Mobile contexts of use vary a lot, and may even be continuously changing during use. The context is much more than location,
but its other elements are still difficult to identify or measure. Location information is becoming an integral part of different
mobile devices. Current mobile services can be enhanced with location-aware features, thus providing the user with a smooth
transition towards context-aware services. Potential application fields can be found in areas such as travel information,
shopping, entertainment, event information and different mobile professions. This paper studies location-aware mobile services
from the user's point of view. The paper draws conclusions about key issues related to user needs, based on user interviews,
laboratory and field evaluations with users, and expert evaluations of location-aware services. The user needs are presented
under five main themes: topical and comprehensive contents, smooth user interaction, personal and user-generated contents,
seamless service entities and privacy issues.
Keywords Location-aware services - Mobile services - Usability - User evaluation - User needs
Received: 1 August 2002 / Accepted: 15 November 2002
Acknowledgements Our research work was carried out with the financial support of the Personal Navigation (NAVI) Programme, hosted by the Ministry
of Transport and Communications of Finland. The author wishes to thank the members of the NAVI management board for their
valued co-operation: Benefon, Digia, Fortum, Genimap, Hewlett-Packard, ICL Invia, Nokia Mobile Phones, Novo Group, Radiolinja,
Satama Interactive, Sonera, Suunto, TietoEnator, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the Ministry of Agriculture
and Forestry, the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of
Social Affairs and Health, the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development SITRA, the National Technology Agency TEKES
and the Finnish National Road Administration as well as the SME enterprises of the NAVI network. I also wish to thank the
superb evaluation team at VTT: Ari Ahonen, Veikko Ikonen, Minna Kulju, Sari Lehtola and Tuula Petäkoski-Hult.