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next generation mobile authoring

Technological convergence, increased connectivity and consumer expectations are merging to create a landscape of opportunity for the next generation of mobile content, services and applications. Success and adoption are dependent on creating usable and useful experiences — positive interactions that are integrated into an individual’s actual lifestyle. Emerging technologies providing streaming music, video and entertainment raise the level of interaction and usage to a new level, increasing the complexity of interfaces and heightening challenges to interface designers and usability professionals. Television is rapidly being added to the list of convergent devices, which already include cell phones, MP3 players, video and still cameras, gameboys and personal computers. Slingbox has just announced Sling Player Mobile which offers consumers the ability to watch their favorite programming from their smartphones or PDA’s.

Developing a process to achieve this goal of lifestyle-oriented design is challenging. Not in concept, but in execution. In theory, integrating research into the design process is academic. In reality, fast-paced development cycles with investors driving time-to-market and the competition quickly closing the gap leave little time for usability testing and research. Optimal product cycles are disciplined and structured, but the real world has little patience for this level or organization. This diagram shows the integration of rapid ethnography and informal usability testing cycles into a series of releases. Instead of driving with an engineering effort and a feature set - the product or mobile service is developed based on needs and desires.

Lifestyle Process

[click on chart above to access flash version. Press #1 - #9 for section enlargement, and mouse click to zoom in and out of illustration]

Traditional authoring and application development follows a series of steps from use case development to the creation of detailed technical specifications. Iterative cycles of development focused on user needs achieve the most integrated and useful result. When following the iterative lifestyle process, the design and development team work with actual customers to determine changes in labeling, path flows and device-specific issues in order to understand how to create an optimal experience.

Iterative Process

Creating a usable interface for this next generation of mobile devices will require the formation of multidisciplinary teams — visual designers, technologists, ethnographers and usability specialists working together in close collaboration. As the feature sets, menu items and functionality of mobile products and services become more complex, the techniques required to create effective end-user experiences will become more disciplined and focused. Iterative design cycles along with contextual inquiry and usability testing are already standard practices for product development, however still not established methods within the visual interface design community. Product and interface disciplines need to mix, and a new working style established in order to meet the rigorous deadlines and pace.

Posted on April 11th, 2006 in Thoughts
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Written by Kelly Goto

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  1. Pingback April 11th, 2006 by nowuseit.com » links for 2006-04-15 : Martin Sønderlev Christensen : links for 2006-04-15

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