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

m_hannan@hotmail.com

www.linkedin.com/in/masrurhannan