Research / Reports on Mobile Usability

Few days back, I was reading some article related to Mobile Usability on Jakob Nielsen’s website . I found it quite interesting and so trying to put in some facts which I think should be useful for us to understand the scenario.

To understand usability factors that makes mobile sites easy or an unpleasant experience, Jakob Nielsen had combined 3 different usability testing methods, namely: 1) Diary Study 2) User Testing 3) Cross-platform review.

Mobile devices’ users face several usability obstacles to overcome with, like Small Screens, Difficult / non-easy ways of input, bandwidth / download time issues and worst of all, badly designed website.

Surprisingly, as per the Jakob Nielsen’s tests which were designed to test participants using those sites which were specifically designed for mobile devices, their “average success rate” was 64% which is quite higher than the 53% success rate recorded for the “full sites”. And, as Jakob thinks, this is a enough powerful reason to start developing mobile optimized websites.

This “mobile usability” has several interesting facts unconvered. You can read the complete article here: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-usability.html

Some Resources:

Mobile Web – Navigation Design

Mobile Web Applications – Design factors

In this series of posts about “mobile web application development strategies’, we will discuss about ‘advantages of mobile web platform, strategizing for mobile web, initiating a mobile web project’ and much more will be added as and when possible.

To begin with, we will understand how mobile web is promising.

Advantages of Mobile Web platform:

Anywhere-Anytime information access:
Unlike conventional desktop-based computing, mobile web has surpassed the limitation of immobility. With mobile devices, users can access information anywhere, anytime when they are in the cell phone connectivity coverage area or using a WI-FI hotspot.

Wireless Internet Connectivity:
Users are now having access to internet on their mobile devices or accesses internet through their mobile devices.

Leveraging Application / Device capabilities:
Services / Applications now can take the advantage of in-built capabilities of mobile devices, like clicking on a phone number can help users to call the respective number with no hassles involved.

Geography-based Content Delivery:
Location-based technologies are enabling the end-users to receive the content based on the location. Such localized content delivery mechanism is helping users to get the desired content with minimal efforts, which leads to a better user experience and benefits to the respective service provider as well.

Strategizing for mobile web:

When an organization decides to design a website or an application targeted at mobile web users, they need to consider several factors like:

• Why should we make / create a mobile web application?
• Does the content delivered on mobile devices make sense for the TG? Is it really adding value to their usage?
• What kind of content can be made available online? Do we deliver useful content?
• We have a very powerful flash-based website. Should we create a similar application User Interface (UI) for mobile devices as well? Will it work across multiple device profiles?

Precisely, before we start working on a mobile web application, we must be aware of all aspects like advantages and limitations the mobile web platform has and also about how to leverage this platform for an organizations’ and end-users’ advantage. We must be clear about ‘whether creating a mobile web application can really add value’ to the respective website as well for the end-users / TG.

As this is a series of posts, we will continue with “Initiating a mobile web project” in the continuing post.

1. Make sure that basic controls are always available!
   Make sure you place basic controls to navigate on the site, such as “back to home, back to search results” & relevant ones.  Use contextual menus if required & only if they are assisting the user (preferably limited to 2-3 short links). In most of the cases, though devices / browsers has a ‘back’ button option, it is advisable to include a back button on every page.
   

   Usability for Mobile Web Applications

2. Environmental Factors:
   Imagine, using a website / application which has saturated or dark-colored interface in a bright light conditions! If you do, you will not be able to see the interface clearly & the application usefulness may reduce. So, you should know the users & their possible environment in which they may use this application and you have to design the site accordingly. Such factors like lighting conditions does affect the visual design affecting the usefulness of your application in such environments. Note: Compare the above screen shot with other examples shown in the presentation. Readability is higher in other screen shots.
   

   Usability for Mobile Web Applications

3. Mobile-device-friendly visual designs / layouts:
   Visual designs for mobile sites / apps, unlike for desktop browsers, are different in terms of layouts (no landscape preferably as most of the device will render the sites to suit to portrait form), usage of graphical elements (to be kept viable to optimize the download speed & to reduce the data usage for being cost-effective for the end-user). Precisely, you need a quite different & sensible visual design (keeping in mind the brand elements, etc.) for mobile applications as against the conventional desktop-based websites, to optimize the user experience.
   

   Usability for Mobile Web Applications

You can view this complete presentation on SlideShare.net at: http://www.slideshare.net/vishalvaidya/usability-factors-mobile-web-apps-usability-factors-0209

Please post your comments & suggestions! Thanks!!!

NOTE: All the mobile website screenshots shown are owned by bcwebwise. Copyright © 2009. Bcwebwise. All Rights Reserved with Bc Web Wise.

Though, it’s ‘always-with you’, ‘personalized’ way to access internet, it has several limitations. Let’s understand the limitations of the mobile web application environment:

Limitations:

• Screen ‘Real Estate’ issues: resolution limitations as compared to desktops / notebooks / netbooks.
• Browsers: Various browser renders site differently on different devices.
• Hardware limitations: Processor speed, RAM, ROM, Form factor
• Expensive Data Usage: Data usage charges may be heavy.
• Connectivity issues: Bandwidth, Network reach.
• Limited Interaction possibilities: Less-friendly pointing device.

We can ‘enhance’ the user experience of web on mobile, by following certain guidelines, to overcome limitations as much as possible.

While we design the site / applications that’s suits best to various mobile devices / browsers / connectivity aspects, we MUST consider several ‘factors’ that contributes to a better ‘mobile web user experience. Ideally, we should follow as much as of these guidelines, so that the site / applications designed for mobile-specific environment becomes more usable. Better the user experience, more the successful application would be!

Here we start…

1. Address users’ requirements as ‘quickly’ as possible:
   Generally, users are accessing the web on mobile for their immediate needs, for e.g. locating the nearest cafe or finding the closest Theater or for a short-spanned entertainment.  In Such users, “quickness” makes a lot of difference, time being a ‘crucial’ factor. In such cases, understanding the users’ immediate requirements & assisting them to fulfill them quickly enhance the experience of your application.
2. DO NOT repeat the navigation on every page:
   Screen “real estate” is very valuable & precious when it comes to mobile devices & so, needs to be used wisely. Mobile devices have varied screen sizes. For such various but limited screen sizes, what gets delivered upfront, “above the fold”, does make a difference.  DO NOT repeat the main navigation on every page, as it pushes the content down, generally “below the fold” making it inaccessible for the user. Also, make sure you place it on the homepage as that being an entry point to the site.
   

   Usability for Mobile Web Applications

3. Make user inputs simpler:
   Entering text on a mobile phone can be more painful than on a conventional desktop-based input mechanisms. Make sure your design allows the users to input the text in an easier way. Allow them to choose by selecting an item instead of manually entering the text (as it’s even more error-prone). Also, use the markup to assist certain features in the content. For example, a Telephone number displayed can be used to call the particular no right from there itself, instead of copying the phone number or manually entering it on the dial pad.
   

   Usability for Mobile Web Applications

4. Indicate clearly what is selected:
   Mobile phones generally have lesser cursor control, as the pointing device is either joystick or the directive buttons on the phone. But, even these controls may not work as desired as sometimes choosing the selection can scroll down the page if the control is not selected properly. So, indicating what’s selected is another important factor so that user doesn’t get frustrated by selecting something wrong which he didn’t intend to. Show the selected link by highlighting it with different color or something similar & viable. Some browsers has built-in mechanisms that automatically indicates when a user is on a certain control or link in the page.
   

   Usability for Mobile Web Applications

5. Inessential stuff to be kept out:
   Provide only essential & relevant information on every page. User’s generally pay for all the content they see on their devices & so, for them, any inessential data downloaded is a pain, because THEY have to pay for the content they never wanted to see & gets frustrated. Reading habits would also vary from desktop to mobile device. Content designed for mobile web also needs to be crisp & to the point, as the users will not be interested in reading any typical junk on their devices which they are not interested in & have to pay for it.
   

   Usability for Mobile Web Applications

There is more for this usability for mobile web applications.  In the next post, I will explain some more points which are important for mobile web applications  & its usability.

I would be happy if you can post your comments / suggestions which wil help us to enhance our approach to mobile web development. Kindly contribute!

Updates: read 2nd part of this post