Context in Mobile UX Strategy: the importance of being fickle

Surrounding Signifiers srsg.co | @thomas_wendt | [email protected]

Context in Mobile UX StrategyThe importance of being fickle

Thomas WendtSurrounding Signifiers@thomas_wendt

mailto:[email protected]



Thomas Wendt

UX Strategist

Currently working a mobile innovation team at American Express

Moonlighting as founder of Surrounding Signifiers, a strategy/design consultancy and think tank

Background in continental philosophy, psychology, and literary theory

Enjoys cupcakes




User Experience Strategy

Product Development

Enterprise Innovation

Brand Strategy and Semiotics

Surrounding Signifiers

Strategy.Design.Theory




Positioning ContextA Question of DifferencesStrategy and the InterfaceDesigning for Context




3Definitions

http://gogorunning.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/IMG_1563.jpg



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Defining “Context”

1. The parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its meaning

2. The interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs.

Webster says...





“The notion of ‘context’ has been adapted to computing from its original use referring to language, which is reflected in the structure of the word itself: con (with) text. In using language we produce a text, either written or oral, intended to be interpreted by one or more other people. That text is not an encapsulated representation of an intended meaning, but rather is a cue that allows the anticipated audience to construct an appropriate meaning.”

Terry Winograd, Architectures for Context

Winograd says...





“World and thing do not stand next to each other as separate realities, but interpenetrate one another. They are unified without melting together, in a middle ground that Heidegger calls ‘the between.’ Language is nothing other than this between. The between is also called ‘the difference.’”

Graham Harman Heidegger Explained: From Phenomenon to Thing

Harman says...




WORLDUnfocused Existence

Decision-orientedInfluenced by Microworlds

MICROWORLDFocused Existence

Task-orientedInfluenced by World




FragmentationSense of self is focused on

many concerns at once.




ConnectionsContext is found in

the interconnections between self, world,

and microworlds.




DifferencesMeaning emerges out

of the differences between self, world,

and microworld.








Which one is mobile?




Why?




Which one is portable?




What’s the difference between mobility and portability?




What makes this thing mobile instead of portable?





Portable: from L. portabilis "that which can be carried"








Portable: from L. portabilis "that which can be carried"


Portability is about containment and predictability








Mobile: from L. mobilis "movable, easy to move; loose, not firm, pliable, flexible, susceptible, nimble, quick; changeable, inconstant, fickle”

http://gee.is/wp-content/uploads/SAM_1608-1-300x267.jpg






Mobile: from L. mobilis "movable, easy to move; loose, not firm, pliable, flexible, susceptible, nimble, quick; changeable, inconstant, fickle”


Mobile is about potential and adaptation






Mobilemovablefickleadaptive

http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/41700/41717/FC_Infinity_41717_lg.gif

Portablecarriedcontained predictable






http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/assets/0903/0000/0191/a0041.jpg

Remember portable phones?







When did they stop being portable and become mobile?






Portable phones became mobile when we established discourse with them.

http://www.thestyleblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Mike-China-1.jpg






Mobile UX Strategy is concerned with the discourse between user and device.







Mobile is about emerging systems of meaning and our relationship to technology.

















Interface Evolution

Command Line Interface Graphical Interface

Natural Interface Organic Interface

http://bifano.me/nic/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/picture-21.png, http://www.betaarchive.com/imageupload/2012-06/1339872566.or.57840.png, http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1040/532938678_8563104902_o.jpg


http://bifano.me/nic/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/picture-21.png

http://bifano.me/nic/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/picture-21.png

http://www.betaarchive.com/imageupload/2012-06/1339872566.or.57840.png

http://www.betaarchive.com/imageupload/2012-06/1339872566.or.57840.png

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1040/532938678_8563104902_o.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1040/532938678_8563104902_o.jpg


Interface Evolution

Command Line Interface Graphical Interface

Screen-Based




Interface Evolution

Natural Interface Organic Interface

Discourse-Based




“The subject of the interface can never get at "the real thing" because the structure of the screen itself condemns it to representations.”

http://www.inc.com/uploaded_files/image/Face_Time_IN0712GOO14_Full_18355.jpg

Andre Nusselder Interface Fantasy: A Lacanian Cyborg Ontology






Interface is not a screen




It’s an interaction

space




movablefickle

adaptive




Strategy should also

be movable

fickleadaptive




Traditional Strategy

AuthoritativeStrategists are “the ones who are supposed to know.”

FinalizedStrategy is positioned as the final answer to the most important question: “how do we succeed?”

RigidParameters set by the strategic framework are the lines separating success from failure.




Mobile UX Strategy

AdaptiveAble to adjust itself based on changing priorities and contexts. It embraces the fickle nature of how we exist in the world.

BalancedDesigned for commonalities and differences across devices, users, and contexts.

Discourse-DrivenFacilitates discourse between user and system.








TodayGPSAccelerometerGyroscopeCompassCamera lensMicrophoneLight Sensor

Device Sense Organs

SomedayAltimeter Heart monitor




Design for Dasein

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tOjzP9CI7tE/STJi66aMyhI/AAAAAAAAAS4/isVs8IugZJk/s1600/Martin+Heidegger,+Looking+Surprised,+scanned+image,

Design for being-there








Design for Dasein


there








Interlude for Heidegger LOLZ









Find Meaning in Difference

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Babbage_Difference_Engine_(1).jpg








Design Methods

http://lovelearn.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/dsc03771.jpg

Contextual InquiryEthnographyParticipatory DesignStoryboardingContextual Personas






Contextual Inquiry: Direct observation within the context of everyday use

http://team5dblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/






Ethnography: Indirect observation directly within the context of everyday use.

http://brettswanson.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/






Participatory Design: Users participating in the design process

http://nishakurani.com/mrWalk.jpg







Storyboarding: Method of sketching a narrative from beginning to end

http://libraryux.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/virgo-sketch.png






http://iat333team14.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/

Personas:Great place to start...terrible place to end.






PhysicalDOINGphysical activity & ability,

habits, preferences, sensory

Cognitive

THINKINGcognitive assumptions,

education, learning ability

Emotional

FEELINGpsychological state, anxiety, confidence, stress, desire

Andrew Hinton / andrewhinton.com

Personas in context




Andrew Hinton / andrewhinton.com

Emotional

Cognitive

PhysicalSituation

Need

Need

Need

TaskTask

Task

Task Task

Task

Task

Task

Personas in context




Design for Systems

Experiences over screens

Connections over individuals

Discourse over device




Examples and Anti-Examples












Thanks!

Get in touch

