Jarrett Interaction Design

Peter Shih of UTest presented thoughts on mobile UX, mostly about usability testing.

• IDC: 2014 mobile apps projected to make $35billion in download prices alone
• B2B: $130billion in transactions
• in 2011 smartphones outsold desktops + laptops
• AOL got 1 million users in 9 months, FaceBook in 9 weeks, Draw Something in 9 days
• web vs. native apps, not either/or
• new input/output mechanisms
• functional issues hamper UX, e.g. rendering/loading issues
• form factors matter again, no real standards
• there will soon be fewer mobile OS platforms; HTML5 may trump native apps; native apps win the near-term battle, hybrid apps win the longer term war [definitely not an authority in this area]
• not just phones and tablets, but readers, TVs, gaming consoles, cars, appliances; eventually homes, cities, nations
• variety of usability approaches: on-site vs. remote, moderated vs. unmoderated, survey vs. recording, explicit vs. implicit methods
• traditional methods still apply, but  more post-launch testing
• don’t make the mobile web, make the web mobile
• DIY vs. expert, $ vs. $$$

✪✩✩✩✩ Poor, dull presentation. Simplistic. Nothing new. Throwback to 1990’s usability testing.

Josh Clark of Global Moxie presented 7 mobile myths:

Myth #1: Mobile users are rushed and distracted.

• 40% of mobile users have used their device in the bathroom
• 85% expect mobile retail experience to be as rich as desktop
• “This is not mobile content.” WRONG! All content is mobile.
  – Used an example of Alibris that specialized in rare and collectible books. Left it out of their mobile site.
• eBay sells 2,000 cars per month in US on mobile devices
• 28% of mobile web users use mobile almost exclusively (25 million people, 11% of US adults)
  – if they can only afford “one screen” it’s a mobile phone

Myth #2: Mobile = Less = Lite.

• Jakob Nielsen says cut content and features. WRONG! No, Jakob, no!
• don’t confuse context with intent

Myth #3: Complexity is a dirty word.

• complexity = richness
• complicated is not complexity
• complex but comprehensible
• Umbrella weather app answers the simple question, “Do I need my umbrella today?” Works for me, but not my father; he wants all the gory details about the low pressure system in Brazil, like Accuweather app
• early Facebook app was criticized for “not being Facebook” because of missing key features
• Accuweather app for the iPad is scary even on a sunny day; iPhone app is good
• clarity trumps density

Myth #4: Extra taps and clicks are evil.

• came from latency issues with early web
• as long as each tap delivers value; quality taps
• progressive disclosure
• mobile = more
• progressive enhancement

Myth #5: Gotta have a mobile web site.

• need a mobile experience, not a web site
• there is no “mobile web”: www.mysite.com -> mobile.mysite.com WRONG!
• all one web
• the more backward compatible your site, the more future compatible it is
• edit, edit, edit: if you don’t need it, don’t put it on the mobile version – and take it out of the desktop version!
• content runs the show, it’s the “big boy in the room”

Myth #6: Mobile is about apps and websites.

• an app is not a strategy
• your product is not an app, it’s content
• content takes on many forms in many containers
• we’re all cloud developers: anytime, anywhere; API first

Myth #7: CMS and API are for database nerds.

• we all need to care about content structure
• “Metadata is the new art direction.” Ethan Resnick
• it’s just plain strategy, not mobile strategy

Summary:

• MOBILE ≠ RUSHED
• MOBILE ≠ LESS
• COMPLEX ≠ COMPLICATED
• TAP QUALITY > TAP QUANTITY
• NO MOBILE WEB
• FOCUS FOR ALL PLATFORMS
• DON’T THINK APP, THINK SERVICE
• CONTENT/DATA IS KING

✪✪✪✪✩ Nice format, using the list. Great LEGO-mini visuals.

I attended Friday’s conference at MoDevUX in DC. For the next few posts, I’ll be providing tidbits that I took away from each of the sessions I attended. Overall, it was a pretty good day, and I met some great folks and caught up with some friends. I like the format of lots of short presentations.

KEYNOTE: Mark Jamison, Digital Innovation Lab, Capital One
(side note: married to jazz singer Cory Jamison)

• nontraditional financial services encroaching on traditional financial companies
• Nell Carter’s UX Wisdom: “Find out what they like, how they like it, and give it to them just that way.”
• learn directly from customers
• think big, start small, scale fast
• case study: Red Box at McDonalds
  - double diamond innovation award 2002
  –  disrupt convenience store industry; do what ATMs did for banking; in one year
  –  failed except for DVDs
  – now 28,000 locations; #2 distributor in North America; owned by CoinStar; sold for $200million profit
• design simple experiences that are integrated into consumers’ natural behavior
  – American Express Deals: “Sync + Explore = Save”; lots of steps to follow up on Twitter deal; more natural in FourSquare
  – rethink deals: relevant (for me) -> easy (automate redemption) -> real discount (significant savings)
  – just use the card and you get the deal

✪✪✪✪✩ Great case studies.

After a few weeks of owning and working with my Apple-technology-enabled studio, I’ve run into a stumbling block. The Apple TV was never designed to be a mobile – or even a traveling – device.

I would like to take my 720p projector, the Apple TV, and my iPad and/or MacBook Air to do presentations on the road… wherever I need to be. However, this turns out to be cumbersome, and I’m more likely to use the projector directly with the MacBook or iPad instead. Here’s why:

• Apple TV must be on the same WiFi network as the iPad and/or MacBook to mirror them. There’s no other way to connect.
• Apple TV doesn’t remember previous WiFi networks, so you have to use the silly remote to connect to the local WiFi, even if it’s been connected before.
• Apple TV does not support Ad Hoc networks, so I can’t just create one on the MacBook to get connected.
• Apple TV does work with a WiFi network created by internet sharing on the MacBook.  However, the MacBook Air can’t maintain its status as an access point if it isn’t sharing an internet connection (wired or Bluetooth). Weird.

So, leave the Apple TV at home (or at your office), always using the same network. Then, everything is cool. Otherwise, be prepared for extra setup time… and don’t forget the remote!

I’ve been working with my studio setup a bit more, and by adding AirServer into the mix, things get even more interesting. AirServer turns your Mac into a destination for AirPlay, as if it was an AppleTV or iOS device.

I discovered that I can indeed use both AirParrot and AirServer at the same time on my Mac. So, not only can I project on the big screen through AirParrot and the AppleTV, I can have the iOS device image on my Mac screen through AirServer and place it on the projector screen. No contention for the AppleTV as the Mac is the only thing using it. The MacBook Air is working hard – the fan comes on and stays on – but software stays responsive.

Remote conferencing software, like GoToMeeting, works fine with this setup. So does QuickTime Player screen recording… except you can’t record the projector if you are using it to Extend Desktop because AirParrot uses the same video stream as QuickTime Player.

UPDATE: With Air Display, I was able to extend my Mac’s desktop across a 4th screen, the iPad. Pretty amazing, and they’ve updated the software to support the retina resolution, although it hasn’t yet finished the review process so the update isn’t on the AppStore yet. This will be useful when I’m developing and testing screens and graphic assets for the retina display, because none of the other screens are high enough resolution to display the whole thing.

Ever since the rumors of the retina display iPad started, I’ve been eagerly anticipating owning one. I now do, and I am a very happy camper. It’s the best experience I’ve ever had in reading copy or viewing photographs on a device. The screen is brilliant.

It also spurred me to outfit my studio to exploit its capabilities. In doing so, I also discovered some cool things.

So, here’s the hardware:

• iPad 3 ($600)
• 13″ MacBook Air ($1300)
• 24″ external monitor ($200)
• Apple TV ($100)
• Acer 720p projector ($500)
• Vizio sound bar ($100)

HDMI cable from Apple TV to Acer projector. Toslink optical cable from Apple TV to Vizio sound bar. Cable lock through projector, Apple TV, and sound bar (I superglued a large washer to each of them so I could secure them with the cable).

I also installed AirParrot on the MacBook so I could use AirPlay to mirror my Mac screen. In doing so, I discovered that AirParrot can even use the projector to extend my desktop to a third screen! Pretty darn cool.

For less than $3000 I now have a multi-screen, multi-media studio for working, demoing, and testing (and showing off). Sure, the picture and sound aren’t up to home theater standards, but this is for work. Compared to the traditional combo of laptops, a business projector, and a screen, this rocks! It’s much more flexible, and I can use either the MacBook or the iPad to remote-in content.

For $3-400 more, I could have gone for a 1080p projector, but I don’t really need it. And I’m looking at a 120″ screen to mount above the whiteboard I’m using for a screen now, another $100 or so.

My only disappointment is that I need to have the Apple TV remote around if I need to go mobile and connect to different WiFi networks. Very frustrating that it’s required for that setup step. And I’m not sure it could work in a WiFi environment with certificate-based security. I’d probably need to use it on a guest or ad hoc network, which may cause other issues in getting to content I want.

I attended Baltimore Parlay, a gathering of Baltimore UX practitioners last night. The focus was a discussion of the Gamification of UX by Neal McDonald, a game design professor at UMBC.

He covered a bunch of interesting research and results from the last 10 years that have studied how games can actually improve performance in a number of dimensions, including delaying senility, as well as some of the elements of why games bring pleasure… and potentially addiction.

A few interesting tidbits:

• Jane McGonigal is the current guru of the value of gaming. Learn about her book Reality is Broken, watch her TED presentation and her Colbert interview among other things.
• Cow Clicker is a Facebook game by Ian Bogost created as a joke and a dis on other Facebook games, particularly Zenga games like Farmville. All you did was click a cow every 6 hours to earn points (“mooney”) and upgrade your cow – including spending real money to do so. And you could buy upgrades. 50,000+ still play it, even after a bovine rapture that only left the shadows of the cow to click.
• UsTrendy.com allows you to curate your own fashion line, assembling a line of clothing and accessories based on existing items at stores, photos, or your own designs. The community votes on the what they like and would be willing to buy. The best lines are actually produced and sold. Hundreds of fashion lines have been produced, and it’s phenomenally successful. Think Kickstarter meets Barbie.
• Eurogames (designer board games) are all the rage (and I guess have been for a while; guess I’m clueless). BoardGameGeek.com assembles information about them (as well as other types of games). These games have non-traditional gaming mechanics including less direct competition between players, no randomness, and you can’t be eliminated.

Enjoy.

(Click the images for larger, less cropped versions. Sorry for the quality of the pics. I was using my Android phone’s camera in one hand, pressing buttons with the other, while kneeling.)

Can you guess what this panel controls and what each button’s function is?

This is the control panel for the new Culligan water cooler at our office. It also dispenses hot water. That’s all it does.

Two functions = three buttons with icons + three single-letter labels.

The green light means it is plugged in.

Press A (the meteor icon), and dispense cold water, with a blue light confirming it’s cold (I guess):

Press B (a big steaming mug icon), and… nothing:

Press C (a smaller steaming mug icon), and… also nothing:

Hmmmm. What’s up? Here’s the instructions to the right of the buttons. Nice layout and typography, too, eh?

Press B and C???? Really???? Yup. A forcing function so you don’t burn yourself, apparently, while fumbling with the buttons. And with a red light confirming it’s hot:

Gee, what if I press all three buttons? You guessed it, a mix of hot and cold, and three gleaming colored lights (and cramped fingers):

Here’s a picture of the whole front of the cooler. This really is the worst user interface for a simple function I have ever encountered. And I’ve seen a lot of bad user interfaces.

Oh, don’t forget to heed the warning about your mug catching on fire!
(in the back of the cavity)