Mobile 2.0 - Mobile UX Panel
Brian Fling moderates and does a very good job to give turns to every speaker and to keep the topics moving (prior to the panel we discussed the risk of only talking about the iPhone…). Here are some random notes, unedited notes about what each panelist said (I was typing as I was speaking so this is very incomplete…):
Risto: IPhone is flow based versus task based. Do not ask users what they want or what they like but find out what they need. What they want is not to think and express their emotion through their device. Charles Revlon quote: we fabricate cosmetics but we sell hope.
Christian: Focus on the seems and if you get that right you will improve UX (example.- Shozu). Risk of handset makers focusing on who has the ability to put a bigger screen in the pocket? Super small notebooks are the future? Google apps is liberating us from the desktop and computer paradigm. Only important question: Is my service relevant on users life?
Kelly: Is the iPhone a phone or a mini computer? She loves Helio. Ford quote: if you ask people what they wanted they would have said a faster horse, we need contextual behavior analysis. People want to play and have fun. Doing just one thing well is a proven model, iterative development model with user interaction is the way to go. People are going feature crazy with their mobile apps and that is a problem.
Carlos: iPhone will raise the expectation of what mobile user experience is and that will drive innovation across the industry. Device and application framework fragmentation is a big issue to improve user experience, carrier desire to make money in each application/services drives them to support as many phones as possible lowering the overall user experience. Iterative development does not fit well with carriers and data is still not their core business so their focus on mobile apps is relative. Convergence is important because it will force people to think about the context of an app and not the device it goes into.
Q&A session:
What about convergence: Brian, mobile browsers supporting web standards helps convergence. Kelly, you need critical mass so big events are the opportunity (eg. Olympics). Carlos, carrier convergence helps to think about the app. Christian: find the sm and persistence storage (Web mail with partly cash content). Risto: find apps that people love
What about emerging markets (China and India) and how to deal with 2.5G and SMS based applications. SMS based apps are important. Emerging markets are important.
Who is going to own the UI? The Browser? It matters who owns the UI because UI consistency will improve user experience. The browser has probably the bigger chance to provide UI consistency and not the handset makers or the carriers.
What feature will you remove from a phone? Carlos: remove the distinction between SMS and MMS (applause from the audience!!). Christian: data cost. Kelly: keyboards (she mentions Zenzui)
CD
