Upload
techwellpresentations
View
481
Download
5
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
If users can’t figure out how to use your mobile applications and what’s in it for them, they’re gone. Usability and UX are key factors in keeping users satisfied so understanding, measuring, testing and improving these factors are critical to the success of today’s mobile applications. However, sometimes these concepts can be confusing—not only differentiating them but also defining and understanding them. Philip Lew explores the meanings of usability and UX, discusses how they are related, and then examines their importance for today’s mobile applications. After a brief discussion of how the meanings of usability and user experience depend on the context of your product, Phil defines measurements of usability and user experience that you can use right away to quantify these subjective attributes. He crystallizes abstract definitions into concepts that can be measured, with metrics to evaluate and improve your product, and provide numerous examples to demonstrate the concepts on how to improve your mobile app.
Citation preview
Improving Mobile Applica2on User Experience
Philip Lew
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 1
Meet Your Instructor • Phil Lew
– Telecommunications network engineer – Team Lead, Data warehousing product development – Software product manager, BI product – COO, large IT services company – CEO, XBOSoft, software qa and testing services
• Relevant specialties/Research – Software quality process improvement – Software usability evaluation – Software quality in use / UX design
2 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Agenda
• What is usability and UX and why important? • Usability and UX Design and Testing
Concepts – Web – Mobile
• Some Exercises mixed in for testing and evaluating applications
• Q&A
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 3
Workshop/Session Spirit
• Interac2ve • I won’t read the slides… • Slides for you as a take-‐away • Ask ques2ons… OR I will !!!
4 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 5
Usability-UX and Its Importance
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 6
Mobile User Expectations • Business models have
changed – Instead of paying
upfront and ‘owning’ the software
– Pay as you go, pay by subscription
• Cloud and mobile convergence
• Behavior and expectations have changed
61% of Verizon users now have smartphones
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 7
What Users Do With Their Mobile
8
http://marketingland.com/smartphone-activities-study-email-web-facebook-37954
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Mobile Tasks
9
Importance of User Context For Mobile Apps
From: A Diary Study of Mobile Information Needs, Sohn, Li, Griswold, Hollan
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Context of the User
10
From: A Diary Study of Mobile Information Needs, Sohn, Li, Griswold, Hollan
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Mobile Usability Challenges • Limited attention – people often multi-tasking • User needs triggered by context
– Application needs to provide what they want at the “right” time and in a form appropriate to the current context.
• Require access to personal data, obtained either through web-based services or their personal devices.
• Require sensitivity to the task at hand, context, and requirements for personal and public data
11 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Mobile Task Considerations • Small screen and slow interaction
– slow download speed and/or small keypads
• What functionalities of your full app need to be transferred to mobile? – More items >> less attention for each of them
• Task workflow on mobile should require just 1- 2 clicks – Each click is an opportunity for a dropped
connection or slow downloading user experience.
12 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Tasks Suited For Mobile • Tasks that have a deadline
– Buying a gift at the last minute – Paying bills during vacations – checking bank balances before writing a check
• Tasks that involve rapidly changing information – Traffic, flight information, movie schedules, directions
• Tasks that require privacy – Small screens ideal for private activities – Check personal email or doing non-work related tasks – Social networking
13 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Tasks Not Suited For Mobile • Involve a large amount of complexity and/or very
time consuming – Research – Large amounts of reading – Comparison of many options – Advanced transactions
14
What is your mobile app task and is it suited for mobile?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Basic Usability Concepts
User Experience
Usability Effect
Usability Design
15 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Design-Test and Evaluate
Design
Test and Evaluate
Release
Test and Evaluate
16
• What will the mobileapp do?
• Is it a conversion of exis2ng app?
• What func2ons will a user really access?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Usability - Design Perspective
• Understandability • Learn-ability • Operability • Attractiveness • Navigation • Responsiveness-performance
17
What else can you think of?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
If the user cannot figure it out in 30 seconds, they are gone.
Source: ISO 25010
Usability-Effect
18
Degree to which specified users can achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Usability-Effect “Context” and “Specified”
• User role • Objective • Task • Environment • Domain • …
19
specified users
specified goals
specified context of use
What else can you think of? Who are your users? What are their goals?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Design and Test For the Task Prioritize tasks - Some tasks more important than others.
– Majority of app’s value is provided by a small number of tasks.
Examples • Highly specific
– You want to sell 20 shares of stock for a security you know you own.
• Directed, but less specific. – Find the stocks in my account/portfolio.
• Open-ended, but restricted to a predetermined site or app. – See where the market is today
20
If you are not involved in the design…. ASK © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Exercise
1. Work in groups of 2-‐3 2. Examine one of your applica2ons
– Or a common applica2on 3. Determine the objec2ve of the
applica2on 4. Develop a list of 5 tasks 5. Priori2ze the tasks
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 21
Source: ISO 25010
Usability-Effect User Experience
• Satisfaction – The degree to which users are
satisfied in a specified context of use. Satisfaction is further subdivided into sub-characteristics:
• Likability (cognitive satisfaction) • Pleasure (emotional satisfaction) • Comfort (physical satisfaction) • Trust
22
Including many other factors experienced over time and other channels
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Apps and Trust-‐-‐UX
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 23
What other methods can create trust or distrust?
Mobile Usability
• What we have learned so far: • What is usability/UX • Design considerations
• What’s next • Special considerations for mobile devices • Integration • Evaluation and testing criteria 24
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Mobile Usability Review • Just having app/website is not enough • What matters for users
– Time to load the website – User interface – Accessibility of various functions
available – What is a key function? • Usability design needs to change,
otherwise usability effect and UX will suffer
25
How many of you have an
m.companyname.com site?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Mobile Usability Different Platforms Need Different Design
• Horizontal swiping now universal – Include a visible cue when people can swipe – Avoid swipe ambiguity: don't use the same swipe gesture to
mean different things on different areas of the same screen or within same app.
– Use the same meanings for mobile phones and tablets – Mobile-device (iPad) users typically expect to horizontally swipe
while desktop websites avoid horizontal scrolling
• Mobile sites should perform better than full sites when used on a mobile device.
• Mobile apps should integrate with the desktop version
26
Web-‐Mobile Integra2on
• Poor integra2on • BUT Straighcorward about it
27
Mobile Usability Design
Evaluation and Testing Criteria
User Experience
Usability Effect
Usability Design
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 28
Evaluation and Testing Criteria • Typing/Input • Entry Widgets (Drop downs, links, and lists) • Sort and Filter • Menus and Forms • Registration • Navigation • Search implementation • Errors • Visibility
29 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
TYPING
What kinds of evalua2on criteria would be important here?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 30
Typing • Typing can be quite difficult for mobile
users – Reduced keypad – Big fingers for big people – Lessened dexterity (older users –
MORE AND MORE) • Save as much of the users’ typing work
as possible • Reduce the cost of typing
31 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Typing-Use Personalization and History to Provide Defaults
• Defaults can be based on what the user has
typed or submitted in the past (e.g., zipcodes, names, addresses) – Don’t use 0 as the default for a telephone
number or zip code. – Remember the last value last typed for
their zip code and use for subsequent entries.
• Allow Easy Deletion for Defaults
32 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Compute/Fill In Values • Compute and fill in for the user
if possible and appropriate – i.e. detect location for location
aware apps – Zip code à compute other
information automatically – Adding postage costs to the
total costs • Users often expect location
information determined automatically.
33 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Typing-Input
• Characteris2cs or criteria would we evaluate/test for UX – Typing mistake tolerant – Defaults provided – Dele2on of defaults – Computed values – What others to add?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 34
WIDGET ENTRY Dropdowns, bueons, boxes, links, lists, etc…
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 35
Dropdown Boxes, Buttons, and Links
• Build in tolerance for error – Leave space around
widgets that need to be clicked (buttons, arrows for dropdown boxes, links, scrollbars)
• Be consistent in using space around links and widgets
36
Un-frequent functions
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Lists and Scrolling • All the items on a list should go
on the same page: – if the items are text-only, and – if they are sorted in an order
that matches the needs of the task.
• Users are willing to scroll down a list if they know how far along they are and how much more work they have to do. – Sorted alphabetically
37 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Carousels
• Use simple controls for going back and forward. – Manual carousel allows
the user to control the carousel if decides to use it.
38 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Sorting and Filtering • Many ways to sort the
same list, depending on the user and the task
• For different sort criteria, provide the option to sort that list according to all criteria
39 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Exercise • Exercise: Find out if a flight from Munich to
London is on time for today. Try 2 diff airlines. – Don’t have the number of the flight or
the exact time – Look through the list of arrivals at
London Heathrow Airport • Exercise: Do a search on Wine Spectator
to see what search criteria you can use.
Think of the searches your users will do?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 40
FORMS AND REGISTRATION/LOGIN Lots of input! How do we handle this?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 41
Forms-Textboxes
• Textboxes in a form should be long enough so they fit on the screen and accommodate user input.
42
LONG Input
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Form Field Descriptions • Small screen – easy to
lose context and become disoriented so descriptions are important.
• Description critical in a form, where many fields have to be filled in.
• OR use the technique shown here.
43 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Login/User Registration • Passwords and usernames
are hard • Do not ask people to register
on a mobile device – Sign in is different than
registration • Skipping registration should
be the default option, but less features
• Registration incurs an extra time/click cost on mobile devices 44 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
User Registra2on – Cont. • Offer the option of
proceeding without registration or sign in
• What would you give users access to without and ID?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 45
SEARCH Similar to sort and filter but liele different-‐let’s see
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 46
Implementing Search Functions
• Search takes space and grabs user’s attention, distracting from other tasks
• Think clearly about your users’ task at hand – Browsing tasks – Searching tasks – Execution oriented
47 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Search Boxes • Length of the search box >= average
search string. Use largest possible size that will fit on the screen. – Preserve search strings between
searches. – Use auto-completion and
suggestions. – Give history-based defaults.
• Do not use several search boxes with different functions on the same page. – one for stocks by company symbol – one for stocks by company name – one for search within their articles
48 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Search – No Results • If the search returns no results,
offer alternatives – No search results often due
to typo in query – Inform user of search failure – Offer results to alternative
searches • Search by company name
(“Autodesk”) in the search-by- symbol box à 0 search results.
• Zero search results should have triggered a search by name 49 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Search Implementation Sub-‐a9ribute Where to apply EvaluaDon: 2 – all, 1
– parDal, 0 -‐ none
Search box length appropriateness
Auto-‐comple2on appropriateness
Error handling
No Results handling
50 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
NAVIGATION Where do you want to go today?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 51
Navigation • Users have different goals
in mind and use apps in different context
• Must easily find their way. • Navigation on desktop
apps is standardized (by MSFT defacto)
• Navigation should be the same on mobile.
• Due to the small screens, adaptations required
52
But it’s NOT
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Required Clicks • Minimize the clicks that
the user needs to go through in order to input information on your site.
• Compress steps together on a single screen if appropriate rather than separate screens.
53 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Exercise
• Break into small teams of 2-‐3 people • Complete the task of returning a phone call
– Start from home screen • What criteria would you use to rate naviga2on?
• Tell me what results you got with 2-‐3 different phones/OS
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 54
ERRORS Keep It Simple Stupid
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 55
Errors - Prevention
• Prevention is the first thing we want to do! – Context sensitive
help – What other ways
can we prevent errors?
56
Nice long search bar
Make Error Messages Simple
• Error messages need to be seen and presented simply
• Tell the user where the error happened (browser, website, application, etc.), what does not work, and what the user needs to do.
• Explain where the error is coming from.
57 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Errors-Status
Let the user know what’s going on! Error or not (Embark – Metro – Washington DC)
58 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Error Handling • Form input error loca2on no2fica2on • Error explana2on and status • Error preven2on • Other
What other Error Handling
characteris2cs would you use for YOUR app to evaluate/test it?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 59
DISPLAY AND VISIBILITY Monkey See Monkey Do
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 60
Visibility Images, Animation, Videos, Text
• Include images only if they add meaningful content – Not for decora2on: How does the image contribute to the content, task or message?
– Benefit versus cost -‐ they take space on the page and download slowly for online app.
– Do thumbnails really add value or just look cool?
61 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Image Sizes • Do not use image sizes that
are bigger than the screen à entire image should be viewable with no scrolling. – Details are important but
only after the user has interest level in the picture.
62 Bart
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Horizontal Scroll
63
What does this tell you?
DC Metro © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Displaying Content
People rarely read all the text • For information apps, new content should be
given priority. • Summarize content: When users click on the
summary/headline, they are taken to more detail that does not repeat information in the summary.
• Concise, direct language • Format, use of bullets • Think about context!
64 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Special Mobile Application Domain Considerations (Context)
• Location – Aware • Shopping and Ecommerce • Banking and Finance
65 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Maps and Location-Aware Applications
• Location aware applications are becoming more prevalent on mobile applications.
• Whenever you have location information in your app, link it to a map and include a way of getting directions.
• Cutting and pasting is inconvenient or impossible.
• Don’t just give users an address without a way to find it on a map
66 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Location Aware Apps
67
• Give users a choice!
• Create TRUST
Embark – Metro Washington DC
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Ecommerce Apps • With products, use image thumbnails that are big
enough so that the user can recognize what it is – Use an image size that fits the screen.
• Provide option to email a product to a friend. • Provide option to save that product and return to
it later. • Provide option to save the product in a wish list. • Allow users to save the items that they like, so
that they could go back to them on a larger screen (integrate with desktop app) and inspect them more closely.
68 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Ecommerce Apps
Always Provide Critical Information: • Locations and opening hours (if applicable) -
checking location information, business hours, and order status are most frequent types of mobile based ecommerce activities
• Shipping costs - Make sure easily accessible and noticeable.
• Phone number-Make the phone number easily findable so users feel comfortable they can call if there is a problem with their order
• Order status 69 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Banking Apps • Mobile banking and financial transactions growing • Provide clear understanding of mobile app
security • Users hesitant to make transactions that involve
any significant amount of transaction – Enable confirmation by emailing a message to
themselves. – Confirmation are hard to write down when you
are ‘mobile’. – Give users comfort they will have later access
to that confirmation number. 70 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Let’s Step Through a Few Examples
Usability and UX For Mobile (time permitting)
71 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
LA • What is wrong here?
72 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
LA MS • Consistent green • Obviously want you to
click and add to the bag
73 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
LA Mobile App • Big buttons • Good for big fingers • Semi-meaningful
icons on the bottom – Note contextual
location
74 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Buy or Share?
• No placement of importance or priority
75
This is one place where general
Usability principles apply!
Maybe on purpose?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Select Size • Good navigation • Good size buttons • No priority
76 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
In my Basket
• What should I do now?
• Buy or share? • Indication of where
we are in the process
77 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Shopping Basket
• Empty or Checkout?
78 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
What would you recommend they
do here?
Bloomberg • Simple Info App • Simple colors • Meaningful Icons • Big enough to see
AND click on with big fonts
• Summary going to detail
79 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Fidelity • Easy to use scroll
– Thumb Friendly • Simple colors • Very limited task
based functionality
80 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Fidelity • Size and
Importance • Easy to see what
they want you to do
• Consistent icons on bottom – Simple – Not everything
81 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Yelp • Easy on the eyes • Semi-meaningful
icons
82
Based on what we just learned, what attributes would this app score well on?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Yelp • Consistent • Finger friendly • Consistent location of
icons on bottom
83
Similar to Fidelity
What does this mean?
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Making Assumptions
• Sense the platform and switch to a ‘mobile site’ to provide mobile users with more efficient web experience.
• Don’t make too many assumptions regarding the users’ expectations.
• For full United.com site, we need to scroll to the bottom to find the link.
84
Give a Choice to Avoid Making the Wrong Assumption
• Managing user expectations of how the application should behave needs to be thought out carefully.
• Context of the user and their expectations is key.
• LinkedIn appears to be one step ahead and gives you a choice when accessing their site; an optimized mobile experience via an mobile-app, or just their ordinary website.
85
Web-Mobile Integration
• Overall integration of web-apps needs to be thought out carefully with mobile scenarios in mind.
• Friend wanted to show me a product at www.costco.com. • He sent me a link from his iPhone. I was at my desktop,
and opened the link and got the mobile version.
86
What Is Designed, We Test
Understanding Design Leads to Better Understanding, Evaluation,
and Testing OR SOMETIMES WE MUST DETERMINE THE TEST CRITERIA
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 87
Determine the Needs at Hand
• What need is the mobile application attempting to mobilize?
• How can the workflow be designed more efficiently to accomplish the task?
• How can the specific features and characteristics of a mobile device improve and complement the experience in contrast to the normal web-based application or other mobile platforms?
88
Determine the Needs at Hand • Implement top scenarios
users want and optimizing efficiency for those scenarios ONLY. – Filling an order was a
scenario optimized just for mobile.
– Only 4 data items to fill in, 2 being scroll buttons, biggest button indicates precisely the task purpose.
89
Mobile Usability Design Summary Points
• Quick - Can you read the text without zooming or scrolling?
• Simple Navigation-Task Oriented • Thumb Friendly • Visibility-Colors • Easy to Convert/Complete the task • Contextual • Integrate-Seamless with webapp • You must limit the number of features to those
that matter the most for the mobile users 90
Design for the small screen. Don’t make users struggle to click tiny areas that are much smaller than their fingers.
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Conclusion-Usability and UX • Paramount for today’s applications with
users’ short attention spans. • UX is heavily influenced by expectations. • Designs should be as simple as possible
for the user. – Make navigation easy on a small screen,
thumb friendly, and as intuitive as possible. – Avoid swipe ambiguity
• If the user cannot figure it out in 30 seconds, they are gone.
91 © XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved
Conclusion (last one!!) Don’t Mobilize Everything
• Mobile-app versus your web-app - differentiate and discern access from each platform.
• Determine the features you really need and optimize screens for certain workflows rather than trying to do it all.
• Think about the tasks!! • Better to have an half of an application that kicks
_____ rather than a half ____ application.
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved 92
Ques2ons and Answers
Please fill out an evaluation form and drop it in the collection basket
located at the back of the room.
www.xbosoft.com @xbosoft 408-350-0508
Philip Lew @philiplew [email protected]
93
Some resources: http://www.xbosoft.com/knowledge_center/
www.facebook.com/xbosoft
© XBOSo@, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved