EATL Mobile Apps Development Contest
User Experience Design
Grooming Session 2
Mobile Apps’ UX
Conducted by:
Masrur Hannan, bd.linkedin.com/in/masrurhannan
8 March 2013, 10:00 am – 12.30 pm
BASIS auditorium, Karwan Bazaar, Dhaka.
Topics:
The Mobile App marketplace, big picture …. 2
The Lifecycle of a Mobile App…. 3
The Elements Of The Mobile User Experience …. 4-5
Quick Mobile App UX improvement tips …. 6-9
Next: User Testing and Usability Inspections/ Studies.
User Experience design for Mobile Apps – UX Grooming Session 2, EATL Mobile Apps Development Contest.
Discussion notes by Masrur Hannan. 8 March 2013, 10:45 am – 12.30 pm | BASIS, Karwan Bazaar, Dhaka.
2
Mobile App marketplace – the big picture!
CNet, June 7, 2011: App downloads to hit nearly 48 billion in 2015!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20069658-17/study-app-downloads-to-hit-nearly-48-billion-in-2015/
MarketResearch.com Feb 20, 2013: 46 billion downloaded in 2012, Total: 83 billion.
http://www.marketresearch.com/Portio-Research-Limited-v3272/Mobile-Applications-Futures-7368814/
XYO.net Jan 2013: Download Estimates for 1,874,851 Apps and 518,568 Publishers http://xyo.net/app-downloads-reports/
Supply and demand?
Safe to say demand is there in Bangladesh? Or, to be created?
What are the apps YOU love or use?!
“People keep apps they really use or love, otherwise the applications are deleted.”
User Experience design for Mobile Apps – UX Grooming Session 2, EATL Mobile Apps Development Contest.
Discussion notes by Masrur Hannan. 8 March 2013, 10:45 am – 12.30 pm | BASIS, Karwan Bazaar, Dhaka.
3
Mobile Apps’ UX
The Lifecycle of a Mobile App, a User’s Perspective
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/10/the-lifecycle-of-a-mobile-app-a-users-perspective.php
By Michael Griffith , Ex UX Director, HP | Published: October 17, 2011
“The average user doesn’t open a mobile app more than twenty times, and people use only one
third of the apps they download beyond 30 days.”
Stage One: The App Store
Experience
“Building a great app
experience may not result in a
download, so it’s important
that the app store experience
be a designed experience.”
Stage Two: The First-Open
Experience
“The first-open experience is
crucial. … This first
impression often determines
whether the user ever opens
the app again.”
Stage Three: Attempting Simple Tasks
“Once an app survives the first-open experience, users come back to the app in a time of need,
with a specific task in mind. This is, hopefully, when users discover the app’s usability and
thoughtful experience design.”
Stage Four: Attempting Complex Tasks
“The app has created expectations in the user’s mind. The app has handled previous tasks well, so
the user assumes it will handle secondary tasks and exception paths just as well.”
User Experience design for Mobile Apps – UX Grooming Session 2, EATL Mobile Apps Development Contest.
Discussion notes by Masrur Hannan. 8 March 2013, 10:45 am – 12.30 pm | BASIS, Karwan Bazaar, Dhaka.
4
The Elements Of The Mobile User Experience
http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2012/07/12/elements-mobile-user-experience
By Lyndon Cerejo; UX professional, Clients include: American Express, Coca-Cola, Walmart etc | July 12th, 2012
Functionality
This has to do with tools and features that enable users to complete tasks and achieve their goals.
Information Architecture
This has to do with arranging the functionality and content into a logical structure to help users
find information and complete tasks. This includes navigation, search and labeling.
Content
Otherwise known as “the stuff on your website” (as Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville refer to it
in Information Architecture for the World Wide Web), content is the various types of material in
different formats, such as text, images and video, that provide information to the user.
Design
This has to do with the visual presentation and interactive experience of mobile, including graphic
design, branding and layout.
User Experience design for Mobile Apps – UX Grooming Session 2, EATL Mobile Apps Development Contest.
Discussion notes by Masrur Hannan. 8 March 2013, 10:45 am – 12.30 pm | BASIS, Karwan Bazaar, Dhaka.
5
User Input
This has to do with the effort required to enter data, which should be minimized on mobile devices
and not require the use of both hands.
Mobile Context
A mobile device can be used at anytime, anywhere. The mobile context is about the environment
and circumstances of usage — anything that affects the interaction between the user and the
interface, which is especially important for mobile because the context can change constantly and
rapidly. While we often focus on distractions, multitasking, motion, low lighting conditions and
poor connectivity, it also includes the other extreme — think using a tablet in a relaxed setting
over a fast Wi-Fi connection.
Usability
This is the overall measure of how well the information architecture, design, content and other
elements work together to enable users to accomplish their goals.
Trustworthiness
This relates to the level of confidence, trust and comfort that users feel when using a mobile
website or app. According to a 2011 study by Truste and Harris Interactive, privacy and security
are the top two concerns among smartphone users:
Feedback
This has to do with the methods for attracting the user’s attention and displaying important
information.
Help
This relates to the options, products and services that are available to assist the user in using the
website or app.
Social
This relates to content and features that create a sense of social participation, that enable user
interaction and that facilitate sharing on established social networks.
Marketing
This has to do with the methods by which a user finds a website or app and the factors that
encourage repeated usage.
* The above publication covers various Elements associated with Mobile User Experience Design
according to the author. There can be other elements, concepts and theories; however considering
principles of Usability and User Experience Design should remain in the core.
User Experience design for Mobile Apps – UX Grooming Session 2, EATL Mobile Apps Development Contest.
Discussion notes by Masrur Hannan. 8 March 2013, 10:45 am – 12.30 pm | BASIS, Karwan Bazaar, Dhaka.
6
Couple of quick Mobile App UX improvement tips:
Sources: http://www.nngroup.com/topic/mobile-and-tablet-design/ (mostly)
As few features as possible
Small Screen – Bigger touch targets – lesser options to click in 1 screen
To have a successful mobile
site or app, the obvious
guideline is to design for the
small screen.
Sadly, some don't, and we still
see users struggle to hit tiny
areas that are much smaller
than their fingers. The fat-
finger syndrome will be with
us for years to come.
As less User Input as possible …
When you have a smaller screen, you must limit the number of
features to those that matter the most for the mobile use case.
Mobile Design = Small and Targeted
To have a successful mobile site or app, the obvious guideline is to design
for the small screen. Sadly, some don't, and we still see users struggle to hit
tiny areas that are much smaller than their fingers. The fat-finger syndrome
will be with us for years to come.
The second point is more conceptual — and harder for some people to accept:
When you have a smaller screen, you must limit the number of features to
those that matter the most for the mobile use case.
Don't show more than X menu items; don't write more than Y words per page;
nothing should be more than Z clicks from the homepage. Sadly, UI design
doesn't work that way!
User Experience design for Mobile Apps – UX Grooming Session 2, EATL Mobile Apps Development Contest.
Discussion notes by Masrur Hannan. 8 March 2013, 10:45 am – 12.30 pm | BASIS, Karwan Bazaar, Dhaka.
7
Avoid requiring use of both hands for inputs.
Minimize texts and instructions.
Users won’t spend much time reading text when they’re trying to get things done. Instructions
might actually impede an interaction. The best approach is to make a design as easy as possible to
use, so no instructions are necessary.
Easy Readability + interactions
User Experience design for Mobile Apps – UX Grooming Session 2, EATL Mobile Apps Development Contest.
Discussion notes by Masrur Hannan. 8 March 2013, 10:45 am – 12.30 pm | BASIS, Karwan Bazaar, Dhaka.
8
Desktop copywriting must be concise; mobile copywriting must be even more concise.
Alerts/ Errors
Brief and clear
Provide feedback and confirmation on screen without disrupting the user’s workflow
Optimum number of alerts to display
Mobile users can be in a rush/ relaxed/ distracted when using your app + Human Limitations!
short-term memory famously holds only about 7 chunks of information , and these fade from your brain in about 20
seconds
Response times must be fast enough that users don't forget what they're in the middle of doing while waiting for the
next page to load.
Help and Support; great UX = no instructions!
User Experience design for Mobile Apps – UX Grooming Session 2, EATL Mobile Apps Development Contest.
Discussion notes by Masrur Hannan. 8 March 2013, 10:45 am – 12.30 pm | BASIS, Karwan Bazaar, Dhaka.
9
Easy for users to access help and support options
Offer contextual help and tips to guide users the first time
A good resource: http://mobiledesignpatterngallery.com/mobile-patterns.php
To consider ….
How Do Users Really Hold and interact with Mobile Devices?
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2013/02/how-do-users-really-hold-mobile-devices.php
For next session: User Testing and Usability Inspections/ Studies
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/weekly-user-testing-tivo/
Masrur Hannan
www.linkedin.com/in/masrurhannan