Mobile Interaction Design

Matt Jones has been working on novel, emerging interactive technologies for the past 12 years. He is a member of the British Computer Society Ethics Committee, IFIP Social Accountability Committee and is editing an ACM ToCHI journal special issue on social issues. Matt has written for popular magazines (including Wired) and newspapers, broadcast for the BBC and had work on mobile interaction exhibited in the National Science Museum of the UK.Gary Marsden has a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction and is associate professor at the University of Cape Town. He has taught several undergraduate and postgraduate courses on interface design and consults privately with various companies such as Orange and Reuters on mobile computing interface design issues.

"... I have good news: Buy this book.... The book deserves a prominent place on your bookshelf...." (Interactions, July 2006)

• Preface xvAcknowledgements xixPart I: Introduction 1Chapter 1: Possibilities 3Key points 31.1 Introduction 41.2 What are mobile devices? 61.2.1 Communication or information device? 91.2.2 Appliance or Swiss army knife? 111.2.3 Cherished device or commodity tool? 131.3 Impoverished or extraordinary interfaces? 141.3.1 The Fastap keypad 151.3.2 Peephole displays 161.3.3 Accommodating human capabilities and limitations 171.4 Impoverishing interactions? 281.4.1 Reasons for poor design 281.4.2 Impacts of poor design 291.5 Outline of the rest of this book 35Summary 36Workshop questions 36Designer tips 36Chapter 2: Products for people 39Key points 392.1 Introduction 402.2 Useful 412.2.1 Function before form 412.2.2 Evolving uses 422.3 Usable 432.3.1 Usable in itself 442.3.2 Usable in life 512.4 User experience 542.4.1 Strong identity 552.4.2 Interaction as package 582.5 Technology acceptance 63Summary 64Workshop questions 66Designer tips 66Chapter 3: Innovating 67Key points 673.1 Introduction 683.2 Technology-centered approaches 693.3 Transferring from the desktop 743.3.1 Applications 753.3.2 Interface styles 783.4 Building on past mobile success 813.5 Drama 833.6 Frameworks for human-centered thinking 85Summary 89Workshop questions 89Designer tips 90Part II: Developing Effective Mobile Applications 91Chapter 4: Interaction design 93Key points 934.1 Introduction 944.2 Designing what? Designing how? 944.3 Understanding users 964.3.1 From biology to psychology 964.3.2 Field studies 974.3.3 Direct questioning 994.3.4 Distilling the findings 1004.4 Developing prototype designs 1004.4.1 Shaping and managing the design space 1004.4.2 Prototyping 1054.5 Evaluation 1064.5.1 Testing with users 1074.5.2 Testing in the absence of users 1094.6 Iterative development 1124.7 Multiple viewpoints 1134.7.1 Many techniques and tools 1134.7.2 Many disciplines 1134.7.3 Participation and collaboration 1164.8 From interaction design to deployment 117Summary 118Workshop questions 118Designer tips 119Chapter 5: Watching, asking, probing 121Key points 1215.1 Introduction 1225.2 Focusing the study 1245.2.1 How focused should the study be? 1245.2.2 Finding people to study 1255.3 Top techniques for understanding people 1295.3.1 Observing 1305.3.2 Enquiring 1385.3.3 Diary studies 1415.3.4 Discount methods 1455.3.5 Focus groups 1495.3.6 Creatively engaging methods 1515.4 Making sense of observations 1555.4.1 Activities 1555.4.2 Analysis perspectives 1565.5 Personas and scenarios 1605.5.1 Personas 1605.5.2 Scenarios 163Summary 167Workshop questions 167Designer tips 168Chapter 6: Prototypes 169Key points 1696.1 Introduction 1706.2 What is a prototype? 1706.3 Different prototypes for different purposes 1706.4 Low-fidelity 1716.4.1 Self-checking 1716.4.2 Communicating with others 1736.4.3 Interaction prototyping 1746.4.4 Empowering users 1766.5 Higher-fidelity 1786.5.1 Deciding what to prototype 1786.5.2 Hardware and software integration 1786.6 Finishing the process 1866.6.1 Evolutionary 1866.6.2 Revolutionary 1866.6.3 Process 1876.7 Issues in prototyping 1896.7.1 Some considerations 1906.8 A final note on development 191Summary 192Workshop questions 192Designer tips 192Chapter 7: Evaluation 195Key points 1957.1 Introduction 1967.2 Classifying evaluation 1967.3 ‘Quick And Dirty’ 1977.4 Conceptual model extraction 1977.5 Direct observation 1997.5.1 Finding out what users are thinking 1997.5.2 How to record observations 2007.5.3 How to not bias the experiment 2037.5.4 Happy users 2037.6 Interviews 2047.7 Questionnaires 2057.8 Non-user methods 2077.8.1 Heuristic evaluation 2077.8.2 No people whatsoever 2097.9 Experimental evaluation 2097.9.1 Hypothesis 2107.9.2 The users 2117.9.3 Tasks 2127.9.4 Experiment design 2127.9.5 Conducting experiments 2137.9.6 Experimental results 2147.10 Considering context – evaluating mobile systems 2147.10.1 Physical context 2147.10.2 Technological context 2167.10.3 Social context 2167.10.4 Other contexts 2177.11 Complementary evaluation 2187.12 Conclusion 219Summary 219Workshop questions 219Designer tips 220Part III: Design Gallery – Directions and Guidelines 221Chapter 8: Controlling Complex Functions 223Key points 2238.1 Introduction 2248.2 Menus and memory 2258.3 Hierarchical menus 2258.3.1 Learning structure 2258.3.2 Improving classification 2268.3.3 Context information 2278.4 Icons 2278.5 Manuals 2338.5.1 Online manuals 2338.5.2 Website manuals 2348.6 No menus? 2348.6.1 Data structures 2358.6.2 Alternatives 2358.6.3 Design ideas – data structures 2388.6.4 Evaluation via experiment 2388.7 More complex menus 2428.8 Some concluding thoughts 244Summary 245Workshop questions 245Designer tips 245Chapter 9: Information access 247Key points 2479.1 Introduction 2489.2 Small-screen impacts 2509.2.1 Lessons from the past 2519.2.2 Impact on browsing complex content 2559.2.3 Impact on searching 2569.3 Designs for browsing 2589.3.1 Guidelines 2599.3.2 Schemes 2619.3.3 Packaging content 2719.4 Improving search 2729.4.1 Assessing sets of results 2729.4.2 Judging the value of individual results 2749.5 Mobile information ecologies 2809.5.1 Fitting in 2809.5.2 Case study: the laid-back search tool 2839.5.3 Peer-to-peer schemes 286Summary 287Workshop questions 287Designer tips 288Chapter 10: Beyond text – using images on mobile devices 289Key points 28910.1 Introduction 29010.2 Ethnography 29010.2.1 Where have all the photographs gone? 29110.2.2 Digital ethnography 29210.3 Finding photos 29210.3.1 Meta-data 29310.3.2 Meta-data management 29410.4 Browsing photos 29410.4.1 Timeline 29510.4.2 Treemaps 29510.4.3 Rsvp 29610.4.4 Speed Dependent Automatic Zooming 29810.5 Downscaling case study 30010.5.1 Arranging photos 30010.5.2 Screen size 30010.5.3 Write once, run anywhere 30110.5.4 Meanwhile, back with the users 30110.5.5 User testing 30410.5.6 Platform 30610.6 Advanced technology 30610.7 What are photos for? 30710.7.1 What are we sharing? 30910.7.2 Using audio with photographs 31110.7.3 Video 31110.8 Looking to the future 312Summary 312Workshop questions 313Designer tips 313Chapter 11: Impacting the community; impacting the world 315Key points 31511.1 Introduction 31611.2 The digital divide 31611.3 Mobiles work 31611.3.1 The rise and rise of mobile technology 31711.4 Planning a project 31811.5 That culture thing 32011.6 Case studies 32511.6.1 Empowering people – Cybertracker 32511.6.2 Education 32711.6.3 Communitization 32811.7 Call to arms 333Summary 333Workshop questions 333Designer tips 334Resources 335References 339Credits 365Index 367