S60 Open to new features

This entry is not that S60-specific, but still something that deserves an entry on this very day: Helsinki City Transport, the public transportation organizer in Helsinki, Finland, updates its SMS-based ticket purchasing service today. Here's an insight for you non-Finns out there how things are done over here.

A quick recap: in the service, you can send an SMS to a service number to instantly receive an SMS-ticket that is valid for one hour on Helsinki trams, subways and commuter trains. The service has been around for quite a while and the whole concept is absolutely brilliant: forget about standing in a queue or trying to find loose change for the ticket vending machine; simply send an SMS and be on your way.

But. Enter the usability problem.

...even when they have mobile devices?

I'm on vacation in the US right now. The other day I was with some friends--they were complaining about the phone company and how they were having major problems installing phone lines in their new home. I asked why they bother with landlines--why not just use their mobile devices as their phones. The wife said: What am I going to do, carry my mobile with me all around the house, into every room? The husband said: That seems silly, to have separate lines for one family.

I thought: true and true to both answers.

I could not stop thinking about what the wife had said. How could I have missed that as a User Experience specialist? It makes sense that users don't want to carry their phone around from room to room, from upstairs to downstairs. Do you know why I missed this one? Coming from Finland, where most of the people I know and most of the users we talk with have smaller homes (often one story) compared with the McMansions in the US. This is not to say Finns don't live in large spaces. I also know some people living in Finland who do have at least two story homes or have a large floor plan spread only on one story.

The question from me, to those users out there: Do you carry around your mobile phones, even after you come home from work or school, everywhere you go throughout your home? If not, if you leave it in one place, do you find yourself running to answer your calls? Do you get tired of hearing different ringers go off throughout your home (especially if you have a spouse and children old enough to have their own mobiles)?

Then to address the husband's comment from above: Do you mind that you and your family members have different phone numbers? What about for those older users, who have grandchildren...who's number does the grandchild call?! On a personal level, unless my parents were at work, I could not imagine calling my mom's mobile number over my dad's. What if they took it personally? (Note: They still, and probably always will, have a landline.)

So what's this got to do with S60? I'm just assuming that there are already answers, solutions, or ideas available for my friends (via products/applications/accessories). So, bottom line: is there anything that S60 can offer to this couple and people just like them who are reluctant to give up their landline phones?

I wanted to address a topic from what I believe was my very first entry for this blog, on cultural usability. One quote in particular is useful for this discussion: “the ways in which users learn and adopt new roles and rules vary by culture.” Now, remember my trip to Vienna last weekend, and the resulting blog entry? I wrote about a specific user behaviour we see emerging within some cultures, like the youth in Vienna and London, but not among others, specifically not among the youth in Helsinki. In my eyes, this group activity of music-listening on one mobile device is quite annoying and obtrusive. Now granted, I only ride public transportation once in a while, but I’ve asked around among those who do use it more regularly and their observations are similar. It is just not happening (note: thank goodness) here in Helsinki...YET.

This is a really good example of cultural differences in usability. This begs the question: Why would the Finnish youth not adopt this type of behaviour, of listening (sometimes loudly) to music on their mobile devices with their friends while riding public transportation?

Well, I’ll tell you a story and maybe we’ll see the connection. When my Finnish husband and I were living in the US, friends and family would unfailingly say and ask the following: “We saw a news piece on 60 Minutes about Finns and tango dancing. Are Finnish people really depressed all the time?” Note: the tango dancing from this 60 Minute piece is not the sexy, fast-paced tango dancing we imagine but the somewhat slow, quite melancholy stuff. Nonetheless, the answer to the silly question is a resounding NO.

However, the Finnish culture, especially when compared with American or other “outgoing” cultures, does value quietness and humbleness; they do not value “being seen or noticed”—in fact, I often observe parents hush their toddlers and babies on public transportation, even when they are barely making a peep and/or sitting well-behaved in their seats or strollers. Children are taught, perhaps not intentionally, that it is a negative thing to draw attention to themselves. Could this be why the Finnish youth are not easily and quickly adopting this mobile behaviour? I don’t know. But it makes me wonder…

My point here is that developers need to consider how their products will be used, by whom, and in what context. They need to understand that not everyone will adopt behaviours in similar ways. These tend to vary and change all the time; in fact, the youth are some of our best inventors of new mobile behaviours. Good quality user research is needed to gain a clear understanding of cultural differences in user behaviours, attitudes and needs.

Have you ever walked through the city streets of an unfamiliar country? Do you remember the first time that you sent an SMS communication? (Have you ever witnessed a non-Finn experience her first Finnish sauna?!) Basically, have you ever entered a situation in which familiar rules and roles no longer apply? Suddenly everything seems to be different; all of your energy goes toward learning new rules of interaction. This is what consumers (AKA users) face when they begin to use new mobile devices, software, applications etc. Importantly, for the developer, the way in which users learn and adopt new roles and rules vary by culture.

To create a successful mobile device, product design must consider these issues right from the start. The most significant part of designing an application is paying attention to the target users and their needs; adding culture into the mix raises the endeavor to a whole new level. In essence, emotional and motivational needs have a direct impact on the usability and success of a design. And, since user needs vary by culture, interaction with a product does too.

When designing for culturally diverse user groups, developers should consider the following development process steps:
* Identify all target cultures
* Design and develop a global model that takes common designs into account
* Bring in a culture-specific interface designer to revise the design
* Conduct usability tests with culturally targeted versions

To create the best product, developers must put users at the centre of the design process. One possible way to expedite this goal is to have representatives from target cultures take part in the product development phase. Although it is not possible to develop a product to meet the needs of every user group, developers should have a clear idea of how the product should work with at least one user group in mind. If the product is designed to work globally, it will win a bigger market and generate greater profit - not to mention a better user experience.

This entry is based on an article originally published on Forum Nokia: http://www.forum.nokia.com/html_reader/main/1,,4752,00.html