Advances in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and web technologies have recently enabled P2P personal
and social networking. The key to the success of such systems is middleware and tools that
will allow non-expert consumers to manage their networks and share their resources easily
and intuitively. This is the motivation behind MyNet, a P2P platform that enables non-expert
users to easily organize their resources and share them in their immediate social
neighborhood. MyNet was designed based on a user-centered approach: using real-world
metaphors in the core system, leveraging NFC-based touch to mirror human behavior models,
and involving actual users in the design process.

This report presents the results of the second MyNet usability study, which was conducted in
November 2007. There were 50 participants, ages 15-55+, with a diverse educational
background. They were all non-Nokia employees with no formal technical training. Each
participant spent an hour performing key MyNet tasks such setup MyNet, create a personal
network, access a personal device remotely from another personal device, add MyNet peers,
share content and access to devices/services through passlets and use the NFC (iTouch) tools.

62% of the study participants indicated that they rarely connect device together and a wire
connection is the most commonly used approach for doing so. As a result, personal networks,
seamless connectivity, and access control as proposed in MyNet are radically new concepts for
the average, non-expert consumer.

Setting up MyNet on a desktop was a very simple task for all participants and 66% deduced
that it had resulted in the creation of a Personal Network or Personal Space of some type.
The layout was generally easy to follow and was characterized as simplistic and
straightforward by the majority of the participants. Approximately 70% of the users deduced
the concept of the Passlet before using them based on visual hints in the GUI.
The completion rate for adding a second personal device (laptop) to the Personal Network
was 100% and 76% of the users rated it as easy. Upon completing this task, 94% of the users
concluded that they connected two personal devices together in a Personal Network; this was
an increase from the initial 66%. The visual representation made it clear to most users that
they were now able to access one personal device from the other.

Remote access to personal devices was one of the favourite features, and users were
surprised by the ease of use and the ability to access and launch a service remotely. 92% said
it was easy and 96% found it useful. The web camera application was a good example to
demonstrate this feature but overall, more applications are needed so that the full benefits of
this feature are apparent to the average consumer.

Sharing was one of the most challenging tasks. 49/50 users completed this task (on their own
or with assistance). Although 71% rated it as easy, 29% had difficulty completing it. This is
mainly due to the design of the passlet manager tool which has since been reformatted. It
now offers a wizard-based interface for novice users and a streamlined interface for advanced
users. After having completed this process once, 86% of the users felt that they understood
the Passlet concept (an increase from the initial 70%) and 96% rated the concept as useful.
While some users deduced that they were sharing permissions to a piece of content or
service, generally, it was not clear that the content was not actually sent. Sharing through the
mechanism of Passlets versus downloading from a website are radically different approaches
and it is not reasonable to expect non-technical users to deduce MyNet protocol behaviour
from this limited test.
TAPing (NFC-based peer introductions and sharing) is part of MyNet's agenda to promote an
intuitive and fun user interaction. NFC technology was completely new for 49/50 users and
gave rise to some strong responses, mostly favourable, such as: this is cool, fun, easy! It, also,
prompted some users to expressed security and privacy concerns. Out of the 46 users that
tried TAPing for adding a new contact and sharing, 96% rated it as easy to use. The
participants were, also, asked to give access to a piece of content using 1-Touch-Share (1-T-S),
a one-step process for sharing Passlets. 75% of users indicated that they prefer to use 1-T-S as
opposed to the Passlet Manager tool in a situation where both options would be possible.

The participants were asked to switch roles from the one who grants the Passlet to the one
who receives it and access the content or service for which the Passlet had been granted.
47/50 users completed this task out of which 79% rated it as easy and an improvement,
especially for accessing services that belong to another user's device.

The participants also added a new contact using MyNet on the N800. Out of the 46 users that
completed this task, 87% rated adding a contact (using multicast) as easy. Though some
users felt that the look of MyNetBook on the laptop was too simplistic, the same simplistic
look was more suitable for the N800 due to its small real estate. It should be noted that
although some of the participants were first time or novice users of tablet/PDA devices and
were able to complete this with ease, as it was reflected in their personal comments. Overall,
the participants rated the system as usable (88%) and easy to learn (86%).
Finally, users were asked a set of marketing questions on MyNet virtual devices and MyNet-
aware services. 18% of the users expressed strong security and privacy concerns with respect
to signing up for a MyNet virtual device. Key drivers for adoption for MyNet services are ease-
of-use and gaining the users' trust. Most value was seen in areas of personal device
management and access, and a strong potential for enterprise services.

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