Lecture 10: Design for Mobile Devices

1. Lecture 10:Design for Mobile Devices Brad Myers Human-Computer Interaction in eCommerce

2. Notes • http://www-3.ibm.com/able/hpr.html • Please volunteer for laser pointing experiment • Email to Rishi Bhatnagar rishi@andrew.cmu.edu to schedule a time

3. Mobile eCommerce • Big numbers of mobile phones • As many as 1.6 billion cell phone users worldwide by 2005 • Virtually 100% of Finnish young people aged 14 to 21 have mobile phones • 70% of Finnish people have cellphones • Next in terms of cellular-phone penetration are Norway (64.4%), Austria (64%) and Sweden (63.6%). • “Mobile phones are rapidly becoming the preferred means of personal communication, creating the world's largest consumer electronics industry. In 1997 more than 100 million mobile phones were sold worldwide.”

4. What is WAP? • WAP = Wireless Application Protocol • http://www.wapforum.org/ • International standard protocol for wireless • Uses WML = Wireless Markup Language • Like HTML but • Has pages (“cards”) • Controls (buttons, input fields) defined at a high level

5. Internet on Small Devices • WAP • iMode in Japan • “Web Clipping” for Palm VII • Special web pages with a special accessor program installed on the Palm • Uses Palm’s proprietary format and server • Special browsers for regular pages • Text only browser from Eudora on Kyocera Smartphone • RIM wireless device has text-only browser

6. Using phones for Internet • From: Carl H. Marcussen, “Mobile Phones, WAP and the Internet - The European Market and Usage Rates in a Global Perspective 2000-2003”, http://www.rcb.dk/uk/staff/chm/wap.htm • 2000: 50% used mobile phone, 27% had wired Internet access, 1.7% used WAP • 2003: 66% will use mobile phone, 39% wired Internet, 16% WAP

7. Internet vs. Mobile Phone

8. Worldwide • iMode makes wirelessmore useful in Japan

9. Future of Wireless Access • Nielsen: “Mobile access will be the third ‘killer app’ for the Internet, after email and web browsing” • “Anyone, anytime, anywhere, connected”

10. “Internet Phones” • Small displays on today’s phones • Some integrated PDA+phones • Bigger/color displays soon

11. WAP not usable • Nielsen’s WAP Backlash • Much easier to call and talk to someone • “Ridiculously small screens, slow bandwidth, and the need to place a new call every time the device needs to connect” • “Digits-only keypad is a laughable input device” • Each phone is different, and “write-once, run anywhere” doesn’t work • Closed services, since too hard to go to arbitrary pages • “Mobile Phones Must Die” • Why need numberpad? • Need more screen • See screen while talking

12. Useful Mobile Services • From Nielsen’s WAP Field Study Findings • Highly goal-driven services aimed at providing fast answers to specific problems. • Examples include: "My flight was canceled; get me a new airline reservation" and "What's the weather?" • Entertainment-focused services whose sole purpose is killing time. • Examples include gossip, games, and sports services. Gossip is particularly suited for WAP because the content can be very brief and still be satisfying.

13. Future Usability Will be Better • Nielsen’s “New Devices Augur Decent Mobile User Experience” • Likes Palm-size internet browsing better • Future hardware

14. Design for Small Devices • Principles from the Palm’s designers “Designing the Palm Pilot: A conversation with Rob Haitani”, by Eric Bergman and Rob Haitani, chapter 4 in Information Appliances and Beyond, Eric Bergman, ed. • Fast access to key features on small screens -> • Only a few commands used a lot • Leave commands off main screen, even if not symmetric • new vs. delete • (think stapler and stapler remover) • Note that violates consistency • Tap and then type in schedule and to-do • Only four buttons – which ones? • Vs. Windows CE -> if know PC, this is familiar • But usage models are different • PC: infrequent long usage • Palm: frequent short bursts of usage

15. Design for Small Devices, 2 • Analogy: people like to eat in a car • Palm design is like adding the cup holder • Have a house with the other appliances (like the PC) • They did lots of user testing with prototypes created using HyperCard • Usage scenarios

16. Studies for Windows CE “The Interaction Design of Microsoft Windows CE”, by Sarah Zuberec, chapter 5 in Information Appliances and Beyond, Eric Bergman, ed. • Studies: minimum target: stylus = 5.04mm2, finger = 9.04mm2 • Drag between down and up for “tap” = 2mm • Many usage scenarios • User tests identified Tahoma 10 bold as best system font, but couldn’t be used because not enough content fit in the dialogs • So used Tahoma 9 • Novice users did better with keyboard, but experts preferred character recognizer • Problem with initial designs: too many taps • Achieved “walk up and use” but too slow for experts • Double tap with stylus difficult and unnatural • “Consistency worked against learning and use.”

17. Studies for a Mobile Phone “Designing Mobile Phones and Communicators for Consumer’s Needs at Nokia”, by Kaisa Vaananen-Vainio-Mattila and Satu Ruuska, chapter 7 in Information Appliances and Beyond, Eric Bergman, ed. • Physical context: used while walking, standing, etc. -> one handed and two handed use (and no hands) • Various lighting conditions • Holding device in various positions (against ear, looking at it) • Designed with many usage scenarios

18. What WAP can do • Menus with numbered items • Number entry fields • Text entry, but slow • “Cards” metaphor = grouping mechanism for menus • Next card, previous card provided by device • WAP encodes WML in a binary format so smaller

19. iMode • Ref: http://www.eurotechnology.com/imode/faq-gen.html • imode is NTT DoCoMo's mobile internet access system. • “imode” is also a trademark and/or service mark owned by NTT DoCoMo. • Lots of subscribers • 25 million by July’2001 • 50,000 more every day • All Japanese (now) • iMode uses chtml – closer toregular html than WML • iMode packet switched =always on, vs. WAP = dialup

20. Why iMode So Successful • ? • Maybe: • Easy to author, for businesses and people -> lots of content • Less internet in people’s homes • Wired access charges are high • Relatively low street price for phones • High mobile phone penetration (60 million mobile subscribers) • imode uses packet switched system so quicker (always on) • Relatively low fees. • Efficient micro-billing system via the mobile phone bill. Microbilling system makes it easy for subscribers to pay for value added, premium sites, and attractive for site owners to sell information to users. • Fashion and efficient marketing. • Email is the killer app • Better user interface (similar to AOL)

21. Course Summary What I hope you have learned…

22. Usability and eCommerce • Users can easily choose a different eCommerce site • So yours must be the one they want to use • Users will often select based on ease of use • Usability will be a “core competency” for Web design • Can achieve ease of use through: • Focus on tasks • Taking design criteria into account • Evaluation of interfaces by usability experts and users • Refining design based on feedback

23. Thank You! Please fill out questionnaire.