Managing the Interactions Between Handheld Devices, Mobile Applications, and Users

In this work we present the problem of managing the interactions between handheld devices, mobile applications and users that are the three main entities involved in providing information access in the mobile scenario. After introducing a general framework, which gives the reader a comprehensive view of the features of a handheld device and presents some techniques to overcome the constraints imposed by handheld devices during the interaction with users and mobile applications, we focus our attention on the problem of searching for information using a search engine through a handheld device. We present the motivations for studying this kind of search engines and a discussion on their features and design choices, explaining the relevant aspects that need to be addressed during the design and the development of these mobile applications.