Posts Tagged ‘mobile’

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Twitter raises the bar

Monday, September 20th, 2010

Built from their own API, the new Twitter.com raises the bar for Twitter clients, including their own. Not yet released for wide-spread usage, the new Twitter caused quite a stir recently as their PR event unveiled a ground-up redesign of the popular site. The new design is slowly being rolled out to users and while I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, there is a video that shows off some of the new features.

Some of the new design changes that caught my eye are..

* A dual-paned environment that keeps your twitter stream in view on the left side of the screen while content, including images and video are displayed on the right

* Collapsing/Expanding windows that help focus your attention, either on the stream or the content of an individual tweet

* A seemingly endless stream that does away with the need to press ‘More’ in order to see more tweets

* Overall brand consistency, creating a tighter connection between the website and their mobile offerings

On the heels of their new iPad app, Twitter is pushing the boundaries of design and functionality. The iPad app, which I’ve been using for my Twitter fix lately, breaks new ground with respect to iPad design and interaction. A truly bold step has been taken by Twitter to explore the realm of the touch tablet and offer up an engaging experience.

As Twitter puts energy into their site and apps, it sets the bar for others. By building their site on their own API, it not only shows others what is possible, it helps Twitter define and refine that which they offer up to their partners. By making bold design decisions for their iPad app, Twitter is not only showcasing their service, they are helping to define the next generation of iPad apps.

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Emerging iPad Best Practices: App Navigation

Monday, August 9th, 2010

In May, we conducted our first series of usability research sessions with the iPad. The research spanned 5 days for a total of 25 participants, and very quickly we saw certain navigation patterns emerge. Participants consistently struggled with certain apps, while other apps were much easier to use and navigate.

This post will outline a few of the best practices that we have synthesized from our early research. AnswerLab has also published a full report that tackles the question: How can content owners and digital marketers successfully create a digital content strategy across mobile platforms? See our website for more information about iPad user experience research.  

1. Don’t neglect information-seeking paradigms

Users have been conditioned by years of web-browsing to expect certain navigation elements. For example: Participants in our test were frustrated when they could not find a way to go Back or return to Home.

Confused, some of these participants used the iPad’s own Home button, thereby inadvertently exiting the app completely. This disrupted the flow  and took the users out of the immersive experience of the app, making them less likely to return again.

Users struggled to find their way back to the app home screen in Pinball HD for iPad.

Many participants also felt disappointed to learn they could not search content in the New York Times Editor’s Choice or NPR apps. They said that the inability to search diminished the utility of the app to the point that they would use the website instead of the app going forward.

The takeaway? Provide a simple, discoverable way to go Back or get to the app’s Home screen easily. And if your app contains a lot of content, make sure your users have their preferred method of wading through – search.

2. Navigation elements need to be easily discoverable

In addition to mimicking the basic website paradigm, the navigation elements in your app need to be easily discoverable. Despite the fact that some of the applications we tested had Back or Home buttons, some participants were not able to find them.

In the USA Today app, none of the participants realized that they needed to tap the USA Today logo to navigate to different news sections. Building a great app with rich content needs to be accompanied by a sound navigational structure that allows users to access the breadth and depth of your app without getting confused or frustrated.

Users failed to discover that tapping the USA Today logo would reveal navigation by section.

Other applications that we tested – like ESPN’s Score Center XL, Epicurious, and Wikipanion – had navigation elements that were only obvious when the iPad was in landscape mode. Participants that were already in landscape mode noticed these elements, but those that were using the iPad in portrait mode did not discover that they could turn the iPad 90° to uncover these features.

In landscape mode within the Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List app, users would have been able to sort by recipe categories and favorite recipes.

To ensure that your users discover all of your navigation elements – and don’t get lost in your app – make the most basic elements obvious and provide visual cues for elements that are more advanced or hidden.

3. Swipes are more fun than clicks

The touchscreen tablet platform opens the door to novel ways of interacting with content. Leverage touch gestures like swipes and flicks where appropriate, and where users most expect them. For example, users expect to be able to pinch or spread to zoom content – a convention learned from touchscreen mobile phones – and most participants in our testing understood and were delighted by the action of swiping to the next page in apps like the New York Times Editor’s Choice or Time Magazine.

Apple’s iBook application lets users swipe to turn the page in iBooks.

Again, ensure these sometimes unexpected ways of interacting with your content are discoverable by providing indications or visual cues to your users.

4. Keep an eye out for emerging standards

The iPad has only been available for a few months, so the platform is new and rapidly evolving. As more users adopt the iPad or other touchscreen tablet devices, standards for navigation and interaction will emerge that have yet to be established. Users will become more familiar with these standard interactions over time, but certain functionality may take a while to catch on or, certainly, to become ubiquitous.

In the meantime, make sure your app is simple to use. If you are pushing the envelope to institute your own set of standards, make sure they are discoverable and intuitive. Most importantly, test them amongst your users. Keep an eye out as standards emerge and be prepared to incorporate new best practices as they are defined.

Our latest report will help content owners and digital marketers create a winning digital content strategy across mobile platforms. Go here for more information about the iPad user experience research.

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Early Days of Optimizing for the iPad

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Suzuki recently celebrated 50 years of international racing. As part of the celebration, they designed a new website optimized for the iPad.

http://www.suzuki50years.com/

At AnswerLab, we’ve heard from a number of our clients that they’d like to understand users’ expectations across platforms to help inform their design strategy. Should we design mobile apps or mobile optimized websites? Which mobile platform should we design for? What do users expect when they interact with our content on the iPad?

We conduct a ton of mobile user experience research at AnswerLab and now that the iPad has entered the picture, interest is gaining momentum. When I read about Suzuki’s latest creation, I immediately grabbed the AnswerLab shared iPad and brought up the site.

My first impression… It looks fantastic on the iPad.

Suzuki iPad Website

The designers obviously put energy into creating a site that fits well on the iPad’s screen. And Suzuki fully embraced the iPad/iPhone touch interface, allowing one to traverse the site via a simple swipe to change pages. As an iPhone owner, I’m used to performing this action in iPhone apps and the extension of this gesture to the web page is gratifying — albeit a bit unfamiliar.

While writing this blog post, I discovered Apple’s list of iPad ready websites and I’m sure there are others. I intend to check many of them out to see how well they’ve embraced the iPad’s unique format.

Whenever there is an iPhone optimized website, I’ll opt for it when browsing on my iPhone. Given that the iPad’s screen is much larger than my iPhone, only time will tell if I will prefer an iPad optimized website or the standard version of a website.

As your company decides which platform to embrace and whether to create an app or a mobile optimized site, consider your target audience and especially what experience you are bringing to the table. Suzuki may not have a huge iPad audience at this time but by creating an iPad optimized site, they are taking a risk and learning what works, and what doesn’t. At AnswerLab, we conduct research for industry-leaders to minimize their risk. When the platform is new and your audience is relatively small, risks like the one Suzuki is taking with this site may be somewhat trivial. However, prototype testing, conducting research, and fully understanding your users needs becomes paramount as the platform matures and users’ expectations become clear.

Recently, AnswerLab conducted testing to understand mobile consumers’ behaviors when purchasing apps and interacting with mobile devices including the iPad. Look for more information based on our findings in the near future.

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The Apple iPad – a revolutionary game-changer

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Apple considers the iPad to be “magical and revolutionary” and it may very well be. From a usability perspective, tablets have found only a few niches. Tablet adoption has floundered for years with a primary problem being an existing operating system crammed into the device. Apple again demonstrates its design capabilities not just with the sleek form factor, but with the specialized OS running the device. This is likely to be the game-changer for this tablet. The floating keyboard, and gesture support familiar to all pinch and zoom enthusiasts will adapt to professional as well as entertainment applications. iTunes and the AppStore have revolutionized how enthusiasts obtain enhanced functionality and entertainment, and the iPad gains an immediate user base by running applications in the AppStore. Significant reinvestment is not required.

The dedication to design sets Apple apart, and the tools from the iPod to the iPhone have fundamentally changed the way regular users interact with technology. The iPad is essentially a larger, and more capable iPhone. With more real-estate, and a well known OS this could be the tool for personal computing. In a world where everything gets smaller and faster, the iPad’s large format may provide the perfect platform for user capabilities. We are looking forward to our first iPad studies.

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Finding Success in Simple User Experiences

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

The world has sped up, become more connected and a whole lot busier. As a result,  many consumers care more about ubiquitous access to content and communications than having a perfectly full-featured experience.  Increasingly, consumers will not spend time using complicated products and services. But, let’s be clear: “simplification” does not mean the dumbing down of product and services. “Simplification” can mean improving – when done right, it’s the process of streamlining products to make them user friendly.

Earlier in the summer, Wired Magazine published an article called “The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine.” The piece – which claims that companies will find success in cheap, simple products and services that maximize accessibility, flexibility, and convenience – has been picked up by the likes of The New York Times’ Idea of the Day Blogand TechDirt. The article provides great examples of products that have had fewer features – and lower price tags – than the competition and have subsequently become successful in their markets: the Flip videocamera, the MP3, cloud computing, even the military’s MQ-1 Predator drone. The author – Robert Capps – even explores how “The Good Enough Revolution” extends into emerging services including eLawyering and Kaiser Permanente’s microclinics.

The central argument of the piece – that users’ needs are changing, enabled by technology – makes sense.  In today’s busy world, people are willing to compromise quality – defined differently depending on the product or service – and settle for a simpler, less feature-full product. Of course, Capps argues, it’s not quite that simple: the product or service must bear a lower price point, accomplish a baseline goal, and be convenient, or easily accessible, or highly flexible. This premise is an interesting one – and certainly supported by the author’s examples – as it points to an important common theme: In simplifying their products and services, these companies have also increased usability.

Being easier to use than alternatives has contributed to the success, in one way or another, of all of the products or services that Capps mention in the article. For example: The Flip camera’s genius lies in the simplicity of its interface and of operation. Put plainly, the Flip camera is extremely easy to use.

flip

The extremely basic interface – only a handful of buttons! – the integrated USB, and the plug-and-play software for editing, uploading, and organizing make operating the Flip a no-brainer for the average consumer.

Similarly, the success of the MP3 – despite being an extremely lossy format for audio files – has a usability angle as well, though in this case, it’s more about the software and devices that play MP3s than the file format itself. Sure, portability and accessibility have a lot to do with the rise of the MP3 over the CD, but we would argue that usability – as brought to you by Apple – deserves a share of the credit. iTunes’ and iPod’s plug-and-play model, and simple, intuitive interfaces undoubtedly contributed to Apple’s domination of the portable music market (at just over 70% according to NPD) as well as the meteoric rise of the MP3.

Finally, for the nascent services Capps mentions – both eLawyering and healthcare microclinics – usability is key to future success. Providing basic, document-centric legal services online can only succeed in the mainstream with intuitive, well-designed UIs that eliminate the guesswork for users. For example, eLawyering sites with location-awareness and auto-fill form-fields will simplify the processes and allow users to steer clear of legal jargon they may not understand. Similarly, the microclinic model being deployed by Kaiser not only makes healthcare cheaper to provide – it will also make it easy for patients to receive. Because the facilities are local, patients needn’t drive hours to see a doctor. And because records are digital and facilities are networked, patients needn’t worry about transfer of information from one office or hospital to the next.

Capps has indeed described an interesting trend in what people want from products and services – and, subsequently, what it will take for companies to succeed in this changing environment. Winning in the Good Enough Revolution, though, is not just about trimming features to increase accessibility, flexibility, and convenience – it’s also about improving usability.

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