The situations where mobile technology does not suit ...

There are certain situations where the use of Mobile devices fails in the field, or office for that matter. This also goes for using laptops and computing in general...

The term Assessment is overloaded - the understanding depends on the industry. For the caring industries such as wellness, rehabilitation or social works the term generally does not mean a 3rd person observational audit or inspection as it does in construction, safety and compliance fields. 

First-person observational

In this line of activity an Assessment can mean a level of interview or interaction. There may also be a degree of note-taking involved.

This is where trade-offs begin to occur. When working with people in this interactive way, or first-person observational, you are engaged in a dialogue and an unearthing of information. Eye contact is important to elicit the narrative continuity required when working with people. 

If you are continually looking down to tap notes on a tablet, you are breaking eye contact and the session can breakdown into a Q&A rather than story telling exercise. Similarly if you are using a laptop the screen itself can become a physical barrier between the parties.

What works, when

Is this a limitation of the electronic medium? Consider the alternative (pen and paper) and why this 'works' for people.

• Familiarity - people can write without occasional glances at their hand
• Feedback - you can easily sense where you are writing on the paper 
• Shorthand - pen and paper is note-taking, not word-for-word transcription
• Fix-it later - people are comfortable with the idea of taking notes, and re-writing them

There is a strong perception that once something goes into an electronic system that it is, and will, remain immutable. This does depend though on the process and the system. 

Electronic = edit it later

Having implemented systems for speech and occupational therapists I know that a higher adoption rate is achieved through a system that allows them a 'review and edit' stage back at the office before any data is submitted as a record. This addresses the 'Fix-it later' worries.

Electronica as 'pen-and-paper'

Using writing recognition

Hand-writing recognition is a reasonable alternative input method on tablets, but you need to 'train' the tablet in your own style. It does not take long for device and user to become proficient.

Using this handwriting technique could be an answer to the 'Shorthand' reason why pen and paper work for people.

The Feedback aspect is trickier - you need to know that any stylus you are using is making proper contact - you can't feel the screen resisting the stylus in the same way as paper responds to a pen. Consequently no letters are drawn on the screen. This can be as irritating as taking screeds of notes on paper and realising your pen ran out of ink.

Familiarity only comes with constant, reliable use of a tool (even pen and ink). Use of mobile devices for work is still new for a lot of people.

This use case of interactive interview assessments may take a few more years and clever thinking before records of interview type assessments can be born digital.