Sharing Stories “in the Wild”

Today’s mobile devices are equipped with a variety of tools that enable users to capture and share their daily experiences. However, designing authoring tools that effectively integrate the discrete media-capture components of mobile devices to enable rich expression---especially by children---remains a challenge. Evaluating such tools authentically, as they are being used in-situ, can be even more challenging. We detail a long-term, multimethod study on the use of StoryKit, a mobile storytelling application. By taking advantage of a public distribution channel, we were able to evaluate StoryKit’s use on a scale beyond that usually found in lab settings or limited field trials. Our results show that StoryKit’s simple but well-integrated interface attracted a high number of dedicated users in education contexts at all levels, including children with special learning needs. We include a discussion of the challenges and opportunities that similar “in the wild” studies hold for HCI research.