of how cell phones will be like in the future which is relevant to how to adapt information technology to human lives.