CS3040 Mobile Design & Development Mobiles for People Professor Jo Lumsden j.lumsden@aston.ac.uk learning outcomes… at the end of this lecture (together with additional reading), you should: be conscious of the fact that many of today’s products and services fail to deliver key qualities be able to see beyond the skin-deep appeal of mobile systems to consider them on the basis of quality be encouraged to strive to address real user needs, conscious of the spectrum of usability issues that have to be addressed be able to identify opportunities for novel, useful, and usable mobile products appreciate the impact of usefulness, usability, and user experience in mobile design and mobile system acceptance understand how design guidelines apply in the mobile context understand the essence of the technology acceptance model CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 2 introduction… “the old computing was about what computers could do; the new computing is about what users can do” (Shneiderman, 2002) need to focus on users’ abilities to be creative, to self-determine, and to cope most people lead full, busy, and interesting lives – so will not adopt a technology unless there is good reason to do so new product will resonate with people if it allows them to achieve something significant whilst fitting in with other things that fill their lives products should be pleasing, charming, delightful and enjoyable and NOT annoying, bland, frustrating and dull we need to design things that are useful and usable and that provide an overall enlightening user experience CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 3 useful… our motivation = discovering things that people really want to do – things that they just can’t do without seek to produce services that users want to use repeatedly and are happy to spend their money on text messaging seems a difficult activity (even with modern improvements) yet people do it repeatedly and enjoy it – why? Heckel’s Law: the quality of the user interface of an appliance is relatively unimportant in determining its adoption by users if the perceived value of the appliance is high Heckel’s Inverse Law: The importance of the user interface design in the adoption of an appliance is inversely proportional to the perceived value of the appliance (Derrett, 2004) CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 4 useful contd.… Heckel’s Law – one take is that interaction design adds little value to a product’s overall worth BUT the laws talk about interface and not interaction interface design is focused on the detailed look-and-feel interaction design is more far-reaching – it’s about understanding the goals people want to achieve with the technology and then designing the technology to meet these goals in as effective and engaging a way as possible evolving uses in early days, role of mobiles was to empower and equip “road warriors” today, mobiles are used across the board for work and leisure CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 5 useful contd.… for designers, exciting but problematic nature of mobiles is that they don’t conform to work-centred notion of computing business-type goals and tasks are relatively easy to analyse and represent mobiles reach out to non-business areas of people’s lives, blurring boundaries between work and leisure life is about more than speedy decisions and quick transactions – people are involved in activities over long periods of time, being creative and reflective...and mobiles can support this when developing mobile services, don’t focus on fast-paced, always-on, always-connected interaction...how could you help users slow down with more relaxed styles and systems? CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 6 usable... how often have you lost interest in an app or mobile service soon after downloading/subscribing to it? users repeatedly abandon devices/apps usability refers to the way you control and operate the system – the “how” of design – and often it is poor poor usability comes in 2 forms: ease of use: whether the device or service is usable in itself – devices/applications are often just difficult to use/operate fit-in-context: whether the device or service works in harmony with the things around it poor usability can arise when there is a lack of thought about how the mobile might integrate with other resources and the wider world in which they work/move around CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 7 mobiles that are intrinsically usable... to help designers, Norman identifies four principles of good practice that promote ease-of-use essentials (Norman, 1988) ensure a high degree of visibility – allow the user to work out the current state of the system and the range of actions possible provide feedback – give continuous, clear information about the results of actions present a good conceptual model – allow the user to build up a true picture of the way the system holds together, the relationships between its different parts and how to move from one state to the next offer good mappings – aim for clear, natural relationships between actions the user performs and the results they achieve CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 8 mobiles that are intrinsically usable contd.... Ben Shneiderman’s Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design (Shneiderman, 1998) strive for consistency enable frequent users to use shortcuts offer informative feedback design dialogues to yield closure give users a sense of a beginning, middle and end in their interactions strive to prevent errors and assist when errors are made allow “undo” make users feel they are in control of a responsive system reduce short-term memory load CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 9 mobiles that are intrinsically usable contd.... living up to usability ideals when designing mobiles can be challenging...visibility & feedback ...how do you make a system’s functions visible and give good feedback when the device has a small screen and/or users can’t always give it their full attention? example: when a mobile phone’s battery level is low, device alerts user by playing jingle and displaying full-screen warning message (further reducing power level available!); owner may not even benefit from this if out of earshot/eyesight...how could the user be better warned? CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 10 mobiles that are intrinsically usable contd.... living up to usability ideals when designing mobiles can be challenging...visibility & feedback contd. visibility and feedback are not dependent on visual display haptic or auditory I/O provide additional opportunities content shouldn’t be the only concern need to ensure that device controls are also made clear visibility is not about being all-seeing don’t have to present everything at once CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 11 mobiles that are intrinsically usable contd.... living up to usability ideals when designing mobiles can be challenging...conceptual model perceived affordances of an object = way users believe they can interact with it multi-purpose nature of mobile phones can impede users’ ability to derive accurate affordances CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 12 mobiles that are intrinsically usable contd.... living up to usability ideals when designing mobiles can be challenging...conceptual model contd. look at other things people use when mobile see whether their attributes can help inform design employ terminology that makes sense to the user some mobile services still appear as if they have been designed for network engineers! CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 13 mobiles that are intrinsically usable contd.... living up to usability ideals when designing mobiles can be challenging...mappings mobiles offer chances to extend notion of direct manipulation things users want to do and how they do them can be more closely coupled mappings between what user needs to do and how to do it has to be very clear though example: in the peephole display, user lifts up the handheld towards them to see less detail (to zoom out) and move the device away from them to zoom in, getting more detail so, in a map application, raising the handheld towards your face would show you more of an area overview; lowering would allow you to see more of the street level information is that a good mapping? CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 14 mobiles that are intrinsically usable contd.... usable in life... even when a device is easy to operate and provides good feedback, the test comes when it is deployed in the complex, messiness of real situations when a user calls on its services in everyday use, it might still disappoint dramatically a system can appear impressive, reasonable and effective when watching a demo, working through a manual soon after a purchase, etc.... ...but, when it has to be used in the wild, the usability can break down quickly CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 15 mobiles that are intrinsically usable contd.... usable in life contd.... in carrying out everyday activities, users will draw on a number resources… finding your way around a new town? deciding on what restaurant to eat at? information ecology = “system of people, practices, values and technologies in a particular local environment; in information ecologies, focus is not on technology, but on human activities that are served by technologies” (Nardi & O’Day, 1999) sustainability and quality of our lives with mobiles depends on ensuring that all the resources we need work well together CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 16 user experience... two ways of improving the overall user experience: the identity of a product – the message the device sends to users, and the way it makes them feel the need to extend the influence of interaction design beyond the technology to the whole package presented to the user – i.e., marketing, customer care, charging plans, etc. aim is to present user with experience that is solid, distinct, understandable, trustworthy, and satisfying strong identity: making computing disappear is about tidying away the technology so users’ needs remain at the foreground... ...it doesn’t mean that products shouldn’t have clear, discernable, likeable identities...when users are using a mobile, they should know they are using it and enjoy the experience! CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 17 user experience contd.... strong identity contd.... iPod = landmark model of how physical elements can give product a strong identity excellent mappings: movement used to scroll gives a good sensation; gesture has direct and clear mapping – i.e., action and its results are obviously linked (e.g., moving your finger clockwise means “more”, anticlockwise “less”) consistency: while the wheel is used to control a large number of features, the uncomplicated mapping always holds – there is a high degree of consistency in the way it works CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 18 user experience contd.... interview with senior manager of interaction design at Nokia revealed... user experience comes in 3 levels: visceral response: in the first 10th of a second, how does the product look and feel? behavioural response: does the product allow user to build a sort of relationship with it? – straightforward to initially pick up basics and then some ways to extend skills with the right amount of challenge at the right time? overall, want products that are not ‘clunky’ but that provide smooth, enjoyable sense reflective & social side: how does the product help people to view themselves? – social value comes from whole range of factors, from coolness and branding through to functionality CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 19 user experience contd.... revisit success of texting... costs low intrusion can read and respond to message whenever they like and can decide on pace of response expressiveness & meaning carefully crafted texts can be highly expressive and convey significant meaning turn-taking technology is social – people can contribute in controlled, equal way privacy allows degree of private communication (can’t be overheard like voice) linear directness of creating & sending message overcomes usability issues of text entry and limited message length hard to go wrong when so few wrong turns to take! CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 20 technology acceptance... range of models have been developed that predict the likely uptake of an innovation individual’s beliefs about benefits of the technology • relative advantage • compatibility • complexity • trialability • observability • image • trust opinions of others on the technology • friends • work group • family • opinion leaders positive/negative attitude about the technology itself decision to adopt/reject positive/negative attitude using the technology in their social setting CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 21 technology acceptance contd.... mapping of interaction design terminology/concepts to technology acceptance model terminology interaction design terminology technology acceptance model terminology usefulness relative advantage intrinsic usability of service complexity; compatibility (with previous services/technology); observability ecological usability compatibility (with life/culture); observability; image; trust; opinion of friends, family and other groups user experience trialability; observability; image; trust; reaction of friends, family and other groups CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 22 design tips… design proposal must contain at least 2 functions that will encourage users to carry their device with them ignore notions like “user-friendly” that encourage dumbing down of designs – focus instead on “user accommodating”, “user appealing”, and “user appreciated” check all design proposals against well known design guidelines when designing, be ecological – think about other resources available to users CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 23 key points… successful mobile products are ones that are useful and usable – as well as providing a coherent, comprehensive user experience if a mobile doesn’t provide highly valued functionality, it won’t be used – no matter how well designed its UI is a mobile’s usability is affected by: its intrinsic ease of use – way it presents its functionality, the feedback given to users, etc. how well it fits with other resources at the users’ disposal users’ perceptions of mobile’s usability is affected by more than just its quality – also factored are customer support, interaction with network services, explanation of pricing, etc. CS3040 Mobile Design & Development: Design Lecture 3 24 Individual Reading: Jones, M., & Marsden, G., (2006), Mobile Interaction Design, John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Chapter 2* * slides prepared using companion teaching materials
