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Mobile Apps - World Usability Day 2009
1. It's all about the apps: Smartphone Apps Overview Rich Miller Research Scientist , LexisNexis World Usability Day - November 12, 2009 Note: This PPT is designed to be used both as a presentation and reference, so much of the detail is for reference mode, but feel free to contact Rich Miller for more detail – richmiller1@gmail.com Slides will be available at http://www.slideshare.net/rdm121
2. Agenda Introduction to smartphones and apps App design challenges and guidelines Example apps and design characteristics Live iphone app demos 15 apps in 15 minutes (approximately) Q & A 2
4. Smartphone, App Basics Smartphones Mobile phones with advanced capabilities Essentially pocket computers Phone just onefunction among a growing number of capabilities. Smartphones are increasingly subsuming most other “gadgets” iphone and blackberry most prevalent in U.S. Late entries (Google Android, Palm Pre) face uphill climb In UK/Europe, Nokia dominates at least “basic mobile” Apps A program that runs on a hand-held device Mobile apps are smaller in scope, more targeted to a task Very much like widgets Difference between “loaded app” and “mobile-enabled site” App = mini-program residing on the device, internet connection not necessarily required mobile-enabled site = web site with specially-formatted pages, called “web apps” by Apple. 4
5. What’s the big deal about smartphones? They represent a tipping point in computing Ubiquity and convenience changing the landscape Mobile computing becoming next big wave of change Having one is truly life-changing you’ll understand when you get one Smartphoneshave “sensing” capabilities Seeing through camera, Hearing through microphone Multi-touch interfaces – tap and gesture Sense Orientation in space – tilting, pointing Geographic location - GPS Sensing makes mobile devices more intelligent A world full of devices sucking up data into the internet! They run apps, making a smartphone a portable, virtually unlimited information/media tool set. 5
6. What’s so special about the iphone? They are immensely popular (and sometimes required) Despite the high cost and lack of network choice Dramatically influential and “game-changing” New user interaction > fingers-based “multi-touch” paradigm Superior integration and design – both hardware and sw digital swiss army knife remote controls” for various aspects of life The cool factor – almost-mesmerizing impact Anyone who borrows, experiences one , wants one Development toolkit makes it easy to build apps Owners constantly use them, brag about them, show them off 6
7. Apps create new set of behaviors Settle arguments, satisfy curiosity Socialize from anywhere (never be alone) Never be bored, or socially awkward, again Talk to apps, not just your phone Capture info - taking pics, recording sounds, etc. Don’t get lost as much – navigation support Remember things, be more organized Interstitial, workflow-moving tasks Return of the 1960’s handheld radio 7
8. iphone app wall A subset of the more than 100,000 apps in the App Store 50K in July last time I showed this slide! 8
9. Apps observations and trends App store model has been extremely successful Can anyone catch up with Apple and its 100K apps? Android now up to 10K apps, Blackberry 2K. Customer comments are powerful They can make or break an app Distributions can be bimodal – love it or hate it. Most apps are < $10, though some can be “expensive” e.g. $40 for law school flashcards, $50 for Black’s Law Dictionary Increasingly more apps for professional space Other Observations Most popular apps more for social/play than job/productivity A paid app being more popular than free apps is a good sign 9
10. Apps landscape Social Life/style Games Reference/Prod/Edu/Finance Entertain/Sports/Music/etc News work docs to go LN get-a-case CA case law simplemind black’s law dictionary fedregcivpro evernote/shovebox bloomberg linkedIn patents epocrates photoshop bump Wolfram alpha gmail/cal/tasks… 3D brain wikipanion Autodesk sketchbook and whiteboard apps newyorktimes usatoday abcnews google mobile weather channel kayak google maps huffpost/drudge ibird shazam mediafly zillo amazon joost facebook kindle reader milesplit ESPN banjo hoedown target/walmart flixster louvre madden football tap tap revenge rock band comics pandora/lastfm play consume create
11. Sensing apps Shazam – recorded music Camera/evernote/etc. – images Neoreader – bar codes Recorder/evernote – sounds Google earth/maps – geo-position Free wifi – wifi networks image + place + time Eaton, OH 9/19/2009 12:31 p.m. 11
12. Mobile design/usability challenges Striking balance between space/simplicity and feature set size Integrating with existing/related products how does it fit into existing toolset/suite? intelligent “chaining” of apps, e.g. google mobile > safari Adapting to the human pointing device (the finger) ANY finger preferable to the dreaded stylus. Adapting to no multitasking (at least iphone) importance of saving state; fast app loading Performance –network speed more forgiven than app-loading speed network may not be fully ready for video App management – iphone system too shallow Readability and posture issues Shorter width is actually better for reading the hunchback thing can’t be good! 12
13. Guidelines for mobile app design Follow mobile design conventions (formal or de-facto) Break suites/apps/icontent into manageable chunks Don’t try to cram a browser app into a mobile app Keep it simple, nimble, and quick “Figure out the absolute least you need to do to implement the idea, do just that, and then polish the hell out of the experience.” – more Take advantage of mobile interaction features Tapping, flipping, shaking, turning, GPS, Favor tapping over scrolling Support workflow stimulating tasks Remember Fitts’ Law – make targets sufficiently large and apart Don’t waste screen space on superfluous elements Use transparent menus - See Tufteiphone video Encourage homescreen shortcuts to web pages (e.g. icons) Don’t invite users to hammer you in the itunes comments See more at Smashing Magazine, squidoo, Apple, Microsoft 13
14. What mobile apps mean for design in general Gesture, voice interactions and other design techniques spread to other platforms Focus on simplicity, efficiency, de-featuring Similar to how browser-based design informed desktop-application design Increased focus on collaboration Many mobile tasks highly collaborative Sensing capabilities spread to static devices 14
15. Study: Mobile usage in law schools 3 phases Spring: interviews about mobile usage (April 2009) Summer: create and mock up application concepts Fall: return to students for feedback on concepts Particular focus on the iphone, given its popularity and influence on interaction design Phase 1 interviews were open-ended, qualitative and aimed at… …understanding how mobile devices affected student work patterns …identifying opportunities for creating mobile offerings Phase3 in process… 15
21. Legal reference - The law pod Federal Rules of… Civil Procedure Criminal Procedure Appellate Procedure Bankruptcy Evidence U.S. Constitution bimodal comment distributions not uncommon 19
40. iphone demos – 15 apps in 15 mins! Social – linkedin Life/style – kayak, zillow Ref/prod/edu/fin – LN get-a-case, patents, simplemind, evernote, wikipanion, autodesk sketchbook, google mobile News – usatoday Ent/sports/music/etc – lastfm, milesplit, louvre Games – madden football 38
41. Apps landscape Social Life/style Games Reference/Prod/Edu/Finance Entertain/Sports/Music/etc News work LN get-a-case simplemind evernote linkedIn patents wikipanion Autodesk sketchbook usatoday google mobile kayak zillo milesplit louvre madden football lastfm play consume create
42. Questions? Q&A now Feel free to catch me later today future richard.miller@lexisnexis.com richmiller1@gmail.com www.slideshare.com/rdm121 40
