The 20 participants (13 females and 9 males) ranged in age between 20 and 60, with a mean age of 31 (std. dev. 10.75). All of our participants own a mobile phone and have experience with standard phone facilities. The study ran for a period of 4 weeks, from the 5th Nov 2007 - 3rd Dec 2007. Although we are primarily interested in mobile needs we allowed users to log all information needs in order to investigate whether key differences existed between information needs arising when mobile compared to those that occur while at home or at work. We define mobile as being away from their own home or away from their desk at work. Participants were asked to log the date and time, their current location and the information need in a small notebook. Participants were also encouraged to include any comments they thought might be relevant (although this was optional). If participants were unable to note an information need or if they forgot to note an information need at a specific time, they were advised to do so later in the day. We wanted the study to capture information needs as they occurred but in the most natural way possible. For this reason we did not want to inundate users with daily/hourly reminders about the study. Instead we sent a weekly reminder to participants via SMS. No other incentives were provided to participants. We conducted an initial survey of participants, gathering
data on their mobile phone experience and preference information. We also asked participants for clarification of any unclear entries at the end of the study