## 3 Method  
The _LocaNews_ project is a pilot study which consists of four parts or iterations. These parts are conducted in (1) Bergen, (2) Volda, (3) Voss and (4) Volda (city and towns in Norway). Between each iteration we have improved the technical system in addition to investigating different aspects of this system. These aspects focus on the production of the news, the usability of the mobile application, the users' experiences of the content, and the text itself. This article deals with part three, _i.e._, the user's experiences of this form of journalism. Similar explorative approaches to digital design can be found in [PERSON] [40]; L&[PERSON] [41,42]; and [PERSON] [43]. Different approaches to mobile media are treated in [PERSON] _et al._[44]; [PERSON] _et al._[45] and [PERSON] _et al._[46]. The design of _LocaNews_ is not an attempt to make a system for the existing industry, but rather to explore how these news stories are experienced. I do not believe the industry can directly adapt this tripartite news story system due to production costs and the current scientific analytic limitations within the system. To carry out our user studies of 32 participants, we hired and paid media and journalism students from the two earlier iterations to produce the news for our user studies. The students produced 93 news stories with photos. These students were trained in the system and about the idea of writing location-aware news stories. This was a time and space limited project which was conducted during the Extreme Sports Festival at Voss in the summer of 2009 over five days. During the festival the municipality of 14,000 people increased to around 20,000. Voss topography plays an important role which both the journalists and the users of _LocaNews_ must take into account. The town (Figure 2) is surrounded by high mountains, rivers and lakes that create natural paths and lines which the town and its people has to deal with, and thus the topography differs from other large cities with higher urban density like London and New York. The festival was chosen as a frame in order to recruit editorial staff and informants. The editorial remit was to make location-aware news about and around the festival for the locals and many visitors during the event. Within this time and place limited project, we held each of the 32 voluntary participants one-by-one for approximately 80 min of their spare time in order to conduct a questionnaire and field-testing. The field-testing alone resulted in 28 hours of all participating observations. These user studies were conducted by the author and two co-workers. The participants were given a mobile phone with a pre-installed _LocaNews_ application. This mobile application was accessible only to the research group and the participants. The mobile application was shut down right after the project. Figure 2: The town of Voss and its natural surroundings (Photo: [PERSON] Wikimedia Commons licensed). The _LocaNews_ system allows the users to walk around and read journalistic text tailored for the users' position in different ways. Therefore, if there is a certain important landmark like a public park, building or event, the users can expect to get the corresponding texts. Each news story is written in three different proximity versions, which is what makes _LocaNews_ location-aware instead of only location-based. These proximity versions or zones are purely analytically chosen in order to force the producers to tailor versions right here, nearby and far away. They appear as optional categories in the mobile application as _Here_ (0-100 m), _In the neighborhood_ (100-500 m), and _Voss at large_ (exceeding 500 m). The size of the zones was chosen based on the topography and the urban density of the rural town Voss. The users access the news through a mobile application developed specifically for this project. The user will only get access to the story within the proximity zone and will have to move physically to access another version of the same story.