Understanding end-user development of context-dependent applications in smartphones

We are using our mobile devices in an increasing number of dynamic contexts, thus we need more and more context-dependent applications. However, only end users can know the most appropriate ways their applications should react to contextual events. In order to facilitate end user development of context-dependent applications in smartphones a first generation of mobile environments has been proposed in the market. In this work we analyse three such Android applications in terms of their ability to express the relevant concepts and their usability, also through a user study. We indicate some limitations of the current solutions and provide indications that can support future work for providing more effective results.