First of all, some contextMOBILE USER EXPERIENCE

inspiring new ways of design and development

Antony Ribot, CEO, Ribot

First of all, some context

then studied ants, bees and termites

joined the mobile scene 5 years ago

co-founded ribot 1.5 years ago

BACKGROUND

started at tomato (’99)

ceo / art director

Why does ribot exist?

explore and play with interfaces in small spaces

passion for creating things under many constraints

push UI boundaries

Method Relationship

Personal definitions

Interaction designhow the user interacts with the object

User experiencethe qualitative emotional description of multiple interactions with an object

The user-centered developer

a bridge between designer and developer

not a role for every developer

does not replace traditional UX expert

(A NOTE TO DEVS)

develops with the user in mind

why the need for the new role?

What’s different about mobile UX

mobile UX deals with many more constraintsgoal: to make a positive impact on the experience

UX is in its infancy

(AS A FIELD)

QuickTime™ and aNone decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Constraints of mobile

network latency

input mechanism

memory

form factor

computational power

context

battery

THERE ARE MANY

The mobile environmentIT’S LIKE MARS

single early failure = non-returning user

Mars, Neptune, Pluto...

handset range

operators

data allowance / pricing

THE ENVIRONMENT DIFFERS, DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU ARE

e.g. South Africa, Europe, Japan...

user behaviour

How to deal with Mars

Leave the hard stuff to desktop web

develop relationship as quickly as possibleuser retention is a good indicator of product performance, but loyalty is minimal in mobile

Time for a snack...

small snippets of info

30-60 seconds

simple, but repetitive

regular

DATA-SNACKING

Re-use learnt behaviours

Re-use interactions inherent in the device

Minimise the number of surprises

soft key positions

menu navigation

colour

tone of voice

vs

http://mobilewebbook.com

Mobile is not about making things smallersmalleraller

Miniaturisation Mobilisation

It’s all about the subtleties

Fewer options = simple and more effective interface

Polish makes the UX and app stand out

Working around the 3G icon

Reward-based exploration

keep it as simple as possible (the hard part)

allow the user to play within safe boundaries

user’s comfort increases

sense of exploration increases

discovery of features almost by accident

FOCUSING ON THE KEY FEATURE AND DOING IT WELL

Opera Mini

page by page scrolling

A REWARD-BASED MOBILE BROWSER

Short-cuts in the soft key menu

Opera MiniA REWARD-BASED MOBILE BROWSER

http://www.admob.com/metrics

How to deal with diversityselect lead handsets for your target audience

use the design process to tackle “graceful degradation”

Workshop Idea explorationPaper wireframes

Formalised digital wireframesUser/expert testing

Aesthetic conceptsScreen design

Rapid prototypeDocsArt direction

Mobile UX - the easier path

Why use rapid prototypingtest ideas quickly in a tangible environment

extremely useful reference for developersan interactive showcase of the intended UX

Mobile rapid prototyping tools

Flash (lite v3.0)

XHTML + CSS

Nokia Web Runtime

Silverlight

One design doesn’t fit all

Input mechanisms require their own design

Touch screenelements need to look interactivelarge enough to press?

Nav-pad drivenaction-based languagemake the most of simple nav

Questions

Antony Ribotribot.co.uk