Archive for Usage + Usability
by Darla Mack
June 24, 2008 at 6:50 pm · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0, Usage + Usability
Cellular-News reports that residents in Sacramento might have to pay taxes on their text messaging.
Voters living in the Californian city of Sacramento will be given the opportunity to vote on a measure which will extend an existing utility tax to include SMS messages. Currently the tax is applied to voice calls from mobile phones, along with electricity, gas and television services but does not include text messages.
Lobby group, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is opposing this new tax and has previously sued stating that tax on cellphone bills is illegal.
“The city is packaging an increase as a tax reduction,” said Timothy Bittle, from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association. “Communication is a basic human right. It’s a constitutional right. It’s free speech. Why do we have to be taxed?”
While I agree with Mr. Bittle’s statement I’m curious to understand just how text messaging is considered a utility? It isn’t something that is stand-alone such as power or water, but a feature that is incorporated in carrier service plans… which are already being taxed.
Voters will be able to vote on the tax change this coming November. Under California’s Proposition 218, voters have the right to vote on all local taxes, and requires taxpayer approval of assessments and property-related fees.
by Darla Mack
June 4, 2008 at 2:19 am · Filed under Facebook, M:Metrics, Mobile Research, Research, Social Networking, Studies + Research, Usage + Usability, mobile data statistics
In a release published by M:Metrics last month, a study shows that the American population spends over 4.5 hours browsing on their smartphones.
Looking at the trend it seems the most popular site visited by US users was Craigslist. To me, that’s surprising… then again I’m not a big Craigslist user. UK consumers favored Facebook, which was also another site visited by US consumers.
What is interesting is the time spent browsing. According to the data collected in March, US users spent an average of 1 hour and 39 minutes out of the month browsing Craigslist, while UK users spent an average of 1 hour and 45 minutes of their time browsing Facebook.
Not to take away from web browsing, but I hope developers are paying some attention to these trends. This would be the opportunity to create dedicated applications instead of having to rely on the browsers themselves. I know I’ve become a happy person since the Ebay application came out.
“People are becoming increasingly engaged in the mobile medium,” said Mark Donovan, senior analyst, M:Metrics. “Among smartphone users in the United States, mobile browsing has increased 89 percent year over year, and pageviews have increased 127 percent. Consumption is quickly evolving from brief transactions, such as checking the weather or flight status, to time-intensive interaction with mobile Web sites—even without an iPhone.”
by Imran Ali
May 26, 2008 at 6:58 am · Filed under Design, Mobile messaging 2.0, Usage + Usability, User Interface, iPhone
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of arranging and attending an evening talk by one of the mobile industry’s unsung heroes, Clive Grinyer.
Until the beginning of May, and for the last several years Clive was alternately the Director of Customer Experience and Design & Usability at France Telecom’s mobile operator, Orange.
Prior to this, Clive’s led the UK’s Design Council, Samsung’s design group, roles at TAG McLaren, IDEO and also co-founded a design practice with Apple’s Jonathan Ive.
With such a stellar pedigree, Clive was tasked with imagining France Telecom’s new era of converged mobile, broadband, TV and fixed telephony services.
The focus of Clive’s talk was the poor application of design processes as an afterthought in technology. Design is often appled too late as a ’skinning’ activity rather than early on where design can impact the decisions that deeply affect the user experience; and for Clive user experience encompasses everything from retail stores to packaging, product design, devices & service interfaces as well as customer support.
Though the talk took place a day before Clive left Orange for the consultancy wing of Cisco, joining as their Director of Customer Experience, he touched upon some of the legacy of his time at one of the world’s largest cellcos and alluded to somequite exciting products and services, due to be launched in the next few weeks.
I thoroughly recommend Clive’s three talks, downloadable as PDFs from his website…
- Lipstick On A Pig - the focus of the talks earlier this month.
- The Silence Of Design - exploring the gulf of understanding between designer’s work and user’s experiences.
- The Design Toolbox - covering the basic elements of design for products, user interfaces and service design; notably elements that are applicable for designers and non-designers.
As design-centric companies like Apple pull ahead of their competitors in sectors such as mobility, computing and service design, it’s becoming increasingly important for companies to understand how to understand, replicate employ such practices in their own philosophies. Clive’s work is a great starting point in this journey.
by Imran Ali
March 26, 2008 at 1:43 pm · Filed under Books, Development, Gestural, Usage + Usability, User Interface, iPhone, touch screens
With an interminable three months before the June 2008 release of the iPhone SDK, jailbroken, hacked iPhones are still the preferred means of innovating for the iconic device. With this in mind, my O’Reilly-ian friends have just published iPhone: Open Application Development, a guide to writing ‘native Objective-C applications for the iPhone’.
The appears to be tailor made for the iPhone hacking community - from jailbreaking the AT&T/O2 lockdown to understanding the operating system, application structure, interface APIs (notably multitouch and accelerometer!) and multimedia operations.
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Incidentally, the subject of gestural interfaces is gaining some documented best practices thanks to the proliferation of iPhone and Nintendo’s Wii. I recently saw Dan Saffer speak about the design of gestural interfaces at O’Reilly’s ETech 2008 conference…the first chapter of his upcoming book on the subject is freely downloadable from the book’s official site. The sample offers some useful insights into the ergonomics and conventions of gestural UIs and an historical view of touchscreen technology.
by Ewan Spence
March 26, 2008 at 11:23 am · Filed under 2008, Nokia, Usage + Usability, iPhone
Is the iPhone a massive success because it opens up the regular American user to the power of the internet on the move; or is the iPhone a success because a significant number of the purchasers are the tech elite that continually push their equipment to the limit?
(I’m dispensing with the more straightforward question of “is the iPhone a success or not” because the straightforward answer differs depending on the territory you are in. The results in the US I think are on or ahead of any sensible prediction, but the European take up has been slow and low. A discussion for another time, perhaps).
With every survey that comes out promoting the iPhone as the best thing to hit the mobile internet, I always come back to the central questions of why people are measuring ‘the phone’ rather than measuring ‘the user?’ After all, the difference between my Dad getting any internet capable phone, and myself, is going to be huge. My Dad is likely to use it to check the weather online before he goes out for a round of gold – I’m more likely to be uploading 10mb long videos, streaming live conversations, a Twitter client polling every 180 seconds, and a thousand and one other data services. I might even call someone if I have to get an immediate answer!
There’s no escaping the fact that the iPhone has created a greater buzz in the American marketplace – and having now experienced the consumer side of the US market it’s no wonder that the tech savvy users are swithching to the iPhone, but I don’t think that’s a basis for declaring it as a complete game-changer in the space. When using a cellular data connection, it has a cute web browser, a passable email client, and some look-up functionality for weather and stocks.
But I’d be doing that on any phone… in Europe. If I was to move over to the States, my options are much more limited in terms of handsets that would have these capabilities. The iPhone is very much the only mainstream option available, beyond grey imports or manufacturers web shops. So is it any wonder when you have one phone in a territory that the lions share of geeks are using it? And of course does that answer the European [lack of] uptake issue as well?
Oh and before you leave some statistical ‘evidence’ in the comments… that spike of visitors to Google from mobile devices such as the iPhone and Nokia’s N95 has everything to do with people using the mobile internet more, and nothing to do with Google being the default home page for the browsers and search clients in these devices… No sirreee.
by Imran Ali
March 25, 2008 at 4:36 pm · Filed under Android, Communication, Mobile messaging 2.0, Openmoko, SMS, Twitter, Usage + Usability, iPhone, mobile social networking
Late last year I wrote about the Mobility of Messages and how the tools for archiving our ‘emotional bits’ are crudely shortsighted, lacking the means for durable longevity and personal curation.
So I was recently very pleased to discover Treasuremytext, a startup - based in Liverpool and Amsterdam - that’s been helping users archive and preserve precious text messages for the best part of five years!
Treasuremytext’s founders - Katie Lips and Paul Stringer - were motivated by issues similar to those described in my earlier post; the very personal desire to treasure those evocative, poignant, sexy, cheeky and deeply personal messages at a time when handset inboxes were often limited to just 10-15 messages.
Katie and Paul very much saw their mission as one of liberating valuable messages from mobile handsets - presaging the currently in-vogue openness of Android, Openmoko and LiPS (no pun intended!) - and placing them in a web-based archive.
The web elements of the service came about due to the company’s frustrations at trying to work with mobile operators and technologies (SyncML, SIM readers etc.) - the web was simply the best medium for personalising and manipulating treasured messages. Treasuremytext’s strategy has enabled them to maneuver around cellcos, whilst still providing value to end users; a strategy that when multiplied across many service providers rightly deepeds the commoditisation of mobile operators.
Curiously, Treasuremytext has been a bigger hit with people in their 20s, 30s and 40s and messages largely focusing on relationships - indicating that SMS is a more disposable medium for younger users and romantic messages are likely to be the most treasured. Indeed, the service is almost inadvertently aggregating unique analytics and ethnographic data of the usage of SMS over time.
The service works well - with users simply needing to forward their messages to a specific number, via SMS; though it seems some meta information can be lost (original time, date stamp, sender name). This may simply be the vagaries of SMS infrastructure and handset software, but some simple tools to manually adjust metadata for each message (sender, time, date, tag) would be useful, particularly tags - with some users saving thousands of messages, folders will no longer be flexible enough tools for storage.
The more social features of the service are actually quite reminiscent of Twitter - but that’s no bad thing, Treasuremytext has a different emphasis and, as such, will be well positioned to evolve alongside other messaging services; indeed, they’re already experimenting with iPhone clients.
As my friend Ross notes, some operators are beginning to offer similar features as part of their suite of bundled services - notably O2’s Bluebook. However, operator services are notoriously, um, *crap* and generally closed like a nun’s knickers. By adopting open data principles, Treasuremytext could again maneuver around cellcos and deepen their claim on their philosophy of openness. New platforms such as Android and Openmoko could also help to provide wider distribution and I believe there’s a strong analytics and ethnographics opportunity for them too…
In the meantime, it’s worth spending a few minutes with co-founder Katie’s BarCamp session on 12 mistakes not to make when launching your startup!
by Darla Mack
February 5, 2008 at 10:31 am · Filed under Mobile Applications, Mobile Tech, Mobile messaging 2.0, News, Nokia, Usage + Usability
MTV Citizen Journalists will be covering Super Tuesday today across the states using mobile technology and the web to keep people updated. Street Team 08 will be armed with Nokia N95’s and Flixwagon software to cover 23 states during the primarys.
This is a very unique use of mobile multimedia. As quoted by Bill Plummer of Nokia and Christina Norman of MTV:
“Nokia is proud and excited to see our flagship Nokia N95 multimedia devices being used so creatively to support and promote the electoral process,” commented Bill Plummer, Vice President, Sales, Nokia Americas. “Nokia Nseries devices are at the forefront of mobile technology, in this case delivering real-time high-quality Internet- ready audio and video reporting from the polls — the very way that first-time and future voters have come to expect their news.”
“Young people are taking hold of the political process like never before, and are clamoring to share and react to the stories as they unfold on the campaign trail in real-time,” said Christina Norman, President of MTV. “The Street Team’s Super Tuesday coverage will be hyper-focused on the issues and stories that matter most to our audience, empowering them to experience the day’s historic events in a whole new way.”
Now other than following the web (God forbid we should sit in front of our laptops or pc’s for a whole day), users can text the word STREET to 44686 on their mobiles or visit m.street08.com from their mobile browsers.
by Imran Ali
December 26, 2007 at 2:04 pm · Filed under Communication, Devices, Events + Conferences, Mobile messaging 2.0, Openmoko, Research, Studies + Research, Twitter, Usage + Usability, Video Conferencing, Voice, iPhone
With the sad cancellation of O’Reilly’s Emerging Telephony conferences, it seemed that the unique melting pot of traditional telcos, cellcos and bleeding-edge disruptive innovators, hackers and entrepreneurs would dissipate.
Thanks to the efforts of one of the former ETel advisory board members, Lee Dryburgh, the unique conversation between these communities will move beyond telephony into ‘communication’ in all its forms - social media, telephony, ethnographics and - of course - mobility.
Lee is hosting the inaugural Emerging Communications 2008, conference next Spring in Mountain View at the Computer History Museum. The conference wil also be accompanied by an unconference day, providing a mix of traditional conferences with the energy of a parallel BarCamp-style event.
Though the lineup isn’t finalised yet, there are some interesting speakers lined up already, including sessions on Building Twitter from Blaine Cook, Emerging & Usage Patterns from Intel’s Dawn Nafus, OpenMoko’s Michael Shiloh and thought leaders such as Norman Lewis and Sheldon Renan.
One of the underlying implicit themes from the current programme of speakers seems to be the potential in the intersection of telephony and social networks - issues which speak to the future of mobile messaging, a topic covered by MM2.0 contributors just recently.
Though not focussed exclusively on the mobile industry, eComm 2008 promises to surface some interesting directions for messaging and communication. As such it’s a community that we need to watch closely, listening for the weak signals that’ll give clues as to what happens next in the industry…
{ Disclosure: I’m a member of the voluntary eComm 2008 advisory board. }
by Ewan Spence
December 17, 2007 at 9:36 am · Filed under GPS, Software, Usage + Usability, WIMM, mobile social networking
While we’ve all focused on messages that get to you while you are mobile, I thought I’d point out another sort of mobile message – the message that comes from a mobile, to a recipient. And with the flexibility of a computer in your pocket, Nokia’s Sports Tracker (currently in beta) is yet another signpost to the future and what Web 2.0 and mobile can do for messaging.
The application on the handset is very simple. It takes a record of your location using either a bluetooth GPS or (on phones such as Nokia’s N95) the built in GPS. From this lots of info can be derived… your speed, average pace, height and a bundle of other stats from your trips you make. The N95’s built in accelerometers even help with a pedometer coming into the mix. Just hit start and stop at the relevant times. This of course is great for people who perhaps are doing jogging for fitness, or taking long cycle rides (like myself) but it also has a bundle of other uses; two examples…
Vegas the Dog. He’s mentioned a lot in Nokia keynotes on this – his owner strapped an N95 to his dog collar and started to record the walks that Vegas made. Not just where he went as an owner, but where Vegas went when he was tearing round parks, in trees, and after chickens. Where once complicated machinery and gadgets were needed to analysis the habits of the canine, now a simple phone can manage it all.
The second use is when I travel abroad and my family wants to know where I am. Nokia’s Sports Tracker can upload your route to a social network website (http://sportstracker.nokia.com/) where you register as a user, invite your friends, and share where you’ve been with them through the mobile component. All very Web 2.0, but it clearly answers the question “Where’s Dad?†when he’s off bouncing around conferences on the west coast. If I’m feeling particularly ‘open source’ I can turn live tracking on and give a constant “Ewan is here†report.
(Hmm, that might be something to consider for running in the background come prom night….)
So let’s not be blinkered to straight text messages coming into a handset as being the vanguard of mobile messaging. Modern communication is two-way, and the data we can provide is but limited to the sensors we can add to a mobile device.
by Russell Shaw
November 30, 2007 at 6:24 pm · Filed under Usage + Usability, User Interface
I spent much of last weekend’s Thanksgiving holiday at the home of my girlfriend’s 75 year-old mother and dear 82-year-old Dad.
Over the weekend, my girlfriend’s sister and brother-in-law bought their (and my girlfriend’s) Mom a cell phone.
After unboxing the phone and playing with it awhile, my girlfriend’s Mom complained loudly to all within shout of her voice that the phone keys were too small for her arthritic hands.
That comment then got me thinking: are these tiny new cellphones making it even more difficult for seniors with motion, mobility and vision problems to text?
What about arthritis, Parkinson’s, macular degeneration? Kind of ironic here that the people who need cell phones the most- for emergency purposes- would have to be subject to these kinds of usability issues?
Not only text, but make phone calls as well? I mean, well duh, that’s what you are supposed to do with a phone, right?
Maybe the answer is larger keyboard phones that would be simpler to type on. Ready-made analogy- large-type books for the visually impaired.
Hey, our seniors raised us. Don’t we owe them?
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