S60 Open to new features

Readability is surely a big part of usability. Usability experts normally take care that the font being used is big enough, not vice versa. Mobile devices have small displays, and even the smallest fonts used on a computer look big on them (the resolution and the type of font of course affect this) – so what is the solution: endless scrolling or a font that nobody can read? As I have been chasing up this issue I have noticed: none of the mentioned ones. Small fonts that are being used in mobile applications are usually pixel/bitmap fonts that are astonishingly readable. The trick is that these fonts are not antialiased and thus sharp even at size 5.

In Flash Lite 2.0 the font issue has been solved nicely. There is a bitmap-setting that can be applied to each font that should make the font act like a pixel font. You can also download “real” pixel fonts e.g. at Best Flash Animation Site.

The best way to find if text is readable or not, is to test the application with the people it is targeted at – they will tell you. Still, from the usability point of view, I’d say sharp and small is also sometimes beautiful :)

The Mobile Monday Global Summit takes place in Helsinki on May 8th and 9th.

What stops us creating new totally unforeseen applications for mobile devices? Why are there no services that truly change the life of consumers? How come the use of features is mainly limited to SMS, calendar, alarm clock, and camera? (Use of mobile email may be growing now. I haven’t seen the latest statistics.)

What is striking about the nature of those most popular features is that they tend to be mobile versions of something that already exists. The short text messages are the only feature that was truly innovative (although not really since I used to send little paper messages to my friends at the age of 10). So, in the sense, the mobile society is not very radical in its foundations.

To alter people’s behaviour radically would require something unforeseen. We can continue adding computer-originated or non-digital features into mobile devices but these “innovations” may remain as quite limited specialities. (You can, of course, ask why we should change the behaviour.)

I think convergence of activities is one answer. Not convergence of devices – then we just see mouse-phones to store shelves. But convergence of practices.

When the product has passed the testing phase, it is time to release version 1.0 to the public. Research is needed to find out about market acceptance, and what parts of the application can be improved for future releases.

• Satisfaction survey: To find out with any statistical accuracy which parts of the application users like and which need improvement, a satisfaction survey is needed. Also, the effects of possible usability problems can be evaluated.


• End-user analysis: See how well the product fits into the market for which it was intended.

A number of methods are currently available to assist in developing and testing applications. Group testing kills two birds with one stone. A mixture including focus groups and usability delivers the best of both worlds and provides an efficient way to gather important data on users and their behaviours.

What method is best for you, focus groups or usability testing?

A focus group can be very effective at gathering opinions, but it has nothing to say about performance. According to usability guru Jakob Nielsen, http://www.useit.com, the proper role of a focus group is not to assess interaction styles or design usability, but to discover what users want from the system. The opposite can be applied to usability testing: It is an excellent technique for evaluation, but inadequate for assessing user needs. Knowing this, imagine what these two techniques could produce together!

Adobe Photoshop, S60 Themes and Creativity

Upside: this text includes new stuff to help some potential Theme developers be more creative than ever. Downside: creativity is not included.

It's a well known fact that you can create 100% customized look & feel for your S60 through Themes. They can be really beautiful and expressive and, at the same time, they can be simply too-hard-to-use. This hard-to-useness is mostly a result of forgetting a few simple rules. Achieving beauty without the beast is a designer’s daily challenge--some can do it, others just can't, while many could. I've been wondering for a couple of years why most Themes make me basically sick. Let’s face it, 70% of current themes actually incur some physical damage to my body. I really would like to offer some examples, but you know, that wouldn't be very constructive.

Yes, I’m provocative. And yes, I think I have the answer...which I will divide into forthcoming topics. But, in general, one of the reasons is that Themes are still penetrating into top-designers day-to-day life. There is lot's of experience and talent for other themes and skins but you can't see clearly in S60 Themes yet. It's something like mobile advertising, every creative person talks about it but most of them haven't done any actual projects. This may be because there isn't enough demand and/or it hasn't matured enough.

But it's getting there, and fast. Tools for S60 Theme developers are now becoming really cool and effective;­ trust me. ­ There's even some unique support from the Nokia side. For example, this brand new Adobe Photoshop template can be useful for many of you with lot's of creativity but no will or time to spend learning a quite complex method of creating Themes. With this file you can start experimenting with Theme creation even if you are not using a PC (yes, I know may Mac users who would love to work out couple of cool Themes). If you have ideas to make it better, just post them here.

What do you think, what is status of S60 Themes today? If you know of any excellent theme designs, post the link as a comment. I know a couple of wonderful ones but I hope someone out there will be the first to contribute. Feel free to show your own stuff;)

one question, what would it be?

I was thinking about this last night...when I should have been sleeping. For me, as a User Experience specialist, the question would be: If you could change three things on your phone, what would they be? I guess I would have lots of other questions: Would you buy this same brand the next time? Would you recommend this phone to your friends and family?

Of course, we run into the problem of separating out the actual device problems from the S60 problems. Many coworkers and friends have suggest topics for this blog and I have to tell them: That is a device problem (and I hate to tell them that since material is always welcome and desirable).

So what would your question be?

Hi all readers and welcome back from Easter holidays - I hope you had a relaxing and fun holiday!

I bet that you all have played the classic Snake-game that almost all Nokia phones have preinstalled on them. The Snake was the mobile game when I was in high school. Some of my schoolmates were really good at it—I never had the patience (or the skills) to get a really good score.

Even though there are many more mobile games available nowadays, none of them has been such a phenomenon as the Snake back then…do you agree? Why did the simple bichromatic Snake game become so popular back then? I think there are at least three reasons: 1) There were hardly any other games available; 2) The game concept was/is good; and 3) Almost everyone had that game. I think the third reason is the most interesting one. It shows that to be really successful, a mobile game must win a certain social credibility and interest. I remember people playing the game and talking about it during the breaks. I also remember people saying “Oh, I wish I had a phone with that Snake game” – the game was a reason to get a phone! And, I remember that I admired the ones that had gotten the highest scores :).

Usability, or playability as we speak about games, is also an important factor that affects the gaming experience. There is a article published on Forum Nokia about how to ensure usability in mobile games. The guideline says e.g. that a mobile game should be designed for interruptions: “Mobile games are played in a context where interruptions often occur: somebody might call or send an SMS message, or the player might need to pause the game to buy a bus ticket. Therefore, the game design should support saving and pausing.” I have noticed that there is one usability issue that affects the gaming experience but has nothing to do with the game itself: the background light of the phone going off when you are just about to move that final brick to its place…

This is what I have been observing – do you have similar experiences or do you disagree? What do you think a good mobile game is made out of?

In this phase, the application is tested thoroughly to make sure it meets the requirements set at the beginning of the process. If it fails, the product is taken back to the implementation phase to be fixed. New requirements may have arisen during the development process and it must be verified that they are met as well as the original requirements. In usability issues, however, it may not be evident how to improve the user interface, even if the problematic part is identified.

This is the first phase where the product is sufficiently complete to show it to final end users and see how they react to it. Changes will probably be necessary after the first iteration of testing and quite likely after subsequent ones as well.

Expert analysis: Make sure the user interface is functional, without severe flaws, and receive concrete suggestions on how to improve it.

Individual testing: Find out how real end users use the application and where they have problems. Also, record information about which keys they prefer to press and which views they like.

Group testing: By using the application in a real group situation, multiplayer features and the ways users use them can be tested. The results may be significantly different from what was expected. Also, users may find ways to cause errors in the application use.

We would like to wish everyone a happy Easter and/or Passover and/or day off! We look forward to continuing our discussion after the holiday weekend.

Sophisticated and smart, most developers and managers know the importance of usability in product development. And almost everyone is familiar with usability testing - generally at the end of the development process, when there is something functional enough to test and evaluate. Sure, there might be the occasional bad aftertaste when months of hard work end in frustration. In most cases, however, the biggest problems are fixed and the products released on time. Or almost.

Maybe next time there's no need for your blood pressure to go through the roof trying to meet a deadline. What if, instead, you made one simple change to the familiar development process: implement usability right from the get go. Even if you cannot jump into a full-blown user-centric design process, the following basic ground rules will help you get started:

Do:
• Ask for the user's input often
• Let the user experiment
• Select users who represent your target group
• Imagine the user's point of view

Don't:
• Take everything the user says as the absolute truth
• Interrupt with your opinions
• Use your friends for testing - they are easily affected by your presence or opinions
• Be blinded by your own expertise

In the implementation phase, the first version of the application is programmed, the user interface is implemented, and a better picture of the final product can be formed. In the first phase, the product is probably not good enough to be tested by real end users, but a usability specialist can evaluate the user interface and comment on it from the user’s perspective. This phase is returned to multiple times after the testing phase, until the product meets the requirements set for it. In the other hand, I have lately witnessed success stories where the UI is demonstrated (with Flash prototypes) to potential end-users in the very early stage of development cycle. In these cases, the prototypes have been very effective tools in the hands of UE specialist. So, the users can be a valid source in this phase also.

Consulting: Avoid delays in the development process by asking a usability expert about the implementation of certain features. Costly errors can be avoided with minimal cost.

Guidelines: Find out standard ways of implementing certain methods and make sure the selected methods are not likely to be problems for the users.

Expert analysis: Receive comments on how to improve the user interface and avoid designs that will likely pose problems for the users.

This is getting weird. Last night I saw couple ve-e-eery interesting dreams (no, I'm not going into details;) but what make me little bit worried about was that I saw my dreams in Flash. Flash Lite to be precise. The right side of my brain's new format of seeing dreams was actually quite interesting (very light file sizes, short download times, smooth transitions, pixel perfect fonts etc;) and gave me a couple of new ideas. But, what I really had begun to think about was the usefulness of Flash Lite for the developers. I mean, although Mr. Nielsen has tried very hard, most of web Flash animations are still intros and GUIs that are made for other Flash people and mostly make the web more difficult-to-use than nice and functional. To be honest, I've been dreaming about the revolution of mobile flash for years, especially of the possibility to create complete UIs with Flash and, as it becomes a reality, it's reasonable to think what will happen to quality and usability. One would think that because the same people who make Flash for the web will also work with mobile flash they may create hard-to-use, messy, wannabe-coolness without functionality.

But surprise, mobile Flash seems to be just fine! Most mobile Flash applications I've seen or been part of are much more useful and practical than 90% of the Flash on the web. How is this possible? Is the reason so obvious: small screen and limited input system? Or could it be because the mobile world has taken usability and user experience issues quite seriously from day one (no-one's perfect but S60 is actually a really good example) and developers have learned to do the "right things"?

Another reason is practicality among mobile Flash development. For example using Mobile Flash for rapid development & prototyping makes it a cool tool. The relatively easy-to-use Flash animations that simulate interesting UI concepts for the S60 phones and many of the cool innovations seen in web flash are now becoming a reality in mobile platform, mostly because there are many business and user needs for it.

Wanna see some examples? Nope. Another challenge for the growth of mobile flash developer community is that 99% of the stuff within the Mobile Flash world is under various NDAs and designers would need to cut their left arm before showing their portfolios. I just saw one site that really is making some progress by giving more than it is getting: Protohaus. Thumbs up! If you know other good ones, let us all know.

Bottomline: Yeah we know 99% of web flash sucks...but let's keep the "just-brilliant" factor of Mobile Flash over 99%. Because we can.

One of the best things in my opinion about S60 is that its UI is easily customizable. You can organize many components in the UI (like the menu icons and, active idle shortcuts and softkey labels) the way that suits best for your needs (Steve actually posted a nice comment about this). In addition to this you can have a total makeover of your S60's UI by applying a theme. A theme, if made with care, will change almost every pixel in the UI.

There is a design case based declaration about how to make people's relationship with products affective by Anu Kankainen and Jane Fulton Suri, both working in the field of UE. According to them (information appliance) products must allow people to be creative with them. Otherwise the value of the product for the person is likely to decrease in time and people will loose interest in the product. This aspect has been taken into account well with S60 products: you can purchase a Theme on a website and apply it to your phone, but you can also create a theme on your own with the Theme Studios of different manufacturers. That to me seems like allowing the users to be creative.

Most of the themes on the market are ok, some of them are even gorgeous, but I’ve noticed that far too many of them have (again) some serious usability problems. The biggest problem in the usability of many themes is the contrast of more specifically the lack of it. In some of the themes (free and purchased) that I’ve used I’ve had hard time being able to read the texts and other things, like icons on the screen.

Themes an sich are a great idea and certainly fulfill an obvious user need: the need for personalization. But if the usability of the theme is not on a sufficient level, the need cannot be fulfilled and the users are likely to stop using the theme. There is a practical guide published on Forum Nokia about how to create themes that are fun and usable. I think all theme-makers should take a look at it :)

//maija

Details on the article that I was referring to:
Mäkelä, A., and Fulton Suri, J. (2001). Supporting Users' Creativity: Design to Induce Pleasurable Experiences. In M.G. Helander, H.M. Khalid, T. Ming Po (Eds.), Proceedings of International Conference on Affective Human Factors Design. ASEAN Academic Press, 387- 394.

I continue from Wendy's earlier post... I share the same interest in consumer behaviour.

There is a clear gap between what is offered to consumers and what they actually do with their products. I am sure 90% of the product developers know about this. At the same time, more features are developed. Why?

Mobile devices get to the market only after a complicated process with dozens of stakeholders. All these stakeholders have a say on what the product should be like. Without going into details, it is clear that marketing, product marketing, R&D (including software, hardware, mechanics, etc), industrial design, distributors, retail channel reps, and - media! - have lots to say.

In many techie magazines, products with less features do not get the praise. Sales people in shops are interested in technology as such, so they get excited about features, acronyms, etc. Manufacturers *have* to produce products that get media attention and make retailers excited. Also some (or most?) R&D people are more motivated when they get something new and preferably complicated to do. Simple products are not sexy as they are too easy to grasp.

Maybe I exaggerate a bit here, but basically, features are sexy to many stakeholders in the product development and marketing processes. Users are not the decision-makers...

I spoke to a 15-year old boy this weekend. He has an S60 N-Gage device. Basically he never talks on it--he only uses it for playing music and games. Sometimes he will send and receive text messages. I was very interested in this...it reminds me of many people I know. Yes, I know, this is a bit along the same lines as my last entry...but I'm obsessed!

So the question must be asked: Is too much being invested in the development of these devices? Is it worth it to create devices that offer so much when users use so little? Or should devices be created to meet the needs of the most experienced users and let the "newbie" users do their own thing? Or...should we be selling/marketing to these users different devices? I don't know the answer (or at least I'm not telling if I do)!

Ok, let’s move ahead. It’s time to take that second step towards user-friendliness. After the concept is validated, the requirements for its creation are defined. Specifications include both technical and usability specifications. The way the user interacts with the application is defined, as well as the entire navigation structure of the application.

End-user analysis: Make sure that the product design fits the target group for which it is intended.

Guidelines: Verify that the implementation does not violate existing standards and decrease the likelihood of making errors that have been identified by earlier research.

This seems like a very interesting conference. Mobile phones can be highly emotional devices and so the design for them should be too.

http://www.de2006.chalmers.se/

I’m one of those people who are quite lazy about reading e-mails. If I’m working on a computer I might answer quickly, but it’s not a problem for me to forget to check my mailbox for days (I mean now my personal mailbox). I forget to delete messages and end up having loads of them in my mailbox (at the moment it contains 804 messages).

Having my e-mail on my mobile has made this e-mail thing a whole lot easier. Now I receive the e-mails one by one and I react to them (mostly delete) more easily and immediately. But of course, being a UE Specialist, I need to have something to be concerned and annoyed about :) Actually I’m not alone with my findings: I talked to a couple of my colleagues (ok, they are UE Specialist too, I have to admit) and we all agreed that the inbuilt e-mail reader of S60 phones (at least on N70) has some major usability problems. Here are the two major ones (in the order of importance):

1) It’s very hard to see which messages are new and which are already accessed. There is a small icon on the right side of the message (I wish I had a screen capture program) that is supposed to indicate if the message is new or already read. I’ve never seen such a slight difference between two icons. The icon for a read and unread message is the same with the exception that when the message is new there are two black pixels added to the top right corner of the icon. Two pixels!!! I really don’t get it, do you???!!!

2) It’s hard to know your location in the list of messages. The messages just rotate on the screen when you scroll up/down and the beginning/end of the list is not being indicated in any way. It’s very confusing.

The good thing about these problems is that they are really easy to fix. It would be much more harmful for the User Experience of the service if the whole idea of mobile e-mail was not useful. Because the service is useful, I'll continue using it, even though it's not completely usable. That's one reason why we talk about User Experience, instead of just usability: it covers all the things that affect the user's experience when (s)he is using a product.

Yours,
Maija