Rambling thoughts and observations

Some of the places I want to visit, things I want to see, in the Four Corners / Southwest USA - in Wordle.

Notes from a presentation by Chris Loh and Shanan Holm of 3months, 8 December 2009.

Chris discussed the “walled garden” effect not allowing non-approved applications to feature on mobile phones. There has recently been a change to the “open allotment” idea of applications.

What is a Smartphone?
Mobile phones have basic apps on them. Hand-held PDA’s have rich apps but they are not connected - a user must sync them to a PC. Converged devices became “Smartphones”. Now a users calendar is always live and online. Usability has become better with newer smartphones able to do tasks. (See Jakob Nielsen’s article on Mobile Usability, July 2009).

The smartphone has a range of services (phone, music player, Internet browser), connection platforms (cellular, wifi, bluetooth, NFC - Near Field Communication, RFID sensor) and a range of sensors (GPS, camera, compass, accelerator). Multiple functionality means being able to integrate new capability into the chip.

Soon every phone will be a smartphone. The competition will go up and the price of phones will go down. Android is being used on many phones. (A good definition of Android is available on Wikipedia). Phone sizes were getting smaller in size, but the smartphone has a larger screen and is a multi-function device. The smartphone is a platform for web and apps.

Native App vs Web App
As browsers became more complex, more apps could run via the web. Creating websites for mobile phones where the screen size real estate needs to be considered as important. Top level domain names are usually .mobi (e.g. bbc.mobi) or m. (e.g. m.twitter.com or m.facebook.com). Applications for mobile are good for on the go “live” real time information.

Native App, caused by device fragmentation (different types/brands of phones) vs Mobile Web Apps, which can be used across many different types and brands of phones.

Native Apps can run in offline mode. This option is underway via HTML5 for the mobile web - this will be useful for having offline on an airplane, for example, where you can only run Gmail offline if Google Gears is installed on the phone. With HTML5, this functionality will be implemented.

Wikipedia has a good definition of the Mobile Web.

88% of iPhone users browse the web from their mobile, 92% of these are Android users. Only 14 % of all phone users have iPhones.

Mobile web = Apps + Web Access

iPhone phones and iPhone apps have grown. There has been a move from voice/SMS to data (web apps). Mobile phones have gone from being just phones to data-centric devices. They have gone from slow connections to fast connections.

Facebook mobile is the largest phone app. Users are 50% more active on Facebook mobile than desktop users with Facebook.

Smartphones have customisation that helps you find a location and a direction. If a user searches for the term “coffee” on Google on a mobile smartphone (geo dataset), the user will be directed to the nearest coffee house. The example given was to the coffee house in the same building as the user. Privacy is an issue at the heart of location-based services such as Foursquare.

“Foursquare is a location-based social networking website, software for mobile devices, and game. Users “Check-in” at venues using text messaging or a device specific application.” Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foursquare_(service).

There are also no location examples such as:- 2D barcodes; RFIDs (Radio Frequency Identification); image recognition such as Google Goggles where a user can take a photo of what they are looking at, for example, a magazine, and Google will take the user to the magazine web page; NFC mobile payments (using the cellphone to pay for items).

What are some of the things we should be doing in terms of the mobile web?

• start with low effort and high value;
• understand your market and user;
• understand users goals;
• build small amounts and let users use it.

Unoptimised sites = poor experience. Websites built for mobile devices take 2 seconds to load on a mobile, whereas a standard website viewed on a mobile on average takes 25 seconds. This is too long. Your business will lose users. Ensure that your business has simple apps that tie in with your business.

See also 3months blog article “Bringing mobile apps to the web”.

Discussion topic: the different methods of usability testing, and when and where to use each one for best effect.

The last Wellington Usability Lunch meeting for 2009 will be held on Wednesday 9 December 2009, 12 - 1pm at:

Provoke offices
Level 22, State Insurance Building
1 Willis Street
Wellington

As it is coming up to Christmas, this last lunch of the year will be a pot-luck lunch to share with the group.

Bring along your ideas, thoughts, experiences, questions, and something to share for the pot-luck lunch.

Further information is available from the Wellington Usability Lunch group: wellington-usability-lunch at googlegroups.com

Notes from a presentation by Natasha Lampard, at “Engage your community” Conference at Massey University, Wellington on 12 November 2009.

Look at what options are available. Contextual inquiry is a user-centered design method that happens at the beginning of the life-cycle. Live the day in the life of the users.

Usability is about removing friction and making things easier, faster, and is about obtaining a goal.

Look at the usefulness; learn-ability; efficiency; forgiveness; satisfaction of a site. If it’s too hard, the users will leave.

“Really great user experiences are not that common.”

Often there is too much emphasis on the product and too little on the end user and what they want to achieve.

Users want something credible; they want to be valued; they want to know that they have learned something; they want to come back; they want to know that it is a secure environment; that they had a satisfying experience; that they achieved something; that they felt welcome; that the site was responsive; that the user felt comfortable; that the user felt smarter; that the site was consistent; and that it was an experience “I” liked.

“It’s about being a good host - usability is courtesy, it’s about good manners.”

Let’s give people a break and give them what they want. Let’s meet and exceed user’s expectations.

User testing - set real world tasks for participants to complete. Watch and note any problems and issues.

Try “Guerrilla user testing” - this is ad hoc, informal testing, but it’s cheap, quick and it will give you results. This is better than no testing at all.

User testing stages - Prepare, test, report.

Set objectives, including up to five real world tasks. Take no longer than one hour. Aim for 45-55 minutes.

The aim is not to test the user. The testing is a test of the site and how well it meets the users needs. As the person managing the usability testing, do not take ownership of the site. This is to allow users to be open and honest about the site. Ask participants to think out aloud. You can pay people for their time, e.g. money or something as simple as a chocolate fish. It is good to reward participants for their time and energy.

Pay attention - it is what the users do, not just what they say. Use some moderation techniques - e.g. ask “what are you currently thinking?”

Performance metrics are - completion rate; time on task; page views; errors; and satisfaction rates.

Your users goals are your goals. Find out what the majority of people are doing on your website and work back from that to set usability tasks.

Read also the following report by Stephen Blyth:
“No excuses - budget usability testing”

Theme: Managing usability updates once build has started.

Always document any problems with usability and send this documentation upwards to managers, including the CEO. Videoing users as part of the usability testing is a good option, although this can go against the testing of the actual target audience.

The website “Whatusersdo” provides remote usability tests at £25 per user for up to 10 minutes. Clients can set up a task, which only takes a few minutes to set up. This has a quick turnaround time of 48 hours. Files are sent via email and are in .mp4 format.

The usability testers are at home on their own computer, so the client can’t see what O/S, browser, setup they use, etc. The testers are videoed and speak aloud as they complete the task. The client can see what steps the testers went through to complete the task. A live URL is required to be able to undertake testing.

Often there is no budget to do usability testing. Lo fi testing is an option - this can be hand-drawn, hand-written, and nothing fancy. Many companies use Optimal Usability for testing.

Fivesecondtest - is another good online tool where you can get feedback on your designs. It is simple and easy to set up.

It depends on what you are testing, what type of testing you require as to what tools can be used. We need before build and after build tests to be able to compare usability.

Everyone’s got a different mental model, so use a variety of testers. But, an organisation can set the mental model.

A full cost-benefit analysis is required to be done on any usability testing. We need success projects as examples. And we need to ask the question, how much will it cost in the long run? We need investment in usability testing upfront so as to not have a huge cost afterwards.

Theme: Managing usability updates once build has started.

Yes, it’s time for another Wellington Usability Lunch meeting - this Wednesday 25 November 2009. To be held from 12 - 1pm at the Provoke offices (Level 22, State Building, 1 Willis Street, Wellington).

Bring along your ideas, thoughts, experiences, questions, and of course your lunch.

Further information is available from the Wellington Usability Lunch group: wellington-usability-lunch at googlegroups.com