Mobile design. If you’re new to mobile usability testing, fear not. It is not as hard as you might think but there are some key differences from testing a traditional website in a lab that you need to be aware of. Over the past year I have done everything from testing a quit-smoking app with a woman whilst she breastfed her five-week-old on her sofa to testing a mobile car insurance website in a lab.
Mobile design. Designing a better user experience means making sure that users can access information and services across multiple devices, especially mobile devices (phones and tablets). In building a better experience, there are many questions about mobile device usage and how designers can best meet users' needs with apps and responsive designs. We've conducted a lot of mobile usability studies and in the process have encountered many common questions.
Mobile design. In this week’s UIEtips, I discuss some practices to help prepare your design to be adaptive for multiple device sizes. Here’s an excerpt from the article This year, it will be hard to find an organization that doesn’t prioritize making their web site responsive. Yet, as we talk to organizations moving in this direction, we’re finding they haven’t nailed down their strategy for getting there yet.
Mobile design. Almost 80% of smartphone owners in the United States have used their phones for shopping-related tasks. But while the mobile Web was a key driver of mobile commerce before, native apps may be catching up. In March of 2012, smartphone usage revealed that retail websites were more popular than retail native apps. (source) In October of 2012, 68% of shoppers surveyed used mobile sites to buy while 32% used native apps.
Mobile design. This morning, Appcelerator released their latest version of "The State of the Mobile Enterprise," which highlights how the enterprise is approaching all types of mobile development. Their survey of 770 enterprise leaders resulted in some interesting mobile insights. We dove headfirst into the insights from the report, and dug up three key takeaways that we believe all designers should note as we rocket more into a mobile-first world.
Mobile design. Until recently, modern smartphones stopped short of six inch screens and small tablets began with seven inch screens. This left an odd gap at six inches in today's screen size continuum. Not anymore.
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Mobile design. A new app called POP (Prototyping on Paper) lets designers iterate fast in their sketchbooks, then interactively link those sketches together to test them. In the digital age, paper is anything but dead. Designers can use "paper prototypes" to experiment with UI designs fast and even (as in the case of Clear, a gestural iPhone app) reveal innovative user interactions.
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Mobile design. Google's Android operating system runs on 75% of the smartphones shipped in the third quarter of 2012. Apple's iOS is second with 15% marketshare. So Android should be dominating smartphone use across the board right? Well, no. Welcome to the Android engagement mystery.
Forms. Passwords on the Web have long been riddled with usability issues. From overly complex security requirements to difficult to use input fields, passwords frequently result in frustrated customers and lost business. The situation is even worse on mobile where small screens and imprecise fingers are the norm. But what can we do? Once again, the constraints and capabilities of mobile devices challenge us to to rethink long-standing design standards.
Mobile design. As more diverse devices embrace touch as a primary input method, it may be time to revisit navigation menu standards on the Web. How can a navigation menu be designed to work across a wide range of touch screen sizes? In these demos, Jason Weaver and I decided to find out.
Mobile design. By Steven Hoober Published: November 1, 2011 “There’s still an unstated assumption that all desktop Web input widgets will work. ” I often say that desktop computing—and especially the desktop Web—made the practice of interaction design lazy, by promulgating assumptions that are not always true outside of this narrow domain. With the massive scale of mobile device usage, most of these assumptions are becoming a bit of a problem.
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Mobile design. As more diverse devices embrace touch as a primary input method, it may be time to revisit navigation standards on the Web. How can a navigation menu be designed to work across a wide range of touch screen sizes? In these demos, Jason Weaver and I decided to find out.
Mobile design. Growing up, weekends were about worship in the Hinman household. Sunday mornings were reserved for a laborious worship ritual dictated by my parents. It required dressing up in uncomfortable clothes, going to church and pretending to listen to long-winded sermons about Jesus (while I drew doodles in the hymnals).
Mobile design. A few months ago, I spoke at City University London about Wireframing for Responsive Web Design where I proposed that paper could be a useful tool for responsive design. Since then, I haven’t had many chances to try the technique I proposed hands-on, but a suitable opportunity came up recently when we decided to look into making our own Webcredible site more responsive.
Mobile design. When it comes to smartphones, the day of the 3. 5" screen may be coming to an end. As more manufacturers, including Apple, decide that bigger screens are better. Of all the Android devices sold in the last 3 months, nearly one-third (29%) of them had a screen size of over 4.
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Mobile design. Responsive web design is quite a new approach to handling your website on different devices. While your content stays the same, the layout changes according to the screen resolution. Responsive design allows you to create a unique user experience on different platforms and at the same time keep maintenance efforts at a minimum. There have been numerous articles lately that cover this topic.
Mobile design. Will Your Site Withstand the Onslaught of Holiday Shoppers on iPads? It’s likely over the past 12 months you’ve seen an increase in traffic to your site from iPads. If you’re lucky, you’ve also seen a corresponding increase in revenue driven from iPads.
Mobile design. By Afshan Kirmani Published: October 8, 2012 “In this review, I’ll describe Justinmind Prototyper’s support for mobile application prototyping and assess how well Prototyper integrates with usability testing applications. ” Almost three years ago, I wrote a review of Justinmind Prototyper as a user-interface design platform.
Mobile design. Around 1993, my dad brought home a large, brick-shaped mobile phone. We were all incredibly excited by the new technology, even though none of us thought it would have a massive impact on our lives. I actually still thought of it as a gimmick, a few years later, when some of my friends decided to purchase them.
Mobile design. Mobile commerce (mCommerce) is huge and growing rapidly, as visualised by this rather informative info-graphic.
Mobile design. As more companies see their audiences shift to mobile or begin as mobile-only users, they don't have a lot of time to make the transition to mobile themselves. Little wonder that mobile has become top of mind for most Internet companies. Here's how a few of them are handling the transition. Facebook 102 million people accessed Facebook solely from mobile in June, a massive 23% increase over the 83 million mobile-only users in March.
Mobile design. [ Transcript Available ] Context is an important consideration in designing a mobile experience. As new devices enter the market, designers have to contend with new form factors and consider things such as ergonomics. Even things such as Apple’s retina displays affect approaches to design. Luke Wroblewski, author of Mobile First, is at the forefront of mobile design.
Mobile design. Last year, I looked at the growing number of mobile only Internet users. Since then, this population has continued to grow even faster across the World. 31% of American adults who have cell phones use their phones for the majority of their Internet access. (source) Among American adults (18-29) who use the Internet on their phones, 45% do most of their web surfing there.
Mobile design. Mobile users and mobile usage are growing. With more users doing more on mobile, the spotlight is on how to improve the individual elements that together create the mobile user experience.
Mobile design. Many organizations include tablets in their overall definition of "mobile" computing. But when you look at where and when tablets are being used today, they're much more "mobile in the home" than mobile. Where Are Tablets Used? One way to gauge mobility is to see where tablets are being used the most. 30% of tablet owner's time spent with their device was while watching TV and 21% was spent lying in bed.
Mobile design. Most multi-device layout patterns for the Web are designed to rearrange page elements within a visible browser window. Off canvas multi-device layouts, on the other hand, use the space outside a browser’s viewport to hide secondary elements until people need them. Jason Weaver and I put together demonstrations of several new off canvas layout patterns.
Mobile design. Direct comparisons between multi-device design solutions for the Web often miss the point: each is better suited for particular things. Specifically, responsive Web design is an excellent solution for adapting to the capabilities of any given device. Server-side device detection solutions are great at optimizing for many of the same capabilities. There’s a reason for both techniques.
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Mobile design. Though Apple's 9. 7 inch iPad commands over 60% of all tablet sales worldwide, tablets of all sizes are emerging around globe. But as tablets get smaller people's use of the Web drops. Why? 10 inch tablets (like Samsung's Galaxy Tab) average 125 page views in the browser per tablet.
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Mobile design. Fingers and thumbs turn desktop conventions on their head. Interaction designer Josh Clark explains what you need to keep in mind when designing for mobile touchscreens and compares finger-friendly touch interfaces for iPhone, iPad and Android. “Great mobile designs do more than shoehorn themselves into tiny screens: they make way for fingers and thumbs, accommodating the wayward taps of our clumsy digits.