I did my observation assignment on a Saturday when I was running around town to get errands done. Since I was in public space most of the time, a lot of the interaction I observed only involved one person with his/her personal digital equipment - such as cell phone, blackberry, ipod, etc. One my subway ride from Lincoln Center to Union Square, I counted interactions with 17 cell phones, 7 portable music players, and 1 blackberry. Out of all the activities, the blackberry took the longest time of engagement, as the user was actively reading and typing the entire time.
Cell phone use was particularly interesting because people could do many different things with it. I saw several people just pulling out their phone and glancing at it, presumably to check the time or to see if they had any missed calls. A couple of people seemed to be playing games on their phones during the subway ride, which required enormous attention and as well as usage of both hands. The majority of the people that where SMS'ing also used both hands, but those that were making phone calls where able to operate their phone with just one.
Most of the users seemed extremely familiar and comfortable with their personal equipment, as they were all able to operate them with ease. However, this was not the case devices that were intended for the general public. At the Astor Place station, I saw four people gathering around the MTA vending machine, trying to figure out how to purchase subway tickets. Even though only one person was operating the machine, the others were all standing around him and giving him instructions.
Another public device I observed was the u-scan kiosks in supermarkets - which allowed customers to scan, bag, and pay for merchandise on their own. Even though most people seemed familiar with the process, there were those did not know how to operate the machine. Those that have used it before were able to get on their way rather quickly, in no more than 30 seconds. For others it was a long and arduous task, requiring long periods of fumbling with the items to find the bar code, figuring out when/where to bag them. It took them much longer time to complete the transaction - by about 1~2 minutes.
When using personal devices, the goal was mostly to communicate with others (in the case of cell phones, blackberry) or to get rid of boredom (cell phone games, ipod). Most public devices involved some sort of monetary transactions, such as paying for merchandises or a subway ride.
