Mobile First?: Understanding Device Usage Practices in Novel Content Sharing Services

Today's mobile app economy has greatly expanded the types of "things" people can share -- spanning from new types of digital content like physiological data (e.g., workouts) to physical things like apartments and work tools ("sharing economy"). To understand whether mobile platforms provide adequate support for such novel sharing services, we surveyed 200 participants about their experiences with six types of emergent sharing services. For each domain we elicited device usage practices and identified corresponding device selection criteria. Our analysis suggests that, despite contemporary mobile first design efforts, desktop interfaces of emergent content sharing services are often considered more efficient and easier to use -- both for sharing and access control tasks (i.e., privacy). Based on our findings, we outline device-related design and research opportunities in this space.