"Case Study: Mobile Couponing" or "What Users don't understand about their iPhone"

Case Study:

What we learned when developing a mobile couponing

EuroIA 2012 - Roma

What we learned when developing a mobile couponing

application …

Case Study:

… or what users don‘t understand about their iPhone

EuroIA 2012 - Roma

… or what users don‘t understand about their iPhone

> About Mobile Couponing

> User-Centered Design for Mobile

> The Mobile Couponing App

> What Users don’t understand about their iPhone> What Users don’t understand about their iPhone

About Mobile Couponing

> Stores and small business offer special deals to their

customers.

> The goals are diverse:

> Get customers into the store.

Couponing in General

> Get customers into the store.

> (and sell them additional things, once they are inside the store).

> Fill less busy timeslots.

> Sell off products on stock.




> Different kinds of coupons:

> Absolute discount (€ 50.-)

> Relative discount (15%)


> Different preconditions:

> Time limitations (e.g. only on Sundays)

> Only valid for specific products

> Only valid in specific stores

> Bound to a minimal purchase amount

> Only one coupon per person


> Study by Mediamarkt in Switzerland:

> Verifiable increase in sales after coupon campaigns.

> ROI of couponing campaigns are 50% higher than traditional marketing

campaigns .

YES, couponing does work (even in Switzerland)

campaigns .

> study based on SMS-couponing

> For App-based couponing costs about half compared to SMS-couponing.

> Feedbacks from interviews:

> Participants respond that they buy certain goods only when prices are

reduced.

> They do switch brand and stores due to coupons and offerings.

> They do even plan their shopping trips based on coupons available.


> SIX Multipay ist the leading payment

provider in Switzerland.

> Processes about 8 mio. card payments per

day.

SIX Multipay in Switzerland

day.

> Terminals in most shops, restaurants ticket

machines etc.


SMS Couponing

> SMS couponing system installed since 2009


How to cash a mobile coupon

> Start mobile application

> Scan list of available coupons

> Select one coupon

> Tap on «Cash coupon»> Tap on «Cash coupon»

> Read coupon code on phone display

> Type Coupon Code in terminal





User-Centered Design for Mobile

Phase 1 – Rough Design/Scribbling (I)


Phase 1 – Rough Design/Scribbling (II)


> Scribbling on paper helpful for first iterations

> Very fast iterations to narrow down options

> Together with customer

> Together with implementation partner

Phase 1 – Rough Design/Scribbling (III)

> Together with implementation partner

> Good to agree on a basic concept

> E.g. application with tabbed navigation vs. application with dashboard

screen


> Axure RP 5.5 HTML prototype

> Viewport tag properly set to

> Fullscreen (without Browser Controls)

> Zoom locked

Phase 2 - Prototyping

Scroll down.

Use two fingers.> Zoom locked

> iOS dashboard bookmark to the

prototype

> Prototype limitations on iPhone

> 2 finger scrolling

> With new axure versions

not an issue anymore

Use two fingers.

And now up again.


Phase 2 - Prototyping


> 8 iPhone users (from expert to novice)

> Pretest interviews

> 10 tasks / scenarios

> Posttest interviews

Phase 3 - Usability-Testing (I)

> Posttest interviews

> Push Notifications were sent during

usability test through

http://www.prowlapp.com/ 1

How to send push notifications see:

1 http://www.paessler.com/knowledgebase/en/topic/1693-how-can-i-send-push-notifications-from-prtg-to-iphones

http://www.macstories.net/reviews/my-weekend-with-prowl/


> Meccano set and

USB-Webcam

> Perfect steadiness of

the video recording

Phase 3 - The iPhone Mounted Webcam

the video recording

> Even if iPhone in

participant’s hand

> Reduce display

brightness of mobile

phone


Phase 3 - Usability-Testing (II)

Test participant

with iPhone and

Webcam connected

> AMCAP Cam Software

to stream webcam

video feed to test PC

> PC with TechsmithWebcam connected

to test PC> PC with Techsmith

Morae for screen,

webcam feed and user

recording


Phase 4 - Graphic Design


> Detailed specification document for

> Implementation Team

> Budget toll gate

Phase 5 - Documentation




> What Users don‘t understand about their iPhone> What Users don‘t understand about their iPhone

The Mobile Couponing App

> Easy and quick coupons overview from

different providers in one single app

> Different paths to the coupons for

different use cases

The result

different use cases

> Personalization to increase relevance of

showed coupons





What Users don‘t understand about their iPhone

> Marketshare of Apple in Swiss smartphone market

iPhoneSwitzerland

othersDon‘t know /

no answer

Source: www.comparis.ch, February 2012

n=572


> Age distribution of smartphone owners

iPhoneSwitzerland

Source: www.comparis.ch, February 2012

n=1202


iPhoneSwitzerland


> Switzerland has one of the largest iPhone populations

worldwide.

> Also less «experienced» users with iPhones.

iPhoneSwitzerland


> 2 participants, who bought an iPhone

short time before the test.

> They did not see the Tab Bar for quite a

long time.

The Tab Bar

long time.


> Version 1:

> Top of screen as suggested by Apple Human

Interface Guidelines

Segmented Controls (=Tab-bar 2nd Level)

> Several participants did not see the

navigation


Segmented Controls (=Tab-bar 2nd Level)

> Moving the segmented

controls to the bottom of

the screen improved its

visibilityvisibility

> Law of proximity

> But it is harder to hit for

people with stubby fingers


The Back Button Issue (I)

> Application with a standard Apple Human Interface

Guidelines tabbar navigation


The Back Button Issue (II)

> Navigation back hierarchically works perfeclty fine

> As soon as the navigation is not hierarchical some users miss

a back button

Example 1


The Back Button Issue (III)

Example 2


> Various participants were looking for a

back button more than once

> Some of the participants clicked the iPhone

Home-Button repeatedly

The Back Button Issue (IV)

Home-Button repeatedly

> and closed and restarted the application


The Back Button Issue (V)


Near Search


> «Nearby» was not used by 7 participants during the test.

> Participants did not have the mental model:

> That the device knows its geo location.

Near Search

> That the device knows its geo location.

> And can pass it to the application in order to show content in a

location-specific way.


Near Search

> Click path analysis

shows the same

picture.

> Only 6.5% of users use the> Only 6.5% of users use the

near search


The issue with gestures (I)

Source: Luke Wroblewski, http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1071


The issue with gestures (II)

Source: Luke Wroblewski, http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1071


> The advantage of gestures:

> Gestures do improve the efficiecy of users.

> Gestures represent a very natural and intuitive way of interacting with

a system.

The issue with gestures (III)

a system.

> The downside:

> Only some gestures are intuitive, others have to be learned.

> Gestures are hidden.

> Users don‘t know them and mostly only find out accidentially.

> Only users with a certain proficiency recognize gestures which they

discovered accidentially.


The issue with gestures (IV)

> Swipe gesture discloses delete

button

> No participant knew this gesture> No participant knew this gesture

> Eventhough the gesture is available

in Apple email, messages and in

most apps with list views


The issue with gestures (V)

> Scroll up gesture discloses search

field to search a list

> Only 1 participant knew this gesture> Only 1 participant knew this gesture

> Eventhough the gesture is available

in Apple email, messages and in

most apps with list views


The issue with gestures (VI)

> Shake the iPhone to jump directly to

the Favourites.

> No participant knew any shake> No participant knew any shake

gestures.

> Shake gestures should be used very

carefully because often annoying.


> 50% would turn push notifications on

after first app startup

> 50% had almost an «allergic» reaction

to the push notifications

Push Notifications

to the push notifications

> During the post interview, push

notifications were rated as the most

negative part of the app!


> „Prefered supplier“-functionality

was kind of hard to understand.

> In the prototype:

> A Notification with User Education

User Education on Launch (I)

> A Notification with User Education

about the prefered supplier

functionality was shown after first start

up of the app.


> The notification was ignored in two

ways:

> Half of the participant just clicked it

away without reading for a second.

User Education on Launch (II)

away without reading for a second.

> The other half read it but did not

understand the message.


> User Education must be visual in order to work.

> Still then it is not sure wheter users remember the message.

User Education examples

UFaceLabelbox Piictu Pulse

http://www.lovelyui.com/tagged/walk_throughs

http://mobile-patterns.com/edu


> Pre-test interview:

Apps???

How many Apps do you have installed on your iPhone?

I don‘t have any Apps.

What ist the reason, why you don‘t use Apps?

I tried it once in the beginning, but it didn‘t work.

The Mobile Couponing App

> Hermann Hofstetter: @hhofstetter

> Gregor Urech: @gurech

> Zeix AG: @zeix

Thank you

http://itunes.apple.com/ch/app/m

obile-coupon/id468638618?mt=8

Documents

"Case Study: Mobile Couponing" or "What Users don't understand about their iPhone"