Get Distracted or Missed the Stop? Investigating Public Transit Passengers' Travel-Based Multitasking Behaviors, Motives, and Challenges

Mobile users commonly multitask during travel, but doing so on public transit can be challenging due to the dynamic nature of the environment as well as long-standing lack of infrastructural support. Nevertheless, HCI scholars and practitioners have devoted relatively little attention to developing technology for enhancing travel multitasking. To facilitate such development, we sought to understand travel multitaskers’ practices and challenges while on public transit, and to that end, conducted a multi-methods study that involved shadowing and interviewing 30 of them. We identified four travel-multitasking patterns, characterized by distinct motives that affected these travelers’ multitasking practices, receptivity to environmental stimuli, and task persistence. The two main challenges they encountered during travel multitasking resulted from mutual interference from their tasks and from the dynamic nature of transit environments. Based on these findings, design recommendations for public-transit agencies and mobile services are also provided.