Comments for Little Springs Design

Comment on simulators, emulators, and other design tools by Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:45:21 +0000

There’s a mix of experience. There was a study I quoted in my book - I don’t have time to look it up right now - in which a device was tested in a laboratory as well as in the field. The laboratory study found all of the issues as the field usability study, but more people in the field study experienced the problems.

Focus group participants regularly have different behaviors than what they asserted back in the lab.

I observe people having FAR more patience with an application in the lab than they ever do in real life. In real life, they decide that they aren’t smart enough and give up.

I don’t have access to the ESPN data on computer use vs. mobile use, but I know that they experience spikes of mobile use during college football days and the like. I know that media executives are sending down full episodes to computers but 2-minute episodes to mobiles (in this country).

We’ve got two speakers at our forthcoming conference who will be talking about user context, but not with regards to usability testing.

Comment on simulators, emulators, and other design tools by Jason Sullivan

Jason Sullivan — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:52:43 +0000

User context is different. Sitting at a desktop computer is a fairly formal experience. Sitting on a sofa using a device is an informal experience. Users will behave differently.

This isn’t very obvious, but makes intuitive sense. Are there any studies that point to these differences?

Comment on SMS vs. IM (USA vs. Europe?) by Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:59:57 +0000

I think that long distance was a commodity by the time mobile hit the stage in the U.S., and home computers with dial-up access were prevalent. So US users were accustomed to email and cheap voice … and had to pay for incoming minutes. So they used their computers for text-like things and the home lines for voice - at least until voice minute costs came down. Then there was the coverage issue: the silly things had to work reliably. Too bad some of the US population and much of its land area doesn’t have that. (side note: Russian operators covering 97% of their population hold me in awe, even if it is only 78% of the geography)

European users were accustomed to expensive computer Internet access, so SMS (a throw-away product) was great.

Japanese companies didn’t implement SMS, and Japanese users had very little space in their lives for privacy and personalization (check out Japanese credit card designs if you disagree). Add to that a 1-2 hour train ride with no voice, and those nifty personal devices that iMode (designed as a stopgap until the network could be upgraded, and targeted at teenage girls) was the right product in the right context.

Now European Internet access is roughly equivalent to U.S. access, but the phone saturation is higher.

Comment on SMS vs. IM (USA vs. Europe?) by Jason Sullivan

Jason Sullivan — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:19:02 +0000

I’d thought long and hard about the different pricing structures for SMS in the US vs. The Rest of the Known World race, but I hadn’t considered the driving aspect. Could the pricing be a result of the lesser desire due to driving? Or is the pricing an attempt to curb text messaging during driving?

Comment on featurephone, smartphone by steven

steven — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:13:17 +0000

Fresh? Not so much. I am not a big hardware reviewer or anything, but personally I am loving Nokias running Series-60. I like my phone-shaped N75, but replacing a Treo I’d look at the N95s; aside from the weird U.S. market, its undoubetdly the phone to beat. Google about and you’ll find plenty of comparisons between it, other Nokias, various other competitors (mostly Win, but a few other Symbians) and of course… iPhone.

Comment on featurephone, smartphone by NW Guy

NW Guy — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:41:41 +0000

Thanks for the great take on the phones, but what is your current choice? I’m happy with my Treo600 but am afraid it is beyond it’s life expectancy. The problem is that Palm hasn’t come out with a good new device and I don’t want to fall into the WinMo camp.

Any fresh insights?

Comment on mobile social networking by Holly from mobienthusiast.mobi

Holly from mobienthusiast.mobi — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:14:51 +0000

You’re right, communities are the way to go, and mobile communities are popping up all the time. Your advice on taking audiences into consideration is good to remember. People need to think these things through before putting up a site, mobile or otherwise.

Comment on can mobiles kickstart relationship marketing? by Marketing Articles

Marketing Articles — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:30:19 +0000

Well it already kickstarted. With those bluetooth marketing going it gained now popularity. My phone now is receiving lots of advertisements when I play games to it.

-Jan

Comment on design and business by steven

steven — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:34:11 +0000

Since you mentioned schools, I have always enjoyed the focus of the courses I have I have taken at Bentley College. They are a fundamentally business school, but with a program in usability (you can bend it to interactive design).

They even have a usability testing consultancy, that works with the many snazzy Boston-area companies, so have good facilities and real-word experience that is constantly updated. All with a business focus. Its good to stay grounded in the real-world needs of your enterprise or clients.

Glad to see more folks are moving to this hybrid model.

Comment on mobile application fonts call for help by Morten Hjerde

Morten Hjerde — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 07:09:22 +0000

Hi Barbara.

I have a little bit of experience in this area. On java ME devices, there is no choice of fonts, only the system font in 3 set sizes and no installable fonts. We implemented our own bitmap font rendering engine when I worked with games. Its not hard as long as you don’t try to do anti-aliasing. In fact, almost all game publishers uses their own font rendering.
MIDP 3 will have installable fonts and good font control, but that’s a year ahead.
There is also a writeup about mobile fonts here: http://sender11.typepad.com/sender11/2008/01/prototyping-mob.html

Morten