S60 Open to new features

I read some very interesting, yet expected, findings from a British survey in an article yesterday: British mobile users are not actively or thoroughly searching for mobile content. Usability problems of long download time and difficult navigation were the primary reasons. This, of course, was not what mobile content creators had hoped and wished for.

The bottom line is that users are not searching for content on their mobile devices in the same manner as they would on the Internet: on the Internet, users browse; on their mobile devices, users look for specific information. According to the survey findings, users do not want to spend the same amount of time surfing the web on their mobiles that they do on their PCs (perhaps this is also related to cost). As mentioned above, this may be primarly due to the amount of time it takes to find the information (and lack of time the mobile user has to find it). Fortunately, users from the study indicated that they would consume more content if it was faster and inexpensive to do so.

So what does this mean for our S60 users? Is it a waste of time to develop web browsers, content, services etc? Or, can something be done/created to help mobile users? How can it be ensured that their experiences with the web via their mobiles will be quick (download time) and easy (navigation)? I guess the final question is about cost: To what extent does the cost (of waiting and searching) have to do with the non-consumption of mobile content? If the cost is covered, will mobile content consumption increase?

According to a recent Dutch survey conducted in several European countries (a sample of over 5000), Nokia users appear to have a stronger connection to the Nokia brand than other brand users (e.g. Samsung). The reason: good usability. So, it seems that Nokia's investment in usability research, including user experience research, has payed off.

As always, we feel it is important to keep you posted about interesting and/or applicable conferences, lectures etc. We've mentioned this conference already. Here is the latest:

Go and check out the updates on the Mobile User Experience Conference in London online. Key Note -sessions and Panel discussions are handeled in the conference blog. Interesting topics of the blog include convergence, communities, and experience design.

A very interesting event in London - The PMN Mobile User Experience conference.

The conference also has a blog.

You still have a few days left to register to the Wireless Enterprise Symposium held 6.-8.5 in Florida. This is what they they tell on their webiste:"The Wireless Enterprise Symposium 2006 is the premiere event for business professionals, IT managers and developers looking for wireless solutions for the enterprise."

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/

Did you know that there is a conference dedicated completely for mobile human-computer interaction? MobileHCI conference brings together both academics and practitioners working on user-friendly mobile services and products. This year the conference will be organized in Espoo, Finland on the 12th - 15th of September 2006.

It is worth mentioning that MobileHCI 2006 includes also industrial case studies and demonstrations and not just academic papers. The industrial design cases will be attached to conference proceedings, which is rather a unique way to emphasize the importance of work done in industry. The deadline for industrial case studies, demonstrations, short papers, posters and panels is on the 7th of May 2006.

More info: http://newclass.soberit.hut.fi/mobilehci2006/