Short heuristic evaluation of the Samsung M1 Vodafone 360 implementation from sign-up to first time use.

1. Usability Study
@jimbola
Date: October 28th 2010

2. Contents
 Research
 What is 360
 Target audience
 Introducing the Samsung M1
 Mini diary study
 360 Apps & Widgets
 360 User Interface design
 Pattern inconsistencies
 Improving 360 Usability/Conclusion

3. Firstly..................
Research

4. .....what is 360?
Research

5. .....what is 360?
“....Vodafone 360 is a service, not a
handset.
The Samsung M1 & H1 are just the first of
many
360-ready phones to come”
Research

6. Target audience
Who is Vodafone 360 aimed at?
Tech Savvy
Savvy innovators, early
adopters and early majority
Data
conscience
More likely to use data
sync and backup
Key influences
Advertising, sales staff,
friends, ‘word on the
street’
Vodafone says:
Research
Material from : Apps on Vodafone 360 (Vodafone Group 2010 – April)

7. Model Samsung M1 (i8320)
Screen resolution 240 × 400 pixels (3.2 Inches)
16M colours
Screen type Capacitive (TFT)
Operating System LiMo (Linux Mobile) R2.0.1
CPU ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz,
PowerVR SGX graphics
Camera 3.15 MP
Data GPRS, EDGE, 3G
JIL Compliance
Level
Bronze
Experiencing 360 through the M1
The Samsung M1 was used
to research the 360 offering
Relatively light weight
Fair battery life
! Use of plastic
!!! Low resolution
!!! No Wi-Fi connection
First impressions
Research

8. 360 and the rest
Placing the M1/H1 against competitors
and level of customisation
High
Sense
SmartLif
e Moto
Blur
Time
Scap
e
Friend
Stream
360
UI Layer
Social tools
Level of customisation
Nexus One Desire Galaxy-S Xperia X10 DEXT 360 M1/H1
Research

9. Mini diary study
My experience of the
M1 and 360
Research

10. Day 1
As this is a pay-as-you go tariff I needed to top-up the phone
before being able to access any of the features.
!! It took 6 attempts to top-up, 4 times the service was
unavailable, once the activity was interrupted by a welcome SMS,
and lastly the touch keypad sent me on the wrong path.
!!! When topping up the keypad is needed to enter responses and
the voucher code. A critical usability flaw was found at this stage
as the keypad does not disable when holding the phone to your
ear, and on 3 occasions my cheek accidently selected keys and
placed me in the incorrect top-up journey. I only realised the
keypad was active due to the vibration feedback as my face
touched the screen.
Day 1 – Top-up/Activation
Using IVR/Touchtone Response
Mini diary study
“Top-up is
unavailable please
call back later”
Research

11. Day 2 – 360 Registration
Mini diary study
Information
Activating account...
Unable to sign up
Please try again
OK
Sign-up via the web
www.360.com
Simple and intuitive
registration process
(mobile and web)
!!! Unable to register
using the mobile after
4 attempts.
The registration process was simple, however after 4 failed
attempts I resorted to the web registration. (Failed within a
full 3G area after 4 attempts at different occasions).
Research

12. Notice that some of my contacts now have avatar images
on the ‘People’ screen. Wonder why only 6 out of 35 are
displaying?
Setting up email. Look to set-up my own email account so I
can start sending and receiving mail. Navigate to apps, and
select the icon with the envelope, realising I'm in the
wrong area I hit back and select the ‘Email’ icon.
Unfortunately although there is a majority of popular web
mail accounts available I am unable to create my own. Or
set up my phone to use a POP/SMTP account.
Web email list is reached through 5 screens with duplicate
call-to-action to ‘Add account.
Day 3 – Email Set-up
Setting up
email
App
screen
Email Settings Add
account
Add
account
Mini diary study
Research

13. 360 Apps &
Widgets
Research
360 Apps/Widgets are created using
standard web authoring (XHTML, CSS and
JavaScript) that use specific APIs that hook
into the devices services. This gives 360
authors scope to create applications that
reach existing compatible devices.

14. Stylus Pointer Focus Touch
QW E
R T Y
Keypad
Apps support
Currently over 50 devices
Market positioning
High-end to mid-tier of
the market
Supported UI
Touch screen, non-
touch, QWERTY
keyboard, T9 Keypad
Research
360 Apps &
Widgets
Cross-handset support
Others
360 Apps/Widgets
M1/H1
Full customisation

15. 360 Apps &
Widgets
Research
Top 5 App downloads across Europe
Top
5
1 Facebook VF Quick-
Check
Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Hyves
2 LED Scroller Vodafone
MobileTV
LED
Scroller
LED
Scroller
LED
Scroller
live! TV
Show 360
LED
Scroller
TV Gids
3 LightsOut wetter.com Flashlight Language
Translator
Language
Translator
Language
Translator
Hangman LED
Scroller
4 Aquarium Schatzi
anrufen
Alcohol
Meter
Información
de Trafico
PagineGialle
Mobile
Alcohol
Meter
Four In A
Row
Flitsers
5 Four in a
row
Streichhölzer
ziehen
Tic Tac Toe Gol T Tirami il dito Analog
Clock
Language
Translator
Search
Light
downloads from 360 launch to March
2010
Material from : Apps on Vodafone 360 (Vodafone Group 2010 – April)
Even with 360’s social
capabilities the Facebook app
remains top across Europe

16. 360 Apps &
Widgets
Research
Downloads by category
Most popular across markets is
Lifestyle & Entertainment (with
travel and navigation)
Top 5 Lifestyle &
Entertainment
Price
1 Live Football £2.49
2 Barcelona
(Rough Guides)
79p
3 Starlounge Free
4 DIG BMX Free
5 Hollyoaks Free
Top rated (UK) June 2010
Material from : Apps on Vodafone 360 (Vodafone Group 2010 – April)

17. Mobile App stores
360 Shop Android Market iPhone App store
Quick UI comparison (App list)
Research
Ability to filter (Date, Name,
Rating) via context menu
Quick link to search
No indication of price
No indication of page/list length
Responsiveness is slow whilst
scrolling (M1)
!!
!!
!!!
Ability to filter via tabs
Ability to view the price
Can see if the application is already
installed
Responsive scrolling (HTC Desire)
Scrollbar indicates length of page/list
Ability to filter via tabs
Ability to view the price
Responsive scrolling (iPhone 3G)
Scrollbar indicates length of page
Rating includes frequency
Cannot see if the application is
already installed!!

18. 360 User Interface design
Usability

19. Early concepts
Usability
Initial designs incorporate a timeline
for viewing messages and facets for
dynamic filtering. Unfortunately
these features do not make it to the
production design.
The key to this screen is
to allow users to quickly
filter across their
contacts, enabling them
to quickly surface
comments and status
updates.
Great concept for viewing aggregated contact
details
Not all avatars are carried across from
Facebook
Does not update very often
Group carousel is dependant on colour coding
!
!!
!!

20. Usability
360 UI Patterns
Pop-ups Tabs Page Drilldown Scroll bar
Useful and necessary
Improve
Some pop-ups are not
confirmation but
information, this pattern
does not include a close
option. The only way to
close is to touch outside
the area.
Useful and necessary
Improve
Visual impact could be
improved to make the
tabs standout and look
less like titles.
Important when indicating
underlying quantity
Improve
Pattern could be used
more often
Important when indicating
where a user is in a list
and the amount of
content in a list
Improve
Pattern could be used
more often. Use within
the M1 is inconsistent.
Light weight UE evaluation of UI
interaction patterns used across
Vodafone 360
Includes Good, !! Bad and areas
for improvement.
On/Off slider
Daylight saving time
off on
switch has a familiar affordance
Use of colour makes it difficult
to determine what state the
switch is in (On or Off)
!
!
Change colour and
improve design to
enforce switch state.

21. Usability
360 UI Patterns
Visual and Haptic feedback
Sometimes appears in the
Command Bar
Improve
Add the name of the previous
page/section (Signposting)
!
Too subtle and can be missed
Improve
Use more conventional
accordion design
! Common pattern
Includes quantity of items
Slow and judders on M1
Improve
Improve responsiveness
and motion animation
!
!
Sometimes accompanied
with tooltip
Iconography can be difficult
to decipher.
Improve
Add text and improve
iconography (less is more)
!
!
Common pattern
Slow response on M1
Improve
Always include scroll to
indicate length and current
position in list
!
Disorientates grid layout,
causing icons to more location
Too slow to appear making it
unusable
Improve
Remove and replace with app
icon feedback
!!
!!!
Better than paging
Not used on the M1
Improve
Use this pattern on the M1,
however does need a good
connection speed to create
the desired effect
!
Helps describe an icon
Improve
Works better as a non-touch
(focus based) pattern. For
touch include a visual clue that
the area has a tooltip.
Otherwise its guesswork.

22. Iconography & Colour
Standout from the
crowd
!!! The use of
monochrome Keyline
icons make quick visual
referencing slow
Application grid
The application grid displays pre-loaded
applications and navigation points to key
functionality.
Colour coding is used to classify usage types (e.g.
Device settings are grey, camera/gallery is purple).
However colour theme is not carried across to the
respective areas therefore a common affordance
cannot be established and classification is not
instantly obvious.
Touch Interaction
Single flick left/right to navigate applications.
Observation : smooth scrolling with closing
bounce effect at the start and end.
Usability

23. Iconography
The 360 UI makes use of a large range
of icons to inform and aid as navigation
sign-posts throughout the device.
However the amount of icons and the
lack of accompanying text means users
have to take time to learn and study the
device.
Also some icons are meaningful but
others are open to interpretation.
Less is more
!! With the over extensive use of
icons and the devices low
resolution the interface requires
an amount of effort to learn.
!! Due to the choice of colour active and
inactive icons are not immediately obvious.
Active Inactive
Tool Tips help to describe an icon.
However they are rarely used and via
touch a user has to test an area first to
see if it has a tool tip.
Usability

24. Pattern Inconsistencies
Usability
Users form a mental model after successfully
completing a task a number of times. It is
important to support this by retaining a
consistent experience though no mater what
activity/task is carried out.
Normal
Bedside
Some implementations do not give a visual
response on touch selection.
(Example – Phone profile setting)
Touching the set-up icon will navigate the user to a new
area, no feedback is relayed to the user
Touching outside the set-up icon will select the ‘radio’
button
The scroll-bar is only displayed
on a limited number of lists.

25. 360 UI incorporates four separate activity
indicators. It is best practice to keep this down
to a single design or at the maximum two.
Please wait..
!! Activity indicators are not always displayed
whilst content is being loaded
Animated activity indicator
Static, !! Is this inactive?
Usability
Pattern Inconsistencies
Activity indicator

26. Pattern Inconsistencies
Usability
Slide to unlock End
Unlock
Stop
Inconsistent use of slide patterns
Used to unlock the phone by
sliding finger left to right
!!! Different approach, colour has
been added and two different
techniques are required to
unlock phone and end phone call
!! Now the slider handle is green
and activated sliding from right to
left.
Create one single design for the
slider pattern, test it with users in
context of a common task. Then
implement the same pattern across
the device.

27. Usability
Improving 360 Usability/Conclusion
• Overall the idea and 360 concept is a good one and
meets current user expectations of social interaction
on the move. However the desire for Vodafone
customers to embrace a new social channel is some
what wishful thinking. But at the same instance VF do
not force this on their customers but offer this a subtle
addition that can help aggregate multiple social
channels.
• The absence of Twitter to the mix is a major setback
and it is curious to see this has not been added as yet.
• The 360 UI design is simplistic and thus allows it to
translate into Web Runtime widgets. There are
however subtle differences when using an on device
UI and Mobile app, which causes inconsistencies (e.g
back button loses haptic vibration feedback).

28. Usability
Improving 360 Usability/Conclusion
• The sign-up and registration process was concise and
usable, however I believe the underlying technology was
preventing a successful registration, this must be
improved so users can gain trust and acceptance from the
first engagement.
• The 3D people client needs enhancing from a view of
findability and up-to-date content. Once trust is lost users
will bypass this screen and open up a Facebook app or
find fixed-web access.
• The 360 lacks interaction patterns such as multi-touch,
and although the animation effects are simple and
effective there are no specific ‘wow’ factors that standout.
• Vodafone offer OTA software updates which will help
future upgradeability. The upgrade process needs more
attention however, as I received an SMS informing of an
impending update, however 2 weeks on and this still
hasn't happened.

29. Usability
Improving 360 Usability/Conclusion
• Key factors that will improve usability and reduce the need
for a user to concentrate on the UI is by improving the
Information Architecture by adding labels. The Interface
design also incorporates far too many icons (less is more).
• The use of monotone iconography make the UI feel flat
and each icon needs to be studied at every glance.
• The amount of applications on offer within the 360 Shop
are limited and primitive in comparison to the iPhone and
Google Market. Example games include ‘Rock, paper
scissors, Mine-sweeper and Tic-Tac-Toe’, all of which
have little visual design.
These apps will improve however it will be interesting to
see if games can improve with a small footprint (Max
3MB).
• 360 adds reassurance to users though the seamless
contact back-ups facility that is integrated as part of 360.