A generation of engineers as mechanics of the communications industry (building network, 3G, WiFi and smart phones). The new generation are pilots taking the driver seat of the business which is user experience. This phase of innovation requires more psychology than technology. And new players are setting the trend : Apple, Google, Yahoo! They built their DNA around understanding of usage contexts and behaviors and delivering more than visual UI or efficient bandwidth. They offer end to end experiences across multiple touch points. How do they do it ? A few examples gathered during industry workshops in London :
- Understand users
- Generating persuasive ideas
- Compelling user interaction
- Delivering the experience
- Mirjana Spasojevic runs ethnographic consumer studies for Nokia Research and previously at HP. She keeps asking the : What are people are doing on web? Here are a few answers :
- Jeanine : accesses Yellowpages.com from Sprint to find phone numbers and addresses. Why ? it is cheaper than 411 ($1.49)
- Fred: Checks and trades stocks at work on his Blackberry. Why ? his company PC is monitored and he doesn’t want his boss to know about it.
- Christina : orders pizza while on her way home. Why ?: So that she doesn’t have to talk and waste time
- Kim : “I would feel naked without it [my phone].” – Why? he would feel “vulnerable and disappointed about lost opportunities”.
- Jonathan : “Should I buy this shirt?” Why ? to get friends advices and make solo activities social.
- Josephine : “I text my friends on the tube coming from work.” Why ? a remedy for loneliness.
- Nicky “… this was a picture taken of me and my friends, I emailed it to my Sidekick.” Why? as visual reminders of who she is, to reinforce a sense of identity and relationships. This behavior is continuous and ritualistic. There is a compelling emotional link that motivates people. Sending images, choosing an avatar or a login name – these are all acts of presentation and self representation.
- Michael von Roeder, head of UE, at Vodafone lists the following methodologies : managed panels, random trials, life tracking, network analysis, user testing, testing with users, ethnographic contextual enquiry, participatory design.
- User research tools for real-time collecting, filtering, presenting and sharing the data from usage of the phone are available from The Astonishing Tribe .
Generating persuasive ideas
- Kath Straub chief scientist at Human Factors focuses on mobile persuasion. The goal is to understand why users WILL do versus CAN do. They want to do something in their life not on their phone or PC. We need to identify blocks and barriers : they don’t need another toy, are afraid about security, learning effort, wasted time. But they can benefit from handset playing the role of connector, concierge, coach.
- Ian Curson, Vodafone: says "it is important to have the whole company thinking about user experience". One challenge is to help users explore new kinds of experiences: “two people going out”, “browsing maps to find the restaurant”. Mobility can be enhanced: “have you seen someone walking while looking at their iPhone?” Sharing evolved when Youth started to expose themselves.
- Another example is O2 Cocoon device, designed to match the music sharing brand of O2 Telefonica in UK.
Markus Hohl, head of design at O2 has presented the story of the birth and launch of the O2 Cocoon. Here is the first design by Syntes studio. The final product was released 16 month later. But O2 still admits that it is difficult to measure the value of user experience (ROI / ARPU or churn reduction).
Creating compelling user interaction
- Terence Warmbier, from, Immersion says that “design loves technology”. Future handsets will incorporate many UI features such as soft keys, motion control, camera interaction, scroll wheels, GPS, NFC communications, biometrics, proximity and light sensor. On haptics, that provides a touch feedback, he says that “output physics rocks!”
- The astonishing tribe also deliver s software to create the Wow! effect. Natural interaction (NI) builds on human understanding of space and objects, reduces cognitive load of the user is reduced using approaches such as
- Physics engines, textures, gravity ...
- V results of actions mimicking natural world,
- “Haptics” interface technology via the sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations and/or motions.
Lastly the Cube allows users to twist, tap, rotate, shake to enjoy your music on iTunes.
- Francis MacDougall, CTO GestureTek focuses on gesture interaction, enabled by optical tracking or accelerometers and sensors. It has been popularized by the Wii. Applications include bowling swing motion or face exploration such as DoCoMo front facing cameras.
Current devices with motion detection include :(Source : Gesturetek)
- Sony Ericsson K850i : image orientation
- Sony Ericsson W910i : image orientation, shake control for music, game, camera
- Sony Ericsson W580i : Image orientation, shake control, pedometer
- Nokia N95 : orientation control
- Nokia 5500 : Pedometer
- Samsung SCH-S310 : UI control, music, “write a number in the air”
- Samsung V603SH : UI control
- Apple iPhone : image orientation, shake control
- Jefferson Han of Perceptive Pixel multi-touch sensors demos have been seen several million times on the web.
- Risto Lahdesmaki from Idean, also involves users and fine-tunes interactions using low tech : he gives users a piece of wood and observes usage, an approach that had been used for the palm pilot.
Delivering the experience
One example of end to end innovation is 3’s Skype mobile, delivering in 2006 a complete value proposition to for social users : calls to Skype anywhere, low price points, reaching out people not in your address book. Carl Taylor, director of applications at Hutchinson Europe explained the choice of a dedicated handset provided users a single click to call or to access to mobile internet services. In 2009, the INQ1 device integrates native applications such as Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, eBay, Last.fm, Skype, Google and Yahoo.
