A hypothetical redesign of the USAA mobile user experience.
“Utilizing these well-designed, iconic images already on the web site sends a message of professionalism that says “Our company is second to none. We offer style and class. We take no shortcuts, etc.” It also gives the application a little bit of an interactive feel, much more so than the plain, dry text links offered currently.”
Link: Design for Users: Branding Yourself in Small Spaces (design-for-users.com)
Conference about the mobile web being held in London this June.
Link: Mobile Web 2.0 Summit (mobilewebsummit.com, via)
Russell Beattie writes about the demise of the mobile browser, Mowser.
“I think anyone currently developing sites using XHTML-MP markup, no Javascript, geared towards cellular connections and two inch screens are simply wasting their time, and I’m tired of wasting my time.
“The argument up to now has been simply that there are roughly 3 billion phones out there, and that when these phones get on the Internet, their vast numbers will outweigh PCs and tilt the market towards mobile as the primary web device. The problem is that these billions of users haven’t gotten on the Internet, and they won’t until the experience is better and access to the web is barrier-free – and that means better devices and “full browsers”. Let’s face it, you really aren’t going to spend any real time or effort browsing the web on your mobile phone unless you’re using Opera Mini, or have a smart phone with a decent browser – as any other option is a waste of time, effort and money. Users recognize this, and have made it very clear they won’t be using the “Mobile Web” as a substitute for better browsers, rather they’ll just stay away completely.
“Let me say that again clearly, the mobile traffic just isn’t there. It’s not there now, and it won’t be.”
Link: The end of Mowser (russellbeattie.com, via)
Brian Fling wrote up his thoughts of the Mobile 2.0 conference. An interesting summary of the current state of attitudes regarding the mobile space.
“The thing that surprised me the most about the event was how much the web was discussed, specially the mobile web. I had anticipated a little discussion about the web throughout the day. Usually when mobile geeks get together they talk about mobile applications, carriers, J2ME midlets, blah blah blah. But yesterday was different.
“It was obvious that in the minds of many, Mobile 2.0 is the web. Mobile is already a platform, but the consensus was that leveraging the power of the web, integrating web services into the mobile medium is the future of mobile….Contrast that with the Future of web Apps conference last month, also in San Francisco, mobile was hardly mentioned at all. Seems like we have a disconnect.”
Link: 10 Things I Learned at Mobile 2.0 (blueflavor.com)
Sean Madden writes about some of the mobile-related talk that went on at SXSW (which is typically a desktop web-heavy get together). I’m not convinced that there needs to be a clear separation of browser-based systems and local application like he suggests; there are different design and technical considerations to be dealt with for the two delivery mechanisms, but in both situations you’ve still got a mobile application.
“I spent a lot of my time at SXSW this year sitting on panels discussing the mobile space. I did learn quite a bit, but the thing that I found most intriguing was the difficulty people are having distinguishing the various mobile spaces, particularly the difference between mobile applications and the mobile web. These two practices are fundamentally different and must be mentally separated by our community. The mobile web is about re-purposing current sites or creating stand-alone sites that are meant to be experienced through the phone’s web browser.”
Link: Mobile Development Still A Mystery to Most (frogdesign.com)
Blueflavor has published an updated version of their previously published presentation about designing for mobile web.
Link: SXSW 2007 Mobile Web Presentation (blueflavor.com)
Apple finally got their phone. I had two immediate reactions. It’s fantastic that a company has released a touch-screen phone that’s hitting the mass market. I hope this is a wake up call to other manufacturers: touch-screen devices are not just for the high end PDA market. Second, I’m very interested to experience text entry on the device. One of the most difficult things to do on a touch-screen is text entry (text entry while in motion can be exceptionally difficult, and is almost impossible one-handed). While the iPhone solution looks interesting, it’s not clear that the solution is completely baked.
Link: Apple – iPhone (apple.com)
Link: The Apple iPhone runs OS X – Engadget (engadget.com)
An academic thesis presenting research on the design of web browsers for mobile devices.
“Technically, it has been possible to access the Internet on a mobile phone for several years already, but the mobile browsing experience has often been cumbersome for ordinary people. Understanding the user needs in different use contexts is the key to improving the user experience and thereby popularizing device independent access to Internet.
“In her dissertation research, Virpi Roto has interviewed users of mobile browsers in several countries, and identified characteristics that help improve the mobile browsing user experience if taken into consideration. In addition to user and use context, all the system components should be taken into account: device, browser, network infrastructure, and web site. A partial outcome of the research is a visualization method called Minimap, which has gathered publicity as the first practical way to view Web pages on a mobile phone. The method has been used in Nokia S60 phones since 2006.”
Link: Web Browsing on Mobile Phones – Characteristics of User Experience (research.nokia.com)
A nice introductory presentation about the elements and challenges faced when designing for mobile devices.
“My workshop focused on the mobile ecosystem, some of the basic fundamentals as well as dispel myths and jargon common to the mobile industry. As this information can be incredibly hard to come by outside of the mobile industry, it seemed like a good place to start…
“But being a mobile designer doesn’t need to be as perplexing as it may seem. Given a little insider information and what you already probably know, you can begin creating the next generation of mobile websites and applications.”
Link: Designing for Mobile (blueflavor.com)
Published by Gabriel White.