3.1. Survey

3.1.1. Overview

As the first step of our user research, we distributed our survey to several student group chats at the University of Queensland. This survey was done to better understand our target users' usual behaviour related to crossing and smartphone usage. You can view our survey here.

3.1.2. Results

Below are some results we compiled from the survey based on 30 participants:

3.1.3. Conclusion

According to our survey results, there is a slight dependency on why university students use their smartphones while walking on the street. Although some people use their smartphones to direct them (e.g., Google Maps, Apple Maps), many use them for mere social media out of habit and to avoid boredom. These results from our survey led us to formulate some of the interview questions below.

3.2. User Interview

3.2.1. Overview

To gain a deeper understanding of our target user, we asked some survey participants if they were willing to participate further in our research. This led to inviting them as our interviewees. The user interview was done with the consent of the interviewees so that their data would not be shared somewhere else and would remain anonymous as we use them as our research data.

3.2.2. Interview Questions

Introduction

• Can you briefly introduce yourself?
• What is your name and what are you studying?

Smartphone Addiction

• Do you think you are addicted to smartphone or tablet? Why?
• How often do you use your phone while crossing the road? Why?

Road Crossing Behaviour

• Imagine you are texting someone on the phone, but you walked to an intersection, what is the first thing you would do?
• Why would or wouldn't you cross the road while using your smartphone?
• If you would, what types of activity were you doing while walking?
• Could you share your experience while you are distracted by your phone while walking? (What things will distract you?)
• Have you ever run into a situation where you had to put your phone away at crosswalks because of something? (e.g. Fines)

Negative Impact on Smartphone Usage

• Have you ever had a close call or near-miss incident while crossing the street due to smartphone use?

Awareness of Safety

• Have you ever thought using your smartphone while crossing the street could impact your safety? Why or why not?
• What do you think can refrain you from using your phone when you’re crossing the road?

3.2.3. Interview Results

Our interview results were summarised in an affinity diagram below:

We found some standout insights through this interview, like how they used their phones to check notifications and how they were aware of dangerous consequences when they used their smartphones while crossing. However, all of these conditions are also affected by how busy the environment is, like how familiar they are with the environment or whether there are many cars or not. So, based on these results, we know what we need to look out for in our next user research and observation in the real environment.

3.3. Direct Observations

3.3.1. Overview

We did our observation at the UQ Chancellors Place bus stop, where two crosswalks are nearby, signalised and non-signalised. It was Tuesday afternoon, a busy college day when people go to or from campus.

3.3.2. Signalised Crossing

These are the insights we found in the signalised crosswalk:

• Both sides seem to be usually used because there is a classroom building on the other side.
• ⁠People do illegal crossing on the roundabout even though the crosswalk is near.
• No counting timer for the crosswalk.
• People walking alone are more likely to use their phones than those walking in groups.
• Quite a lot of people will cross the road during red lights.
• People tend to use their phone while waiting to cross.
• Some people will have their phones in hand and immediately start looking at it when they are about 1 step from the road curb.
• 5 people used their phones all the way when they were crossing.

3.3.2. Non-Signalised Crossing

These are the insights we found in the non-signalised crosswalk:

• People tend to walk not straight at the end of their crossing.
• People use their phones less at this unsignalised intersection.
• People make calls the most at this crosswalk than browsing stuff on the phone.

3.4. Probes

3.4.1. Overview

The probe was done on Wednesday, 3 September 2024 (Week 7). The probes were deployed around the UQ Chancellor Place area at 10 in the morning and collected the next day (4/9) at 10 in the morning.

There are two types of probes that we deployed:

• Signalised crosswalk
• Unsignalised crosswalk

Probe Question: What is the last screen on your phone right now?

We chose this question to unconsciously find out if our participants had been using their smartphones while crossing. If they are not using anything, then it should be only Lock Screen, but at the same time, we also gathered what kind of activity they do with their smartphones if they are using them while crossing.

3.4.2. Probe Objectives

There are two different objectives of the probe:

1. Based on which probe has more participations, it can show us which crosswalk get crossed more.
2. Based on the result, it can show us what do people usually do on their phones while crossing the street.

Probe Results

Signalised Crossing

• Texting/Chatting: 26
• Watching videos: 21
• Web Search/Browser: 5
• Music: 15
• Games: 2
• Maps: 3
• Nothing/Not using phone: 8

Non-Signalised Crossing

• Texting/Chatting: 1
• Web search/Browser: 1
• Maps/Navigation: 1
• Watching videos: 1

*The unsignalised probe was missing the next day, so the data above were taken from a photo taken by one of our members in the late afternoon the day before.

Signalised, at the same time when the unsignalised probe picture was taken

• Texting/Chatting: 10
• Watching videos: 10
• Web Search/Browser: 3
• Music: 8
• Games: 1
• Maps: 2
• Nothing/Not using phone: 4

Probe Insight

• When people use their smartphone while crossing the road, they mainly use it for social media.
• Even the photos earned earlier show that more people are crossed on the signalised crosswalk than the unsignalised one.
• There is an indication that people used their phones more on the signalised crosswalk than in the unsignalised crosswalk, but this might be due to the incomplete unsignalised crosswalk probe data or because people cross the unsignalised crosswalk less.

Limitations

• We do not know if the placement of each probe will affect the result for unsignalised vs signalised probes.
• We do not know if this kind of behaviour will remain similar when applied to other crosswalks outside of UQ.
• We do not know the result of the unsignalised one at the end of our observation (because it got taken off).