Using Hybrid Simulations for Early User Evaluations of Pervasive Interactions

To reach a good user-friendliness, knowledge about user requirements is crucial in the development process of a product. The sooner the knowledge is achieved via user evaluations, the more money and time can be saved. In this paper we investigate an approach called hybrid simulation for the early stages evaluation of mobile applications where real mobile phones are used as interaction devices to a virtualised simulation of a pervasive environment. On the first sight, the method is cheap, easy and quick to use as well as more realistic compared to a virtual simulation only approach. In order to receive a more detailed insight in potential benefits and problems of the method, we performed a user study and compared results of a traditional laboratory study with the results of a study performed with the hybrid simulation.