I am interested to know how many organisations out there are running the “am I optimised for an iPhone or iPod touch” test as well as the various usability, accessibility, browser compatibility, search engine optimisation, and other tests we usually run when developing new online products or services?
I’m willing to bet not many. In fact I know you are not. Because I have an iPhone, and a lot of your web content is not doing it for me. Nor are your documents. Nor your emails. So in this series of posts I want to start thinking about some things we can do to make our online offerings - or at least those relevant to mobile device users - iFriendly.
To me, this starts with acknowledging the iUser – just one of a number of mobile users out there who might seek access to the services we provide.
Getting to know the iUser
One of the reasons I got an iPhone is because I like to travel. I like to travel and I like to stay in touch with people but I don’t always like to lug around a laptop, guidebook, and camera; nor to sit in dirty internet cafes trying to work out how to reset Google from German to English.
I am also of the generation that does not retain certain types of information because I know how to find it if I need to. Why duplicate the effort of millions of servers?
Here are some other things you might like to know if you want me to keep in touch with your website now that I am no longer shackled to a desktop. I'll look more deeply at the significance of these points in further posts:
- Generally, I am the same as the iPod touch user (a more likely visitor to your site if you are in New Zealand) except I have phone apps too.
- For better or worse, I am using Safari, and it’s Safari for iPhone not for the computer desktop.
- I am using my fingers, not a mouse. Now, my fingers are not exactly sausages, but they’re not a precision input device like a stylus either.... I wonder if there’d be a market for a thimble-type thing with a small cube on the top for precision touching? Call it nimble touch or something. Apologies, I digress....
- My middle finger can’t cut, copy or paste (though come to think of it this would actually be kind of useful in everyday life). What I am mainly doing is tapping and pinching, pressing and panning. Yes, I realise this sounds a little odd.
- I can’t resize my browser window but I can and will zoom – a lot – and I will move your content around all over the place under my squiddly sized (but zoomifying) viewing window, which can be either portrait or landscape. Imagine someone interacting with a newspaper page using a rectangular magnifying glass. That’s me, my iPhone, and your current web page. Sort of.
- I am in the real world. Maybe I am in a bookshop wanting to know whether I should pay $35 for a new title or get it from your library. Maybe I can’t remember what time you close. The real world has a lot of other sensory stuff going on. Don’t add to my confusion.
- I’m probably in one of these places. For the most part, I am in an experience – I don’t want an experience. I just want information relevant to my context, or the context I am shortly going to be in, and I want it now.
- I am in transit. I may be on the train (OK, so it’s not a New Zealand train). I could be in the airport waiting for my plane, or out on the street. I am going places! My primary destination is not your website. Sorry. Usually it’s your information relevant to my site, where I am with my iPhone that counts.
- I am Googling to find stuff because, whether rightly or wrongly, my device comes with Google built in. If you are not optimised for one of these search engines, I’ll find you but it will be hard. I may bookmark you though – and I seem to be using my RSS feed reader more than usual. What I’m not doing so much is browsing.
- Because I am that kind of person, I think cellphone and keitai fiction is cool and I’d like to see libraries offering me nano-works like this for when I am sitting in an airport or on a train. A bit like the Wellington poetry on buses initiative. But I may be alone in this.
Google, which has a mobile user experience strategy, categorises mobile users into three behaviour groups: Repetitive now, Bored now, Urgent now. You can read about them in this article by Stephen Wellman on informationweek.com.
So far I have been oscillating between bored (waiting for stuff to happen, nobody around to talk to, didn’t bring a book) and urgent (need some information fast to help make something happen). You can take a look here if you want to see how I am physically (learning about) interacting with my iPhone.
The question is how can you let me reach out and touch your website? I’ll put forward some personal thoughts and beginner's research to that end in the next post.
7 comments:
Nice post - sets a lot of thought trains rolling.
1. iPhones/iPod touch are not ubiquitous yet, and should not be the standard by which we seek to provide mobile interfaces. In fact the Safari browser on these allows whole website rendering.
2. We may not have iPhones in New Zealand in a hurry, see article
3. iPhone came out of a whole environment where these technologies are emerging, others will probably quickly catch up. See blog post.
4. Unlocking the mystery of the appeal of Apple interfaces lie partly in the transitions (apart from the fabulous marketing), See blog post.
5. You can also check out Telecom's Okta (not that I'm advocating that)
6. The dimensions and form factor of the iPhone are very likely to change in the coming years. Note, the first generations of iPod and how quickly the interface has changed.
7. Open standards are preferable to proprietary, at least till the proprietary acquires market dominance (aka Windows). See, Apple patenting touch gestures
8. The iPhone interface is not the final word, we are just getting started on radical evolutions in this environment. We can look forward to combining our upcoming Web Services layer with platforms such as Google Android.
In response to aditya prateek anand:
1. agreed that iPhones/iPod touch are not yet ubiquitous, but it is not necessary for them to be ubiquitous for us to consider them in our design decisions and product offerings. The iPod Touch, in particular, is a breakthrough in terms of mobile browsing experience and price point, and has proven extraordinarily popular. Surely this warrants the kind of attention that this blog post is giving it.
2. that article is back in September, and the fact is that the iPhones are already in NZ, working on the Vodafone network, through the grey market. I would be surprised if they weren't available directly from vodafone this year. Mostly, however, the iPod Touch is equivalent and is already here in large numbers.
3. the issues raised in this post apply generally to other mobile devices as well, and arguably to the next generation
4. if you say so
5. in terms of total hits against our site, I would be surprised to see the Okta register alongside iPhone/iPod Touch, but as in 3, above, many of the same issues identified for iPhone/iPod touch users would apply to Okta users.
6. fundamentally, much the same issues, again as in 3.
7. I disagree that Windows is preferable to open standards, or that it's unnecessary to ensure our sites work with these kinds of mobile devices just because aspects of their interface are not yet open standards.
8. yes, but this is a great and timely first step into this space.
My thoughts cravenly turn to the style implications ... Your thimble question links to something that entered my awareness yesterday - the problems of using an iPhone in cold weather. The touch screen responds to the electrical signals from your fingers - so what to do when you're wearing gloves and want to use your iPhone?
Well, you get gloves with conducting pads. Or yachting gloves with the thumb and forefinger tips cut out. Or butcher your own glove. Or buy these ones, which are the closest of the options to something I'd wear in public.
I spot a Craft 2.0 niche here ... how about disco gloves, knitted with metallic threads? Gloves with touch pads that are also little lights (for looking for your iPhone in your bag in the dark)? Could sequins conduct electrical signals?
I knew this blog would launch an online debate. Though we might all be arguing about the same goals from different view points. As to Elliott's points to my points, here we go:
1. I agree, we need not by any means exclude iPhone/iPod touch from our design decisions. However, let see how the scope pans out when the project time and resources are mapped out. Also, all raise hands those that use iPhone/iPod touch as their primary form of internet browser - not many, would be my guess, given the current market penetration and availability of other devices such as smaller form factor laptops, smart phones etc. If the iPhone required specialised rendering in contrast to other more common mobile platforms, we would have to prioritise.
2. You just said 'grey market' didn't you? So the iPhone itself is not legally in NZ. iPod touch contrarily is here, and we can wait for sometime to see where it goes in terms of internet user device preference market penetration.
3. Exactly! It's not just about the iPhone.
4. I do say so.
5. I agree Okta is not a major player, but it's an example of touch smartphone alternative. Most people don't even know these exist.
6. Yup, similar to 3.
7. Read again. I did not say Windows is preferable to open standards, in fact neither are Apple products and technologies. Note that Apple is seeking to patent touch gestures which will create problems for other manufacturers.
8. I agree, iPhone (or iPod touch) is a wonderful device. Our work environment should assign us all one of these!
Hi Virginia,
what's the iPhone like for answering a lot of email with fat fingers (mine not yours)? Do you use the Exchange service for mobile devices? I still prefer my iPAQ with stylus to thumbing Blackberry keys, but am thinking about changing...
Good to see the trains a'rolling!
Brian, the phone has a 'Mail' feature, which lets you add accounts (Y!mail, Gmail, .mac, AOL, Other - IMAP, POP, Exchange). Not sure what you mean by Exchange? Is that MS Exchange?
I have to say that so far I haven't been emailing much as I haven't had a chance to investigate how much this is costing me. As it's mainly for personal use I figure until then, people who need to be in touch with me urgently will know to text. Anyone else can wait.
In terms of using the Mail feature, and generally, I do find the keys on the board a bit close together - same for text (cheers for the fashion advice Courtney, maybe the gloves will help me hone my input-ability?). Others are finding the same.
The keyboard is good in landscape view, not so good in portrait (for me anyway who has pudgy end bits on my fingers for some evolutionary reason that isn't adaptation to Apple). It only does landscape for Web, not Mail, text etc - so I can happily use Gmail on the web. I imagine the keyboard will evolve as the device does though.
I'm not going to go into physical "device" usability so much in this series, more commentary on what I'm accessing with the device. Others might have comments to add in this sphere though?
Since this post was posted, have done some more digging on the iPhone keyboard. You might find this video from Apple of interest?
Not sure if the video is an ambulance at the top of bottom of the cliff.. 'Complex mathematics' 'Great iPhone feature' 'Advanced technology' ... I still wonder whether the keys could be just a bit further apart? A colleague also raised an interesting point when she asked why a new generation device needs to replicate a Qwerty?
But I did find the video educational, and have indeed become better (faster) at typing over time.
On my wish list for the iPhone, however (and this, along with demo video guy, says something about the target demographic for the device I think) is an in-built txt dictionary.
Vowels have their place but not always. Just as you can switch 'predictive' on and off in other mobile phones, a 'txt' mode on the iPhone would be very um, handy.
For example, I find it frustrating that "the" constantly turns into "tv", "whr" into "she", "grt" into "get"... after learning to txt lk a 12 yr old fls a bt lk my tngue hs bn tied. Or should that be re-expanded?
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