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</p>Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.comBlogger293125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-10277253075999342722014-11-04T20:59:00.001-06:002015-07-01T09:57:27.084-05:00Making mLearning Usable: How we use mobile devices<span style="color: #999999;"><i>This was published as a <a href="http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.3315&utm_content=buffer0162c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer">research report</a> by the eLearning Guild in April 2014. For the full version of the report, and many others, join the Guild.</i></span><br />
<br />
<div class="p1">
<b>Executive Summary </b></div>
<div class="p2">
Global mobile device usage is truly astounding. Consider that there are more mobile subscriptions than humans on the planet, and in the 12 months of 2013 alone, mobile traffic grew by 80%. </div>
<div class="p2">
Traditionally, eLearning development focused on desktop and laptop computers. But developing for mobile is different—not because mobile is smaller, but because the user is mobile. Constant connectivity, sensors, and input methods like touch and gesture allow mobile devices to act very differently from the computers we traditionally design for. Because mobile is unlike the desktop in so many ways, many of the methods eLearning designers and developers use don’t work for mobile. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
A key difference between mobile and computers is touch, but our understanding of how people actually hold and use touchscreen devices has been lacking. In 2013 Steven Hoober, one of the authors of this report, did a study on how people really hold and touch mobile phones, but that didn’t include research on how people touch and use tablets. <i>The eLearning Guild </i>was interested in this research due to the increasing maturity of mobile learning solutions. Without foundational research on how people use tablets, there is simply too much chance of designing interfaces that are bad for people who use eLearning. If we don’t understand the best way to design for touch screens we risk creating user interfaces that can actually hinder usage, such as putting buttons where the user’s own fingers block sight of where they are to touch. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
To address this, we developed a survey in which volunteer field investigators gathered observations of people’s use of tablet devices, focusing on <b>phablets</b>, like the Galaxy Note series, <b>small tablets</b>, like the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire, and <b>large tablets</b>, like the iPad. Observations occurred in 22 countries, but primarily in the United States. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
The point of doing research on how people hold and use these types of devices is to assure that <i>human/device interactions work well</i>. This report discusses a number of implications for design, both overall and by device class, that come from both Hoober’s previous phone research and this tablet research to ensure that touch interactions, keyboard interactions, and so on work for the user.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Results show that the way people use phones vs. large tablets indicates they are entirely unlike each other. The research found two key user preferences: People hold <b>small devices </b>in the <i>hand </i>and use them <i>standing and walking</i>. People use <b>large devices </b>more on s<i>urfaces and in stands </i>and more often use them <i>sitting</i>. Design implications: People prefer to read and touch the center of the device, so <i>place key content and interactions in the center</i>. Use the minimum standard type sizes for the device and the way it is going to be used. Make the type larger when the device is likely to be in a stand or on a surface. When you design, don’t just test the interface on a computer screen, test with users on the device itself. </div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="p5">
<b>Who Should Read This Report? </b></div>
<div class="p2">
This report is for anyone involved in the design of interfaces on mobile phones and tablets. You can immediately apply the findings to the day-to-day practice of designing mobile learning products, and use them to evaluate the suitability of existing designs for these devices.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Many of the tools, techniques, and methodologies used for digital design are based on the explosive growth of the web on desktop and laptop computers. But mobile is different—not because it is usually small or has no keyboard, but because it is with the user all the time, and wherever the user is. Constant connectivity, sensors, and input methods like touch and gesture allow mobile devices to act very differently from the computers we have traditionally designed for. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Mobile continues to grow in use, with occasional shocking numbers: </div>
<div class="p6">
</div>
<ul>
<li>There are more mobile subscriptions than humans on the planet </li>
<li>While 700 million people have email addresses, over five billion use SMS text messaging </li>
<li>Mobile devices accounted for 48% of Internet traffic on Christmas day 2013 </li>
<li>In the 12 months of 2013 alone, mobile traffic grew by 80% </li>
</ul>
<div class="p2">
Mobile continues to expand in reach, and even more so in use. We can expect mobile devices to replace other technologies, and continue to create new ways of learning. A good understanding of the technology and use of these devices is increasingly critical for people involved with learning. </div>
<div class="p2">
One key difference between mobile devices and computers is touch, but our understanding of how people use touchscreen phones and tablets has been sadly lacking. In the last few years there have been some theories, but we increasingly need hard empirical evidence. In February of 2013 Steven Hoober published a research report, <i>How Do Users Really Hold Mobile Devices?</i>, on how people really hold and touch mobile phones. In that research, he observed 1,333 individuals in public settings in several North American locations. </div>
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Over time all this information was merged into a single view—and a single set of principles— of how to design for touchscreen phones. Because the vast majority of research into mobile behaviors has focused on mobile phones, only basic knowledge has been available about how <i>tablets </i>are used. Developers have directed much mobile learning at tablets such as the iPad, without a real baseline understanding of the ergonomics and methods of use. As Peter-Paul Koch noted on QuirksMode, general tablet use is beginning to make a mark, with around 10% of Internet traffic in the UK and Netherlands directed to tablets. </div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="p2">
<i>The eLearning Guild </i>became interested in this research due to the increasing maturity of mobile learning solutions. Designers and developers are creating interfaces for mobile learning and performance support based on best practices from the desktop web, templates from vendors, or even unrecognized personal biases. Without foundational research on how people use tablets, there is simply too great a chance of designing interfaces that are bad for people who use eLearning. This can lead to poorly designed eLearning—and to authoring programs that encourage poorly designed eLearning. So we saw this as an opportunity to do the type of research that was essential to the community as a whole. </div>
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<br /></div>
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This can also allow us to establish a baseline of knowledge that we can use to create better success metrics and carry on further research in the future. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Top eLearning developers use responsive design to create websites that work on a range of devices. Responsive design considers the number of pixels on the screen, and adjusts the information display to suit this size. Increasingly popular and successful adaptive technologies consider other features of the device to change the way that interactive controls work, and what tools are available per device; a mobile phone can rely on the GPS, for example, while a desktop or laptop computer user will have to type their location. Understanding how users work with different devices can help designers and developers better select layout and interaction for each one. </div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="p5">
<b>Survey Methodology </b></div>
<div class="p2">
This survey was based off Hoober’s February 2013 study to gather numerous additional parameters about mobile devices and users. Whereas that survey was simple, and could be recorded on paper, the new survey required the use of a mobile-friendly web form, both to gather more information and to help the observers gather data anonymously. The observers could use a tablet or their mobile phone to gather observations in almost any environment. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
We started by soliciting volunteer field investigators from <i>Guild </i>members and other interested mobile learning affiliates. Volunteers in 22 countries (see Table 1 on page 8) gathered 651 observations of use on mobile devices, with a focus on other-than-phone devices: </div>
<div class="p6">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Phablets, like the Galaxy Note series </li>
<li>Small tablets, like the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire </li>
<li>Large tablets, like the iPad </li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="p8">
Full descriptions of these device categories are included later in the report. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
While most of the original observations on phone use were done in public, field investigators who gathered data for this research did so much more often in environments where we are more likely to have to designed eLearning to work well, such as in offices, classrooms, and the home (Figure 1 on page 5). They gathered some of the observations in public places. 14.5% were on transportation, such as buses, trains, and airplanes, and 5.9% in coffee shops, bars, and stores.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9nIXwpS-3ft1uOLGeKmM1mocpVFTVMxOg4-ZZzFsH5wV9huyjsqNo9B1riAbHjpE_U479hizPmUQY6OkIULorDb1OuTWUGBaUoouJsx6vBzqxWxnSHyVZwZ8oxxvOdkl4Xs3op9zX1Hc/s1600/FIgure-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9nIXwpS-3ft1uOLGeKmM1mocpVFTVMxOg4-ZZzFsH5wV9huyjsqNo9B1riAbHjpE_U479hizPmUQY6OkIULorDb1OuTWUGBaUoouJsx6vBzqxWxnSHyVZwZ8oxxvOdkl4Xs3op9zX1Hc/s1600/FIgure-1.png" /></a></div>
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<span class="s7"><b><i>Figure 1: </i></b></span><i>Where observations were taken (tablets) </i></div>
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Due to the need for an Internet connection, some observers noted that they could not log some observations. Subway transit systems, for example, have poor or no Internet coverage so no observations on subways are included. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Google notes in its report <i>The New Multi-screen World: Understanding Cross-platform Consumer Behavior </i>that tablets are not used out in public nearly as much as phones, but are a preferred device for some types of interactions in the home. </div>
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In the original study, which primarily looked at phone use, the vast majority of use was standing or walking. In this tablet study, we saw more people who were indoors, with one apparent result being a huge majority of the observations being of seated users (Figure 2 on page 6). This appears to be because of the types of devices surveyed.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlehwF211Ud7gIO2Acazq4bKWA3_IorW4Gegx7C_fZM5iS95bXg0SP0T4_Z9J0jxUtpm8G6Ul2HgC_ijtswJSF3fS8Iw3Kou6ydqXDLgT3x7UkZ2I152-H2yCv3DLY8rakjfrUDHMzsU0/s1600/Figure-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlehwF211Ud7gIO2Acazq4bKWA3_IorW4Gegx7C_fZM5iS95bXg0SP0T4_Z9J0jxUtpm8G6Ul2HgC_ijtswJSF3fS8Iw3Kou6ydqXDLgT3x7UkZ2I152-H2yCv3DLY8rakjfrUDHMzsU0/s1600/Figure-2.png" /></a></div>
<div class="p12">
<span class="s7"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
<div class="p12">
<span class="s7"><b><i>Figure 2: </i></b></span><i>Observation stance (tablets) </i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Later on in the study we see that very few large tablets are used standing but it is important to note that in mobile learning we are possibly designing for a mobile workforce who may be looking to sneak in learning in bites, or may work in an environment where they stand but use tablets. So later, when we are talking about the implications of the study, you will want to think about what your specific workforce will be <i>doing </i>as they use their devices and you may want to consider <i>what type of device to use </i>depending on what they will be doing. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Observations were nearly evenly split between male and female users (Figure 3 on page 7), and while most observations were of adults (Figure 4 on page 7), a notable number of children, teens, and seniors were observed as well.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyre5TmzTlXB3CkcWKWBVDUAYFxSSGXuHAqqKeoLCMe7fJBd413S6vI5RCzA5oomPODsHiNJMzca2rStz1PySpFPcxMsdHZOpTqKBDWmbfVTy1cqbVHxvRZpSZQ-ZxNm4_mv-EXWI38Vw/s1600/Figure-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyre5TmzTlXB3CkcWKWBVDUAYFxSSGXuHAqqKeoLCMe7fJBd413S6vI5RCzA5oomPODsHiNJMzca2rStz1PySpFPcxMsdHZOpTqKBDWmbfVTy1cqbVHxvRZpSZQ-ZxNm4_mv-EXWI38Vw/s1600/Figure-3.png" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="s7"><b><i>Figure 3</i></b></span><i>: Observation gender (tablets) </i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3jS99CY49EJMur6I4oGDBHo4KpKKfg9qvjylqDflI9_4_eZS1KAUdo3rA6GGlQ3otQBuH4o_lcOMkSBM685zOgj19UNKNCZJv-roocgA2CkcTTQePubRLSBXYQ60b_Yp-s8BK-kKbO4I/s1600/Figure-4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3jS99CY49EJMur6I4oGDBHo4KpKKfg9qvjylqDflI9_4_eZS1KAUdo3rA6GGlQ3otQBuH4o_lcOMkSBM685zOgj19UNKNCZJv-roocgA2CkcTTQePubRLSBXYQ60b_Yp-s8BK-kKbO4I/s1600/Figure-4.png" /></a></div>
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<span class="s7"><b><i>Figure 4: </i></b></span><span class="s9"><i>Observation age (tablets)</i></span></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="p3">
The observers were in 22 countries (Table 1). The majority of observations are from the United States, with many others being from majority-English speaking countries as well. Due to the very small numbers of responses from most countries, we made no effort to determine if there are differences in use per country or region. In the future, a larger or more truly global survey would be useful to confirm the generalization of these results, or clarify localized differences if we find them. </div>
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<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="t1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p14">
<b>Country </b></div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p15">
<b>Number of Respondents </b></div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p15">
<b>Percent of Respondents </b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
United States </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
379 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
58.3% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Canada </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
52 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
8.0% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
India </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
33 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
5.1% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Australia </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
30 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
4.6% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
United Kingdom </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
22 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
3.4% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Cyprus </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
22 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
3.4% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Brazil </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
20 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
3.1% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Argentina </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
19 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
2.9% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Singapore </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
10 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
1.5% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
New Zealand </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
8 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
1.2% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Israel </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
7 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
1.1% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Guatemala </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
6 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
0.9% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
South Africa </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
6 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
0.9% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Spain </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
6 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
0.9% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Barbados </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
5 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
0.8% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Nigeria </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
5 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
0.8% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Egypt </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
4 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
0.6% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Philippines </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
4 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
0.6% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Russia </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
4 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
0.6% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
United Arab Emirates </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
4 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
0.6% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Iran </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
3 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
0.5% </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p16">
Greece </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
1 </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p11">
0.2% </div>
<div class="p11">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div class="p1">
<b>Preferences in Mobile Device Use </b></div>
<div class="p2">
This section of the report will look at the results of the field observations and an analysis of them. The next section will explain what the analysis means for the design of mobile interfaces. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Many basic observations of use are exactly as expected. Most use is with the device in portrait mode, or with the device vertical (Figure 5), and only 15.4% of use was observed with the left hand touching the screen alone (Figure 6 on page 10). This is close to the incidence of left-handed individuals in the population, so is not a surprise at all. </div>
<div class="p2">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghT_r2xt9_OrN5eGp9GjeNXYZ_eNWo0Y_Pp9yxA7a-32nT6-VD1O3iZtqb0Si5D2Xp4_yEo2e_8As1Lj5P7wwn1nMBxWvnnpX3O0FXZ_1RVE5upf_Qe7ajgzAGLUfyQ_PfclspEyVHnsg/s1600/Figure-5.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghT_r2xt9_OrN5eGp9GjeNXYZ_eNWo0Y_Pp9yxA7a-32nT6-VD1O3iZtqb0Si5D2Xp4_yEo2e_8As1Lj5P7wwn1nMBxWvnnpX3O0FXZ_1RVE5upf_Qe7ajgzAGLUfyQ_PfclspEyVHnsg/s1600/Figure-5.png" /></a></div>
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</div>
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<span class="s1"><b><i>Figure 5: </i></b></span><i>Device orientation (tablets)</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHNveiBInbvcVgLH-c_byYTbD4GbkeQse3OD2IPooc6mvF3mKgnON-UoowpgES0xjsgP2WU9_5EKajVi3t1eURjfjSirxMh-w_wnkfQ_xIeGfnJHuIHxhz2RB6qCsT6gSSn5plWNdXQy0/s1600/Figure-6.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHNveiBInbvcVgLH-c_byYTbD4GbkeQse3OD2IPooc6mvF3mKgnON-UoowpgES0xjsgP2WU9_5EKajVi3t1eURjfjSirxMh-w_wnkfQ_xIeGfnJHuIHxhz2RB6qCsT6gSSn5plWNdXQy0/s1600/Figure-6.png" /></a></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><i>Figure 6: </i></b></span><i>Hand used to touch the screen (tablets) </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="p2">
Further information gets much more interesting when we break down use by device and size. Remember, most of us design, or soon will design, for multiple sizes of devices. Often, the same eLearning product has to work or will have to work on a range of devices. </div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>Key Findings </b></div>
<div class="p2">
We can generally summarize the findings from Steven Hoober’s initial phone research combined with the <i>Guild’s </i>tablet research with two key user preferences. </div>
<div class="p2">
Looking at devices <i>by size: </i></div>
<div class="p4">
</div>
<ul>
<li>People use <b>small devices </b>in the hand, and use them <i>standing and walking</i>. </li>
<li>People use <b>large devices </b>more on <i>surfaces and in stands</i>, and use them more often <i>sitting</i>. </li>
</ul>
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<div class="p6">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Looking at devices <i>by type</i>: The way people use phones and large tablets seems to indicate they are entirely unlike each other. </div>
<div class="p4">
</div>
<ul>
<li>People use <b>phones </b>almost entirely <i>in the hand</i>, and largely <i>on the move</i>. </li>
<li>People use <b>tablets </b>much more often while <i>sitting</i>, and with the device <i>in a stand </i>or <i>set on a table</i>. </li>
</ul>
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<div class="p1">
</div>
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You can see this yourself in Figures 7 and 8 (on page 12). <i>As the size of the device increases, placing them on surfaces and then putting them in stands becomes dominant over holding them. </i></div>
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<span class="s3"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
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<span class="s3"><b><i>Figure 7: </i></b></span><i>Location of device by class of device (all devices) </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>We also see that people tend to use smaller devices on the go and larger devices while they are more stationary. </i>Figure 8 clearly shows that the larger the device, the more often it is used when sitting or reclining. We knew from anecdotal and smaller-scale ethnographic studies such as <i>The New Multi-screen World: Understanding Cross-platform Consumer Behavior </i>that users with multiple devices tend to use phones when on the go, tablets on the couch, and computers at the desk. As the size of the device increases, they use them in a more stationary basis.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLuMYRRHdUp4Lxdv40WdmIhnSXGCbt_BOSJmJmjh8Zb1vcmyG6o7YaAzdKWBL-AgqDkh9CR30fRJ7mHgfCb1XYCmKUbm9AiSSAYqatj7-C7Tsw5Ros9nM51rZQwKKjIW50z5M9hA3hjmE/s1600/Figure-8.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLuMYRRHdUp4Lxdv40WdmIhnSXGCbt_BOSJmJmjh8Zb1vcmyG6o7YaAzdKWBL-AgqDkh9CR30fRJ7mHgfCb1XYCmKUbm9AiSSAYqatj7-C7Tsw5Ros9nM51rZQwKKjIW50z5M9hA3hjmE/s1600/Figure-8.png" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><i>Figure 8: </i></b></span><i>Stance by device class (all devices) </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="p2">
It’s possible that the higher incidence of standing and walking for the phone may be due to the methodology from the previous study, as it was mostly gathered in public so it may simply reflect a more dramatic use of handheld-sized devices on the go. </div>
<div class="p3">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="p3">
<b>Readability and Angular Resolution </b></div>
<div class="p2">
The information shared in the previous sections has a large impact on readability. If the person is holding the device, they can move it to wherever it is most comfortable to read, within reason. If the device is in a stand, on a table, or on a lap, the person is more likely to be working with it at the distance of a computer. If the device is mounted, then a special readability situation exists which goes beyond the purview of this report. </div>
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</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
No single font size can be used to assure content is readable on a mobile device because of angular resolution, which means that the size is relative and based on the distance the source is from the viewer’s eye as shown in Figure 9 (on page 13). This is the same reason traffic signs use letters that are sometimes several feet tall. </div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b><i>Figure 9: </i></b></span><i>A tablet on the table is much further away from the user than a phone held in the hand, so the size of icons and text must be larger (Source: Steven Hoober) </i></div>
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For a discussion of the minimum size for readable text, see Steven Hoober and Eric Berkman’s <i>Designing Mobile Interfaces. </i></div>
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<div class="p2">
For various devices, the formula says the minimum sizes any text should be are: </div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="t1"><tbody>
<tr><td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p3">
<b>Manner of Use </b></div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p4">
<b>Device Class</b></div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p4">
<b>Screen Size</b></div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p3">
<b>Minimum Type Size</b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" rowspan="5" valign="top"><div class="p5">
Held in the hand </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p5">
Small phones </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p6">
2.5” </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p6">
4 pt. </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p5">
Typical smartphones </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p6">
3.5 – 5” </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p6">
6 pt. </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p5">
Phablet </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p6">
5.5 – 6” </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p6">
6.5 pt. </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p5">
Small tablet </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p6">
7” </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p6">
7 pt. </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p5">
Large tablet </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p6">
10” </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p6">
8 pt. </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p5">
On a surface </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p5">
Any device with a keyboard, including desktop or laptop computers </div>
</td>
<td class="td1" valign="top"><div class="p6">
10 pt. </div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="p1">
Remember as well that readability is more than just size. Contrast is another critical attribute. The International Standards Organization recommends a minimum of 3:1 luminance ratio between text and background. As noted in <i>Designing Mobile Interfaces</i>, a ratio of 10:1 is preferred. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<b>Preferences in Touching the Screen </b></div>
<div class="p2">
The point of the research on how people hold their devices is to assure touch interactions work well. In Steven Hoober’s <i>UXmatters </i>article “Design for Fingers and Thumbs Instead of Touch,” a review of 19 separate studies—including one that captured over 100 million touch events—indicates that <i>people prefer to touch the center of their handset screens, and they have increased accuracy when doing so. </i></div>
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<br /></div>
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People subconsciously know this, so are more confident at the center, and will slow down to tap corner or edge targets. From this we know how accurate they are, by section of the screen. </div>
<div class="p2">
There are four aspects to assuring that users understand the touch targets in your eLearning project and can select them without trouble: </div>
<ol class="ol1">
<li class="li3"><b>Visible targets: </b>Is the text readable? Do the actions communicate whatever behavior they will actually perform? </li>
<li class="li3"><b>Fingers: </b>Do they obscure important information? Do they cover so much of your button the user can’t tell if they clicked it or not? </li>
<li class="li3"><b>Touch target sizes: </b>At least 6 mm, preferably 8 mm or larger. Provide extra room, invisibly, around visible targets when you have it available. </li>
<li class="li4"><b>Interference: </b>To avoid accidental selection of adjacent touch targets, make sure there’s enough space between each item. </li>
</ol>
<div class="p2">
Of these, the most important to consider is <i>interference</i>. You can peer at hard-to-read type and eventually figure it out. Missing a target can be a little frustrating and slow the user down, but selecting the wrong action is always confusing, often discouraging, and sometimes catastrophic. </div>
<div class="p2">
Figure 10 (on page 16) outlines the accuracy level a typical person has for each part of the screen. Note that the green boxes are not a grid, where you should position each design element, but a guideline only for <i>space needed for each area. </i></div>
<div class="p2">
When positioning a touchable link, button, icon or other control on the screen: </div>
<ol class="ol1">
<li class="li6">Look on the chart for the most appropriate circle by area, and then overlay that on the center of the target. </li>
<li class="li4">If any other selectable item also falls within that circle, the user will sometimes activate the wrong action. </li>
</ol>
<div class="p2">
</div>
<div class="p2">
We most robustly confirmed this data for phone and phablet-sized devices. While there is no experimental confirmation of the exact sizes to use for tablets, similar behavior appears to be true so we can safely apply the same guidelines to all touchscreen mobile devices.</div>
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVqQhb-Jrx-XvKNaEbyXv937dmMRnygJ1gJuqDnwTJVVVF6NondnKwOwKF8yt4vqzlWjfdJSrbYg3QuLav6San7QwTQRbVGprVLnYBvFHlZ-RDmPvMN1cuJB1EgkZGGNkOPvEZ9nKj_GU/s1600/Figure-10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVqQhb-Jrx-XvKNaEbyXv937dmMRnygJ1gJuqDnwTJVVVF6NondnKwOwKF8yt4vqzlWjfdJSrbYg3QuLav6San7QwTQRbVGprVLnYBvFHlZ-RDmPvMN1cuJB1EgkZGGNkOPvEZ9nKj_GU/s1600/Figure-10.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><i>Figure 10: </i></b></span><i>Touch accuracy varies by position on the screen </i></div>
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<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
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<b><i>Implications for design </i></b></div>
<div class="p3">
For the designer or developer of mobile learning, target the design for the tool you can expect in a particular use or context. Find out what devices the users have available, or prefer to use, and in what environment. Try to work around limits of tools and technologies to <i>build for what devices people have and how and where they use them. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<div class="p3">
If you are constrained to a device, such as if your organization only issues iPads, make sure you take into account expected behavior, and don’t try to make people use large tablets while walking unless their job requires that they do so. In that case make the touch points larger so they can make sure to hit them while moving about. </div>
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<div class="p1">
<b><i>Key implications for all devices: </i></b></div>
<div class="p2">
For all the devices discussed in this report, from phones to tablets, follow these guidelines to help assure that touch interactions are usable: </div>
<div class="p3">
</div>
<ul>
<li>People prefer to read and touch the center of the device. Place key content and interactions in the center. </li>
<li>If you have scrolling content such as large amounts of text or lists, leave enough space at the end (padding) so you are sure people can read all the way to the end. </li>
<li>Make sure to use at least the standard minimum type sizes outlined above for the device and the way people are going to use it. Use larger type whenever practical. </li>
<li>Check the color and contrast to assure text and other elements are readable. Use at least a 3:1 contrast ratio, and preferably 10:1. </li>
<li>Make sure touch targets are at least 6 mm in size, and preferably 8 mm. Larger is generally better, and don’t forget that the selectable area can be bigger than the visible target. Use empty space around links and between buttons. </li>
<li>Design by zones: Make sure targets are 11 mm apart on center in the title bar, 12 mm along the bottom and 9 mm in the tab bar. People prefer to touch and read at the center, so you can place items as close as 7 mm on center there. </li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="p2">
We’ll offer specific observations and recommendations by device class in the next four sections. Figure 11 shows the relative scale of size of the different devices. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwY3Hyf1zoz2Yzj8-8yMtfpun7HfJtZ6-vwN0QAsEB5-3wrFA3E7w1Y_nfKcUjxJE-OWLK_NyGXEStO8lk1sOJWSfnbEVgvh5NY0ECgDHCwaSnuVMTuQMZtEb3etRkg8d6IzO5rVQtNCo/s1600/Figure-11.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwY3Hyf1zoz2Yzj8-8yMtfpun7HfJtZ6-vwN0QAsEB5-3wrFA3E7w1Y_nfKcUjxJE-OWLK_NyGXEStO8lk1sOJWSfnbEVgvh5NY0ECgDHCwaSnuVMTuQMZtEb3etRkg8d6IzO5rVQtNCo/s1600/Figure-11.png" /></a></div>
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<span class="s3"><b><i>Figure 11: </i></b></span><i>Scale of size for phones, phablets, small tablets, and large tablets </i></div>
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<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
In the next four sections, you’ll see information about the how people in the study <i>held </i>different mobile devices and some information about how they used stands or put devices on surfaces. The study showed clearly that holding devices was a very popular method of usage, as showing in Figure 12, but <i>people didn’t hold all the different device types equally</i>—and that has a lot of implications for design. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMHsa5WR4D2FZXmwAVTkWIZS5urQa326XAIBn1ElHwpnh4HSC-np8hulqjEoG0o56dXlwsTcO9XnDCJxB9F8mQS90ZJkcO7tnRsePmH_rg__TaJo-JVhucYUeyD5SoZBS2_m-IyjAQoeg/s1600/Figure-12.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMHsa5WR4D2FZXmwAVTkWIZS5urQa326XAIBn1ElHwpnh4HSC-np8hulqjEoG0o56dXlwsTcO9XnDCJxB9F8mQS90ZJkcO7tnRsePmH_rg__TaJo-JVhucYUeyD5SoZBS2_m-IyjAQoeg/s1600/Figure-12.png" /></a></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b><i>Figure 12: </i></b></span><i>Location of device (tablets) </i></div>
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<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div class="p2">
<b><i>Keyboards </i></b></div>
<div class="p3">
We now know that keyboard use is high enough to specifically account for them in your design, development, and testing, especially when designing for the iPad or other large tablets. </div>
<div class="p3">
<br /></div>
<div class="p3">
You must carefully test every input method to assure it operates properly on screen, as well as with attached hardware keyboards. New to many of us is a need to assure that the directional arrow keys function properly and communicate the in-focus position to the user. </div>
<div class="p3">
<br /></div>
<div class="p3">
Despite being touch-centric operating systems, both Android and iOS have robust support for external keyboard control, and display of focus. Follow their design and development standards to assure that your apps and sites support all interactions properly. </div>
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<div class="p3">
<br /></div>
<div class="p3">
Don’t forget touch. Both users who like to tap, and those who prefer an external keyboard exist, and individuals change their method of use between the two. Design for both touch and keyboard use to accommodate all types of people.</div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<b>Phones </b></div>
<div class="p2">
Strictly speaking, we consider any mobile device with a radio to connect to the mobile network and the proper voice processing hardware to be a phone. But when most people say “phone” they mean something small enough to be comfortably held in one hand, or put in the pocket, with a screen smaller than about 5 inches measured diagonally (an industry standard). All phones in this report are smartphones, generally defined as running a named operating system (Android, Blackberry, iOS, Windows) and capable of easy upgrading with downloaded applications. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
The physical design of smartphones today is almost entirely uniform. With rare exceptions, they are rectangles of glass, some with varying degrees of curvature and perhaps with a button or three along the bottom edge of the screen. iPhones are about the smallest touchscreen devices encountered, with 3.5- or 4-inch screens (depending on generation). Android, Blackberry, and Windows devices are most popular recently in the larger sizes, but in almost any group of users you will encounter a broad range of sizes. </div>
<div class="p3">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div class="p3">
<b><i>Key findings </i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="p2">
The majority of phone use is with one hand holding the device and the thumb tapping items on the screen (Figure 13 on page 20). Some of this is with another hand supporting the phone, to allow for more reach, or in situations where the user might be worried about dropping the phone. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlONoHPaX5HHhlCJPAyflSbgvZPNe6-8yUc28SKzKGvNgqQl05RpwFWhmuMKd2WBIZkkI8aUhYGGEibRHmLfO9ol7AfI0huRZeIZCOfti0ym36pe7liXQNLSuDngmV6JWI4YH4nV13d0/s1600/Figure-13.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlONoHPaX5HHhlCJPAyflSbgvZPNe6-8yUc28SKzKGvNgqQl05RpwFWhmuMKd2WBIZkkI8aUhYGGEibRHmLfO9ol7AfI0huRZeIZCOfti0ym36pe7liXQNLSuDngmV6JWI4YH4nV13d0/s1600/Figure-13.png" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><i>Figure 13: </i></b></span><i>How people hold phones </i></div>
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Users often change the way they hold their phone, switching from one handed for scrolling and reading, to cradle for more reach, to two hands for typing and many other behaviors (Figure 14 on page 21).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHp1JG2MNsKaXQdxIxiGS_qLdbo0ihQRGxk1gSxtG-_xbZjEioQxFhNpD3yNhaSz8HrHidWd9Knb7X7WSMgaQElnpbzWiJrxO82aaWbYglrjMDml-on4jcx2KpOxQs7Mdr0z1Q81OIXDs/s1600/Figure-14.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHp1JG2MNsKaXQdxIxiGS_qLdbo0ihQRGxk1gSxtG-_xbZjEioQxFhNpD3yNhaSz8HrHidWd9Knb7X7WSMgaQElnpbzWiJrxO82aaWbYglrjMDml-on4jcx2KpOxQs7Mdr0z1Q81OIXDs/s1600/Figure-14.png" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><i>Figure 14: </i></b></span><i>People shift between these different ways to hold and touch their phones </i></div>
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<b><i>Implications for design </i></b></div>
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Remember the ways users work with these devices in the real world. There is no good way to account for specific methods of holding a phone without making it harder to use the phone in other ways. </div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li>Identify the key actions and content, and put it in the center of the page. Don’t confuse the action icons or button bar with the key user actions. </li>
<li>You can place other interactive items (such as buttons) around the edge, but make sure they are clearly visible, and make the touch target large enough so they are easy to tap. </li>
<li>When you design a phone interface, don’t just test on a computer screen. Test with users on the phone itself, held in the hand. Run through a checklist of key actions to confirm that text and touch sizes are appropriate, and that fingers and thumbs do not obscure important information. </li>
<li>When testing on real phones, try grasping and touching devices in all the ways people can use them. Make sure the interface works just as well in all positions, and in all orientations. </li>
</ul>
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<b>Phablets </b></div>
<div class="p2">
The term <i>phablet </i>is a combination of the words <i>phone </i>and <i>tablet </i>and describes very large phones, some only a little smaller than the smallest popular tablets. Samsung all but invented the category with their Galaxy Note, and have followed it up with a series of devices in that range and size. Competitors also make similar-size devices, not all of which are available globally. </div>
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While derided by much of the US tech press, phablet sales are good globally, and striking in certain markets. In Korea, fully 70% of the smartphone and tablet market is phablets. </div>
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Phablets can have screens anywhere from about 5.5 to 6 inches, though the definition is more fluid than that of any other size. Two years ago, a phone the size of a Galaxy S4—a common phone in today’s market—would be so large as to be called a phablet. </div>
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While the Galaxy Note series comes with a pen or stylus, this is not required and not all phablets have one. While interesting, this is not a defining feature of the category. </div>
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<b><i>Key findings </i></b></div>
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Users don’t complain about the size of phablets. In fact, 90% of observed use is still in the hand. At their core, people seem to use phablets as big phones. The size does result in some variations in the way they grasp and touch them, however (Figure 15 on page 23). </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlgeHERJE-aHTDhnL3G_cUqkUCsGikzeKg7SHbg_zdrBn50lZeNEn6IsnRnVSr_OFulTA-q91j-Vqxtdrq7bjG6qnz1uHgZdbepdttb8xC84Kwl6nB1EHi7zo7_PYKoRKYGqrNYYhG6L4/s1600/Figure-15.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlgeHERJE-aHTDhnL3G_cUqkUCsGikzeKg7SHbg_zdrBn50lZeNEn6IsnRnVSr_OFulTA-q91j-Vqxtdrq7bjG6qnz1uHgZdbepdttb8xC84Kwl6nB1EHi7zo7_PYKoRKYGqrNYYhG6L4/s1600/Figure-15.png" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><i>Figure 15: </i></b></span><i>How people hold phablets </i></div>
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Fewer people use phablets with a single hand on the device and tap with the thumb, and despite them holding it, the most common method is now the more tablet-like tapping with a finger from the other hand. </div>
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This would seem to indicate that concerns about size essentially disappear. There’s little need to specifically place controls at the edge, where they are reachable with the thumb. Users simply adjust to the method of holding and touching most comfortable to them and suitable to the interaction. </div>
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While most use was in the hand, almost 10% of the observations were of the device on a surface. Of these, 2.2% were actually in a stand. Though relatively low, it is an important subset to consider. If you find people will use your eLearning app or website at this distance, text and icons need to be much larger to be readable. </div>
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<b><i>Implications for design </i></b></div>
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There is some need to adjust design principles for phablets. Since most use is in the hand, start by designing phablet interfaces for hand-held use. Follow the phone guidelines and test to assure the interface is usable. </div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li>Users grasp and touch their phablets in several different ways, but more so using two hands than phone users do. Put key actions and content in the center of the page. You can place other interactive items (such as buttons) around the edge, but make sure they are clearly visible, and make touch targets large enough so they are easy to tap. </li>
<li>You must take extra care not to allow the other hand to obscure items on the screen. </li>
<li>Since people often lay phablets on surfaces, make type larger, and check for readability of content and controls at the increased distance. Be careful to balance this with the expectation of some users that the larger screen will provide additional space for content. </li>
<li>If you use gestures such as sliding or dragging, do not scale them up for the larger device size. People’s hands don’t change, so gesture distances need to remain the same size. </li>
<li>Although the most popular phablets in the survey areas—the Galaxy Note series—also come with a pen stylus stored in the device, very few users were observed using pens for interaction. There appears to be little call for designing general interfaces to account for pen input.</li>
</ul>
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<b>Small Tablets </b></div>
<div class="p2">
After Apple reinvented the tablet computer as a lightweight, low-power device, a huge variety of Android manufacturers released tablets in a broad range of sizes. Sometimes, size was based simply on what screens each manufacturer could get. Samsung, for one, made tablets in almost 1/2-inch increments from around 6 to 11 inches. </div>
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Shortly thereafter users discovered that a widescreen (usually a 16:9 “aspect ratio” or width to height relationship) tablet with about a 7-inch screen is small enough to be comfortable in one hand, but provides additional screen area to work compare to a phone. This has become a sort of standard, and most manufacturers offer tablets around 7 to 71/2 inches in addition to the larger tablets described in the next section. </div>
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More recently, Apple has admitted the smaller size has value, making the very popular iPad Mini, at 7.9 inches, the largest common small tablet. Because the smaller tablet is so easy to carry around, eLearning developers may expect to have to design for smaller tablets very shortly. So implications of this study for small tablets may be especially important for eLearning. </div>
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<b><i>Key findings </i></b></div>
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Despite the increased size, 69.4% of users still simply hold small tablets in the hand (see Figure 7). Though much smaller than the number for phones or phablets, 8.4% of users were observed actually walking around. The method of holding is not radically different from the behavior observed with phablets. Surprisingly, over 20% still tap with their thumb, though by far the most popular methods are using the other hand (42.9%), or cradling for extra reach (14.3%), again indicating that users are adjusting their grasp to reach all parts of the screen based on their situation, the size of the device, and their comfort with it (Figure 16 on page 26). </div>
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Interestingly, holding with both hands, and tapping with both thumbs is a behavior almost entirely associated with typing. For both phablets and tablets this jumps up to about one in five observations, vs. far more modest rates for phones. This may indicate people are more inclined to long text entry or other types of content creation on these devices. Preference of device for long text entry or content creation is a topic worth investigating when selecting a mobile learning device.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyanrNXZOGT-N76wly3k6oBfnhIs00goZkIxQTgkZz-CPzRAGbel9w7j7pe_CbmTL2FbzQzKhyO74DRYINlFiH5S07AHjDygPKb0oOC8s6G8ePHwZsW5dM44ThSTkyVNeNoXtFgXOKres/s1600/Figure-16.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyanrNXZOGT-N76wly3k6oBfnhIs00goZkIxQTgkZz-CPzRAGbel9w7j7pe_CbmTL2FbzQzKhyO74DRYINlFiH5S07AHjDygPKb0oOC8s6G8ePHwZsW5dM44ThSTkyVNeNoXtFgXOKres/s1600/Figure-16.png" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><i>Figure 16: </i></b></span><i>How people hold small tablets </i></div>
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While only a relatively small 7.4% use a stand, this still represents a sudden jump from their use on smaller devices. Availability is not an issue, as cases with display stands built in are common, so it is apparently a user choice. A much larger 23.1% simply lay their small tablets on a surface while using it. </div>
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That means almost one in three users do not hold their tablet, therefore placing it further from the eye and the hand. For many tablet applications, you will need to use larger, desktop-scale type sizes since the device is essentially the same distance away from the user. </div>
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While on a surface or stand, only 3.3% of observations were with an external keyboard. This is most interesting due to the much larger use of keyboards on large tablets, as described in the next section. </div>
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At first we thought the low use of keyboards was due to availability; the commonality of the iPad could make add-on devices like this easier to find. However, a quick search of Internet retailers shows them to be cheap and common. Use of pen stylus pointing devices is also very low (also 3.3%). Since pens can work on any touchscreen device, it must simply be that people perceive small tablets as different devices, more suited to direct interaction. </div>
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<b><i>Implications for design </i></b></div>
<div class="p2">
Small tablets share many behaviors with phones and phablets, but people begin to use them in different, tablet-like ways as well. </div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li>Users grasp and touch their devices in several different ways, but almost entirely with two hands due to the size of the device. Targets can be anywhere on the screen, as users will shift their grip to reach them, mostly by tapping with the finger. </li>
<li>Keep important information and functions near the center. </li>
<li>People lay small tablets on surfaces about one-third of the time. Make sure visible icons and text are readable at this increased distance, but also ensure they still work for handheld use. </li>
<li>35% of observations were in landscape orientation, about evenly distributed between the various holding methods and placing the small tablet on a surface. Design all interfaces and interactions to work in both vertical and horizontal. </li>
<li>Due to the variations in grasp, it is especially important to make sure selections are large enough for the user to see them around the tapping finger or thumb. The visible side may not be above, but to the left or right of the selection for any one user. </li>
<li>Since some users have pens and external keyboards, check your specific users. There may be special needs or issued hardware that supports these input methods and raises the rates in your environment. See the next section on large tablets if you have to design for keyboard input and control. </li>
</ul>
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<b>Large Tablets </b></div>
<div class="p2">
People have conceived of, modeled, and prototyped tablets since the dawn of computing (in the original <i>Star Trek </i>series, Captain Kirk used a tablet), but Apple’s introduction of the iPad created the current market and set the tone for what has been the default size. While smaller tablets are now gaining serious ground, the baseline tablet for eLearning is still similar to the iPad, between 9.5 and about 10 inches. </div>
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Several other makers offer tablets in this size range, though exact dimensions vary greatly, especially because of aspect ratio choices. </div>
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There are a few larger tablets, with rumors of 12-inch iPads, just-released Samsung tablets in that size, and Windows tablets exceeding 20 inches actually in use, but these are relatively niche products at this time. </div>
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<div class="p2">
In eLearning, people tend to design for large tablets, especially for the original size of the iPad. We can expect this to change over time as new devices appear in the learning environment. Android tablets outsell iPads, even in North America, and the iPad Mini has become much more popular than the original 9.7-inch iPad. Over time, we can expect better and more capable authoring tools for mobile development of all platforms to emerge to support these needs. </div>
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<b><i>Key findings </i></b></div>
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</div>
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Despite the relative popularity of stands (22%), simply laying the tablet on a table or lap is twice as popular (40%), slightly beating out people just holding their tablets (38%), as Figure 7 shows. Large tablets are by far the mobile device least held in the hand, but that is still a very common case so you must account for it in design. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnN3YyGAtMD42XW5rxIpM0qXrbPHHpCSoCszSPm09yITFdEPFd533ZrWn4_DiEXwM2N1tcKAbjGsl9hke8709pLA7IXeZI6ZsMEPxmwXr9vV3IzoZaOFrdV4oPxMYptnFJt3hSYXyoyAE/s1600/Figure-17.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnN3YyGAtMD42XW5rxIpM0qXrbPHHpCSoCszSPm09yITFdEPFd533ZrWn4_DiEXwM2N1tcKAbjGsl9hke8709pLA7IXeZI6ZsMEPxmwXr9vV3IzoZaOFrdV4oPxMYptnFJt3hSYXyoyAE/s1600/Figure-17.png" /></a></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><i>Figure 17</i></b></span><i>: How people hold their large tablets </i></div>
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As for all device sizes, two thumbs tapping at once is mostly reserved for typing, with users shifting to this mode for text entry, then back to another method for general viewing, or lightweight interaction such as scrolling or selection (Figure 14). </div>
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<div class="p2">
Large tablets laying on a surface or in a stand exhibit some different behaviors. Notably, pen use suddenly becomes an important fraction, (13% when laying on surfaces, 10.9% when in stands). And remember, none of the top-selling tablets really support pens, so these are from conscious user choice, and constitute a variety of aftermarket products. </div>
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When simply lying on a surface, tapping with a single finger rises to 48%, and we observed 28% of users using both hands, again probably for typing. </div>
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For the 22% of users observed employing a stand, over half (54.6%) used an external keyboard, replacing almost all of the two-handed tapping, which drops to 7.3%. The keyboard displaces almost all other interactions, with finger tapping dropping to just 25.5% of interactions. Like with pens, hardly any tablets come with keyboards. Although 90% of the keyboards used are part of the stand or case, the users deliberately purchase these in the aftermarket. </div>
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<b><i>Implications for design </i></b></div>
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For large tablets, the touch guidelines described for smaller devices still apply, but non-touch interactions begin to take center stage. </div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li>For type and target sizes, assume the tablet is in a stand. The distance will be similar to a desktop user, just within arm’s reach, so text sizes need to be similar to that used for conventional desktop web design. </li>
<li>Almost 40% of users still just hold their tablets, and even in stands 36.4% tap the screen with a finger or pen stylus at least part of the time. Make sure you still design content for touch by making sure to size touch items correctly. </li>
<li>65% of use was in landscape orientation. All designs must work in both orientations whenever possible </li>
<li>Avoid obscuring key information behind the tapping hand. </li>
<li>Assure that in-focus states properly indicate the currently selected items. While important for touch entry, it is critical for hardware keyboards where the scrolling arrow keys allow selection without tapping. </li>
<li>Make sure all hardware and virtual keyboard functions work equally well for all input methods. </li>
</ul>
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<b>Conclusions </b></div>
<div class="p2">
This study provided data that designers and developers of eLearning—as well as all designers of mobile interfaces—can use to better plan and create products for the way people actually use mobile phones, phablets, and tablets. It augmented the original study’s understanding of how users hold and touch devices; and it met expectations for how people hold devices in the hand and tap them, with larger devices more often used with fingers instead of thumbs, for example. </div>
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<div class="p2">
While there has been a general understanding that people always carry phones and use them more on the go than they do tablets, we now better understand the exact parameters, and we can refer to basic rates of use. </div>
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<div class="p2">
However, other and unexpected data was also encountered which adds useful knowledge to our toolboxes. For tablets, there is a much higher use of stands and laying of devices on surfaces. Keyboard use on large tablets was unexpectedly high, resulting in a distinct need to design for this method of use. </div>
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</div>
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We also can’t forget that mobile devices, regardless of size, share many behaviors. Most guidelines apply to all devices, in differing ways. <i>Be aware of which devices your learners will actually use</i>, and make appropriate design choices. </div>
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<div class="p1">
<b>Major Takeaways </b></div>
<br />
<ol class="ol1">
<li class="li2">Devices share many features but have distinct differences in use based on size, so consider this when designing. </li>
<li class="li2">People use mobile devices on the move. While larger devices are more often static, they are still much more portable than any conventional desktop or laptop. Plan for varying contexts, from glare on the screen to distractions. Make sure you know what <i>range of devices </i>your users will be using and how your users will be <i>using their devices. </i></li>
<li class="li2">Users are more accurate at touching the center of the screen and prefer to read content in the center as well. Targets at the edges need to be larger, and further apart. </li>
<li class="li2">There is more variation in distance from the eye than was previously understood. The large number of tablets used in stands or on surfaces means we need to design for readability and legibility at longer distances for some users. </li>
<li class="li2">Support keyboard use, for entry of text and scrolling, at least on larger tablets such as the iPad. </li>
<li class="li2">People hold small devices in the <i>hand </i>and use them <i>standing and walking</i>. People place large devices more on <i>surfaces and in stands </i>and use them more often while <i>sitting</i>. </li>
<li class="li2">The point of the research on how people hold their devices is to assure touch interactions work well. Use the research so your users don’t become frustrated. When positioning a touchable link, button, icon, or other control on the screen, make sure you understand the four aspects to assure that you place touch targets well. </li>
<li class="li3">Consider doing what we did for this study: Watch your users use their devices and see what they do. We are providing you with a general set of observations and analysis of what to expect, but nothing succeeds like shadowing your users as they actually work or learn.</li>
</ol>
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Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-59912759244943553312014-10-31T08:23:00.003-05:002014-10-31T08:23:54.737-05:00More Tips for Business People: CalendarsYou will have a calendar. It is probably digital, and if you work with others you are probably sharing it with them. In corporate environments this is required, so assume that, but if not you should still share your calendar with everyone else.<br />
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Because then instead of calling or emailing or anything, you just go to your calendar, schedule the meeting, and see if everyone else is free at that time. Many corporate systems make this tedious, but it's an available feature.<br />
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That means your calendar has to be accurate. If you always leave at 4:30 to pick up the kids from school, and everyone knows that, they don't know that unless it's on the calendar. Put it there. Put everything there. Include travel time if you know you have that and your calendar isn't smart enough to include that.<br />
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(This is where modern digital is worse than old digital. In the 1990s I has corporate calendar systems that knew where places were, and automatically added travel time.)<br />
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If it's open on my calendar, you can have the time. First come, first served. Almost always.<br />
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My calendar is a promise. If I say I will attend a meeting, I will attend it at the same rate as when I promise to come to your birthday or pick you up from the airport. If I can't attend, there's a damned good reason and it's my fault.<br />
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I don't know why others have a problem with this. But they do. Scheduling of meetings often happens at the last minute. Most meeting requests I get are with less than 2 days notice. Many are for the same day. Some are for meetings happening Right Now. Literally last minute. I don't attend a lot of those, as I am often busy with something else.<br />
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Remember: I promised it to someone else first.<br />
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And this last-minute panic never works. Half the people invited don't show up, or the critical person cancels at the last minute (often, again, literally. We are all there and then have to go back to our desks). In the end, poor calendar management principles means it still takes a week or three to actually meet with anyone.<br />
<br />
I feel if everyone just took their appointment schedules as the promise they are implied to be, everything would be simpler. No re-schedules, no delays. My experience is that reducing panicked response makes people aware how important a crisis is; very often, by simply pushing people off I find that the sudden fire drill is not that big a deal, and we can deal with the problem in a few hours, or days instead.Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-58711698469051431412014-05-09T09:30:00.002-05:002021-02-16T08:55:06.162-06:00Onboarding Class for Your New Job<div>I have moved this to the actually-maintained company blog, and have continued to update the list there, so suggest you use that one instead: </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://4ourthmobile.com/publications/onboarding-class-for-your-new-job" target="_blank">4ourthmobile.com/publications/onboarding-class-for-your-new-job</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The full original text is here for posterity and in case I said something embarrassing you can hold me to it more easily now: </div><div>.</div><div>.</div><div>.</div><div>.</div><div>.</div><div>.</div><div>.</div><div>.</div><div>.</div><div>.</div>I have worked a lot of places. A lot. And since I have clients instead of employers now, I get to see how many other types work as well. Corporate onboarding is always a waste of time, as it doesn't tell you how to be a useful, productive and most of all not an annoyingly bad member of the organization.<br />
<br />
Here's your manual on being a good information worker in a modern, western office:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>When you are on a conference call, mute the phone when not talking. Ideally you plan conference calls like you plan to attend a real, in person meeting and you are awake, prepared, settled down with your coffee or water, on time and in a quiet place. But at least, mute so we don't hear you typing, or your dog barking, or your baby crying. </li>
<li>When the ask "How are you?" no one really cares. Unless it will affect job performance in the immediate future, if you are sick or you may have to leave to pick up a kid from school, when people ask how you are doing always say "fine," or "great." Also, try to follow up with "how are you?" </li>
<li>Schedule meetings. Use the meeting organizer tool in the calendar. Fill out all the fields correctly. There's a place for each thing. Don't put the phone dial-in info in the title; you aren't being helpful; as everyone is used to finding it in the correct field. </li>
<li>If your meeting happens periodically, use the recurring meeting function in the calendar. Don't send out a meeting for each event. </li>
<li>When you host a call, and open the line, do not yell "hellooo" or any such variation. "This is Steven, who's on the call?" Better, to prevent people stepping one each other, is to <i>look at who you actually invited</i>, and conduct a real role call</li>
<li>When you announce yourself on a call, at least until everyone knows who you are, explain yourself. "This is Steven from Corporate UX." </li>
<li>Be able to introduce yourself without saying "oh, what is it I do, hahaha?!" The first meetings with a project team will need that. "Steven Hoober, I am a contract designer for all mobile apps here at [client]. I work for [pointing] Carol, who runs the overall User Experience effort here. </li>
<li>When you run a meeting, take notes. Distribute the notes to everyone else at the end. </li>
<li>When you attend a meeting, take notes. Do what people told you to do. Cross off stuff when you finish the task. </li>
<li>When your boss comes by your desk and tells you to do something, take notes. Do what you are told you to do. Cross off stuff when you finish the task. </li>
<li>Schedule your work. I don't care if you put it on your calendar, make a to-do list or write it on the wall, but put all you work somewhere. Don't forget to do it. When it is due. </li>
<li>Tell everyone who cares when you finish your work. It's not really finished till it's delivered, and it's not really delivered until everyone knows it's on the share drive or whatever. </li>
<li>Don't steal other people's chairs. Don't be a thief in general, but we adjust our chairs to ourselves, and even if wobbly, get used to them. No, not all chairs are the same. Don't steal chairs and if you need it for a sudden executive meeting, note where they go and put them back! </li>
<li>Include subjects in the email subject line. Remember not everyone is on your project, and inboxes are sometimes narrow, so lead with something very short, like a project name abbreviation. Follow it with the briefest possible summary, and date it if you do this all the time so it's a unique email thread. "CTX - Updated designs, 9 May"</li>
<li>Learn project names. Use the same name and abbreviation as everyone else. </li>
<li>Address emails in priority order. Put people who will care less as CC instead of TO. Some people filter emails like this. </li>
<li>Write emails for the least-informed member of the team. Don't assume everyone knows what you know about the project, or that they went to the last meeting. </li>
<li>Use the return key. Break emails into easily digestible pieces.</li>
<li>Pull out tasks for individuals if you have them in the email. "<b>John</b>, I need you to..."but since it's rare that everyone must take action, don't usually put ACTION REQUIRED in the subject line. </li>
<li>Have a sigline. Really. For every email. In threads, it's hard to tell who wrote what without it, and often we don't know who you are anyway, or how to get ahold of you. Put your name, title, department, email, phone. </li>
<li>Reply properly. Use reply-all almost always. Unless you know the team hates conversations going on and on, copy everyone on the original email on the full conversation. </li>
<li>Reply with context. Copy the part you are replying to into your email, make it "quote" style or (if unavailable) make it gray and italics or something to make that clear, then put your reply under it. Do this point by point. Use color if needed to make it clear. </li>
<li>Put your vacations, doctor's appointments, etc on the calendar. Then, everyone knows you are not there and don't book meetings over times you are not there.</li>
<li>Look at other people's calendars. You never need to send an email or call someone or take time on a call to say "what's a good time for everyone?" If they didn't update their calendar, that's their fault.</li>
<li>How much do you need to complain about food, really? If the last three times you asked them to order vegetarian you didn't like it, can you instead just bring something, or suffer like we all do? We mostly all hate the pizza or sandwiches anyway, so you aren't unique. </li>
<li>Bring a pen. Pad of paper. Your computer. Your phone. A cup of water. Be prepared for meetings and so on. Don't spend time during the meeting going out to get stuff. </li>
<li>Know how company equipment works. If presenting, show up early, or the day before, or ask someone else how the projector works, for example.</li>
<li>Get help. In a meeting, if you are showing off some work, have someone else take notes so you can focus on presenting, running the meeting, etc. and they don't all sit around staring at you slowly writing. </li>
<li>Sharing your screen on a Skype (or webex, or live in a room, or whatever), don't check your email, turn off your IM, etc. I like to actually quit programs I don't need, so reminders don't pop up. </li>
<li>Understand people are human. Don't schedule meetings over lunch without feeding, or a reasonable break so they can feed themselves. Don't have 3+ hour meetings, on the phone or in person, without bathroom breaks. </li>
<li>Tell people about meeting logistics. Don't make them assume or ask. </li>
<li>Never take the last [thing] from the fridge, snack basket, etc. I mean, unless you are hypoglycemic or pregnant, etc. Likewise, if present in your office, change the water bottle if you run it out, make more coffee if you have a group carafe and use it all, re-stock the pop from the cabinet if it's low in the fridge, etc. </li>
<li>Same for everything else. Paper in the printer, for example.</li>
<li>Find out who orders office supplies. Be nice to them. Tell them when things are out. Actually, they often know or feel they should so don't tell, ask. "You know we don't seem to have any 11x17 paper, right?" </li>
<li>In big enough offices, you have a mail slot. Probably near the break room. Some day, something important will arrive there. Get used to glancing at it daily just in case. </li>
<li>Travel well, if you travel as a group. Never be exceptionally slow or annoying. Any trip under 3 days, for anyone at all, should not involve checked luggage. </li>
<li>If you drive, pretend you are hosting a meeting. Schedule, arrange, tell. The car is your conference room. Make it neat and organized, drive for the passengers. </li>
<li>Your corporate processes are stupid. Filling out the timesheet before the end of the month is nonsensical and maybe unethical or illegal. Who cares? Do it anyway so the whole team or department doesn't get an email that you've failed to fill out your time sheet. </li>
<li>First, do your work. Lunch with the team, leaving early for happy hour, going to the car show on the corporate campus, etc. is never a good excuse to miss a meeting or not get your work done that day. </li>
<li>If you can't do your work and have a life, for an extended period, complain. When they ignore you -- and they will -- start looking for a new job. </li>
<li>Don't quit. Look for a new job while you work. No one really knows what you are up to anyway, so you can slack off a bit and they won't notice. It keeps your options open, as the current job may get cool in the months it takes to find something better. </li>
</ol>
<div>
What did I miss? </div>
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Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-33024834641395451362013-09-19T11:10:00.003-05:002013-09-19T11:10:34.405-05:00I Wish Those Who Ignored History Would be a Little More Doomed, AlreadyEvery day I see three stupid tech bloggers, often for the Verge or Wired or someone formerly serious, totally ignore everything more than 18 months old. Here's a typical sort of comment:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Who would have predicted a decade ago that (smart)phones would offer constant access to the Web, to social networks and broadcast platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and to hundreds of specialized apps? Who could have anticipated the power of our everyday devices to capture our every moment and movement? Cameras, GPS tracking, sensors—a phone is no longer just a phone; it is a powerful personal computing device loaded with access to interactive services that you carry with you everywhere you go.</i></blockquote>
But what annoys me, is that this is from an ACM publication. A serious journal, where there is a long edit cycle and presumably reviewers and editors.<br />
<br />
So, we've formally entirely forgotten that in 2003 there were phones that browsed the web, and I was improving the design of things like an app store that we'd had out for a while. Or that these phones had cameras, location (conflating GPS and location is a serious error in itself), etc. etc.<br />
<br />
But no. Apple invented the smartphone. Unequivocally. No caveats that all others vaguely sucked despite Symbian being the largest smartphone platform for another 5 years. Forget that. Everything before iPhone was a "dumbphone" and just made phone calls. Apple won the mindshare war for all people who write.Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-37706719587255529432013-09-11T21:51:00.001-05:002013-09-11T21:51:34.206-05:00M2M is Nice, but Don't Forget E2M<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<i>Or: "Your Favorite Pundit is Wrong: Moving Towards Hyper Toothpaste"</i></div>
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Every single article I have seen that talks about the sorta newly-announced Apple iBeacon is getting the point totally wrong. The continued lack of NFC, coupled with this "new" technology leads everyone to the conclusion that they are competitors, and Apple has made their stake.</div>
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Wong.</div>
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iBeacons are, at their heart, based on BLE. That stands for Bluetooth Low Energy, and before we get any further "BTLE" doesn't stand for anything at all, so stop using the wrong abbreviation, right now. It's a standard, and indeed is an extension of the Bluetooth we all know and used all the time. Many devices support BLE, and have for a while. Not all phones, unlike what some stupid articles are reporting. But many, and more all the time. </div>
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BLE is derived from Bluetooth which was the winner of a series of technologies called PANs, for Personal Area Networks. Like your connection to the internet is Wide Area, and your home or office has a Local Area Network, this is even smaller. Originally, just to get radio from the phone in your pocket to devices on your head or other pockets, or people you stand next to. </div>
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They are most useful and designed as M2M or machine to machine networks, where your thermostat will send this very low-power, occasional, tiny bit of data to whatever device needs to know. Apple, and PayPal and soon even more, are trying to use these to end run location based services, so stores (for example) can discover (about) where you are as you walk around, or synch payment based on location. I expect much button pushing, and most data still goes over the mobile network (or WiFi), not over the BLE. That's just for handshake, discovery, and validation. </div>
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For more, Matthew Lewis wrote <a href="http://blog.punchthrough.com/post/57813153898/wtf-is-an-ibeacon">the one and only explanation of iBeacon</a> that isn't totally misinformed and misguided. </div>
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These are supposed to kill NFC. That stands for Near Field Communications, and is a subset concerned with putting RFID technology into devices like phones. You have used RFID, if you have just waved a card at a pad by a door to get access to work, at a turnstile to get on the train, or at a payment terminal to, well, pay for things. </div>
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And that explains why it's useful. What if you could stop carrying an ID badge, subway pass and credit card and just use your phone for that? Oh, and you can in some places, with significant limits. Nothing about the technology limits this, at all. In the US, contactless payment has been held back by... um, I forget. Some bullshit with banks and mobile operators and everyone else fighting over standards. </div>
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When talking about mobiles, there is still button pushing or something else to validate it's you. The mobile network is used to transmit the data, and the NFC is just used to get this tiny amount of information, basically just a serial number (though other things like email addresses and http addresses can be embedded). The clever part to me is that (almost) any active NFC device can read passive devices. Once your phone replaces a credit card, it also can read stickers and posters and anything else a dirt cheap unpowered chip is embedded in. </div>
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NFC is short, short, short range. Supposed to be millimeters or inches, and this is true aside from some hacking with directional antennas. Discovery is via stickers and so forth. You have to be told to tap your card/phone to activate it. Think of this in the same vein as barcodes, including QR codes. Passive, short range, limited in data. </div>
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BLE is derived from Bluetooth which was the winner of a series of technologies called PANs, for Personal Area Networks. Like your connection to the internet is Wide Area, and your home or office has a Local Area Network, this is even smaller. Originally, just to get radio from the phone in your pocket to devices on your head or other pockets, or people you stand next to. Discovery of this is by the radio itself, which can be set to broadcast and discovery modes. BLE is active, longer range (small buildings, street corners), and supports very dynamic data. </div>
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BLE connects the many little digital devices with intelligence and something to say. Over time, everything with power (your car, your thermostat, etc.) will be expected to get little computers, and little radios, so they can talk to each other and we can control them. </div>
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NFC gives a voice to the remaining vast, vast number of passive, stupid objects the world is filled with. No tube of toothpaste is ever going to have a power source, radio, and sensors to tell you how much is left. But it can have an NFC tag which makes it <i>hyper toothpaste</i>. It becomes connected to digital products and the internet. </div>
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You can conceive of an NFC reader in the medicine cabinet which knows what is in it, then that is part of the home automation and talks to a server somewhere via BLE to your phone to keep track of use rates and times, so it can tell if the kids brushed their teeth. Think of this as the real Internet of Things. NFC supports E2M, the Everything to Machine network of the future. </div>
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The moral of this is that BLE and NFC are not competitors. Regardless of the choices Apple makes, and what the tech press is making of it, the world needs both of these types of standards.</div>
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Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-88018005739108389492013-09-09T07:23:00.001-05:002013-09-09T16:20:03.457-05:00Smart Watch Roundup and Some ThoughtsBoy there are a lot of smart watches and related connected devices finally coming out. No, I haven't used the majority of these. Partly as some are merely announced, and otherwise I mostly still have to buy my stuff instead of being cool enough to get things sent to me.<br />
<br />
I have played with lots of other crazy devices over the years, and even some very old attempts to be smart watches so still claim to get the gist, though.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/04/galaxy-gear-hands-on/">Samsung</a> - It's practically a mini phone in itself, with the ability to install what seem to be fairly free-standing apps, a camera, voice input, and of course a fairly serious color touchscreen. </li>
<li><a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57600775-94/qualcomm-jumps-into-wearables-with-toq-smartwatch/">Qualcomm</a> - The Toq, which also seems to have an accompanying earpiece, uses a "new" display technology, and is trying to strike a more useful middle ground in the touchscreen control area, with much larger inputs. That might help, but it looks even huger than the others still. </li>
<li><a href="http://www.sonymobile.com/us/products/accessories/smartwatch/gallery/">Sony</a> - Rather similar in UI scale to the Qualcomm, if you are following links in order, and still too big a device. Proud of having gestures, like swipe to perform some actions. </li>
<li><a href="http://liliputing.com/2013/09/smart-devices-w1-smartwatch-coming-month.html">Smart Devices</a> - Really not much about this, but it looks again to be a full color touchscreen with tediously tiny controls. </li>
</ul>
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Of course, most folks are comparing these to the <a href="http://getpebble.com/">Pebble</a>. And not just the tech writers. <a href="https://twitter.com/emilychangtv/status/375674217133375489">Sales doubled</a> on announcement of the Samsung device.<br />
<br />
Despite my <a href="http://shoobe01.blogspot.com/2013/06/my-time-with-pebble-next-revolution.html">previous glowing review</a>, it's not a perfect device. It's not ePaper despite their claims. I do wish it would shake to dismiss items, and was a little more clever about what it sent to the watch (most emails are useless, as the body is all this header info...), and i can just imagine having a few crazy features like a speakerphone so I can answer calls sometimes, but that is probably a step too far.<br />
<br />
Overall, I have trouble like many commenters on why you'd want a smart watch, but only when I look at those with full color screens, touch targets that are <a href="http://4ourth.com/wiki/General%20Touch%20Interaction%20Guidelines">far too small</a>, and maybe as much as 1 day of battery life. Pebble, while in no way perfect, is the trend I still see winning, and maybe even the way these shiny, touchscreen watches will be used: as remotes for your mobile, pushing notices, giving almost-ambient information on weather and status and position and maybe even time. I don't see a lot of photos, note taking, voice response or gaming going on with your wrist.<br />
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Which brings me really to the last smart... thingy. <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/embraceplus/embrace-a-smart-piece-of-wearable-technology">Embrace +</a> is a kickstarter I backed as I love, love, love the idea. It's a bracelet (okay, I won't wear it, but my wife might) that just glows and blinks. Truly ambient, very simple and unobtrusive, one-way only information.<br />
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Scott Jenson over the weekend said that "people are deconstructing the computer/phone into alternative configurations," which is a great way to say it. These device manufacturers are creating a new way for mobiles to work, and allowing customer choice again in an ocean of flat, fragile slabs of glass. But in a really interesting way, for the interactivity. You used to have the candybar vs. flip choice, with the rare pen/touch nerd, but now there is beginning to be the promise of making your mobile as intrusive, or not, as you want and as two way or not as you need at any moment. Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-4350373975539622062013-09-05T10:34:00.001-05:002013-09-05T10:35:49.775-05:00On Greek Yogurt, Into Darkness, and Platform ChoiceI like yogurt. Especially with cereal. There wasn't a lot I could eat as a child, so I grew up on Dannon vanilla and Grape Nuts. Later and over time I have learned how bad 80s yogurt was, and for a while have been happy with much of the local, organic and otherwise real food trends. The health section at the local HyVee spoils me for choice.<br />
<br />
Except, now things aren't always so rosy. The Greek yogurt craze has gotten entirely out of hand. When I travel, or try to get my old favorites at Costco, there is no normal yogurt. Nothing but Greek yogurt.<br />
<br />
Oh, did I forget to mention I hate Greek yogurt?<br />
<br />
See, this is why I consider the "well, just don't use/watch it if you hate it" comments to be the ultimate trolling. Greek yogurt is trying to ruin yogurt for me.<br />
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And J.J. Abrams has ruined Star Trek. Sure, I can just not go see the new films. But the way that works, there are (essentially) no new competing products in that universe. So my hate is not for the new, terribly property but that it eliminates something better from existing.<br />
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Or, to bring it back onto my day job, when you read a forum or posting that complains about some app only being on one platform it's a legitimate complaint. If I want to use the Fuel band then why do I have to buy an iPhone? Sure, there's some sector competition, like UP or FitBit, but why do I have to shop around for compatibility?<br />
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Sure there's other Sci Fi (for now!), and other food, but why do I have to change?<br />
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There's a larger point here, which maybe I'll work out sometime.Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-15332781064616755332013-08-30T23:34:00.001-05:002013-08-31T08:31:28.571-05:00Gesture Deathmatch: Leap Motion vs… Galaxy S4?<div>
Kinesthetics is awareness of the movement of your limbs, or learning based on physical movement. It is also coming to mean gestures that are not those you touch and swipe across the screen of your mobile phone. </div>
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It’s no coincidence that one of the first kinesthetic gesture devices you used, the Microsoft Xbox Kinect is spelled that way. Yeah, the Wii also does this, but senses in a different way.</div>
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This is one of those technologies that is a bit like voice; it’s been the next big thing for a decade or two. Except that it’s also been sneaking up on us. Sensors have, for years now, been waking up your phone when you pick it up, or locking the touchscreen when it thinks you are putting it up to your head to talk.</div>
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But now, these sorts of gestures are becoming a bit more mainstream and general. You can consciously use them on, or with, several new devices.</div>
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<h2>
Leap Motion</h2>
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If you didn’t know, Leap is one of those popular but somewhat delayed Kickstarter products. I got mine the first few days they were shipping, and have been evaluating it for a couple weeks now.</div>
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It’s a tiny box that plugs into your computer via USB and then watches for movement. You set the box in front of your monitor somewhere, then when you wave your hands in front of the computer, it sees them. In some detail, when you run the demos at least, though real-world responsiveness is just okay.</div>
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Not that I use it much. <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/518721/leap-motions-struggles-reveal-problems-with-3-d-interfaces/">Other reviews</a> have complained about not having a consistent gesture library, for example. That didn’t stop touchscreen phones when they came out. It was a gripe, but one you could get over pretty easily.<br />
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When I ordered the Leap, and even when I saw other demos, I had visions of how it would work for me. Quite specific ones. I wanted to keep my right hand on my pen tablet (which has been my primary input method since 1993) and then be able to just put my left hand in front of the screen to manipulate the drawing area; open palm to scoot the screen area around, say, or pinch to zoom.<br />
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It doesn’t do that. At all. Not that it couldn’t I suppose, but they have gone far, far too much into the app store model. Software is piled on software and linked to websites. You have to install zillions of little apps and plugins. Many are paid. Almost all are very freestanding. Essentially nothing allows you to control an existing application with the Leap directly.<br />
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I don’t intend to change my whole way of working by having the one computer with a Leap using special Leap software. So 90% of the use has been me getting the kids out of my hair playing games and doing very cool looking educational, exploring things. It’s very cool, and the hardware is promising, but the integration fails me entirely.</div>
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<h2>
Samsung Galaxy S4</h2>
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Yes, the contender for today’s purposes is a completely-different device. Not a dongle to complete with the Leap on desktop, but a single, free-standing smartphone.</div>
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For a few generations now, Samsung has been adding human-facing sensors, and doing interesting things with them. Many of these have been somewhat secret. Not evil, just not very obvious, with the end goal being not very annoying. Their devices are a bit better at detecting when you are looking at them during a call for example. Yes, others (notably Apple) have a decent assortment of sensors also, but Samsung has really embraced this.</div>
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I've been trying out the Verizon version of their newest flagship model, the Galaxy S4, for a few weeks also. It has a few more sensors than the S3, I think, but most of all is using them more directly and is making it all quite obvious to the end user now.<br />
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There are a whole series of settings that turn on various UI features based on you waving at the phone, tilting it, or even just looking at it.</div>
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When I say they are being obvious, I mean that these features are front and center in their TV advertising. </div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/mLd9hjl3Kds?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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I should mention that while the sensing isn’t better than Leap, or sometimes really very good at all even, it’s quite good at mentioning when it sees you. My favorite is the eyeball scanner. It shows a little icon (oddly in the middle of the screen) which indicates it can see you, and where it thinks you are looking.</div>
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This feedback means you can adjust yourself. I think that’s one reason Leap fails. When in demo mode you are looking at your hands directly, and it’s amazing but when using it for what we have to consider real work, you have no feedback.</div>
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<h2>
Building an Environment</h2>
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Aside from niggling details of the UI and interaction, the biggest difference between the two, by far, is the way they work.<br />
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The Leap Motion has brilliant technology, and the concept of bringing kinesthetic gesture to the desktop is great, but is such an add on that it is of essentially no value to me. And actually, the kids have even gotten bored with it. They want to do much the same as me, and finger paint in my professional drawing tools, or use it to navigate the computer. Which it doesn’t really do.<br />
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Whereas the Galaxy S4 totally does this. The technology is not as flashy, and is actually maybe less reliable than the Leap. The eye tracker doesn’t work with glasses, for example. But what works, works in most every app. And pretty seamlessly. If you leave on the gesture scroll, then as soon as you aren’t confused by it, the page you are viewing just scrolls as you naturally want it to.<br />
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And this proves out actually using the devices. As I said, no one much uses the Leap Motion, but it’s hard to keep the kids away from the Galaxy S4. It’s not just the big, shiny, new phone in my collection. But also the one that has the features that automatically make it work easily.<br />
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I like to talk about how it’s our job to use the sensors and connections of the phone to create ecosystems, or environments that support the way the user works. This is another extension to that. And you don’t even have to spend the usual time to get used to it and set it up your way. Turn everything on and just let it try to automatically create an information environment around you, and for you.</div>
Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-92100278991379053912013-08-27T13:51:00.001-05:002013-08-27T13:51:11.423-05:00Developers Misguided on App Platform TargetingThat could be the alternative headline for <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/27/forrester-ios-first/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29">this article</a> from TechCrunch. Let's look at a bit:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica, arial, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">Forrester found that more than a third (35%) of respondents target iPhones as their first priority device vs less than a third (27%) who target Android phones first... </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: helvetica, arial, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">...For the time being, iOS continues to punch above its weight by being the platform developers tend to choose to launch apps on first. </span></blockquote>
Um... sure. That's not at all biased. It's not "has closed to just a 7 point difference" or anything. But I have another issue.<br />
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I speak not as the anti Apple fanboi, but from my experience working for a couple clients. In the last year I have worked on (if nothing slips my mind) five mobile apps. Some are multi-platform. ONE was first built on iOS. And that because... the app developer the client picked (before I got there) was comfortable on iOS. Insisted stuff that they wanted couldn't be done in Android "as easily." Stuff like connecting to Bluetooth devices. Sure. (They also decided design was hard so just sorta ignored what I got paid to do, and built something else.)<br />
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If we go back the previous year, I did another half dozen apps or app projects. 2/3rds of those did start on iOS. Here, again, because of the developers. They had a write-once (hybrid, apparently) platform and decided [a poorly conceived] iOS version was the baseline.<br />
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When marketing gets involved, without any whiny developers, they look at the actual data and pick platforms their target audience uses. And more often than not this actual data is right. They are happy, to have spent money on the most result first.<br />
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In all cases where multiple platforms were launched... it depends. Android was not always the clear winner. Sometime BlackBerry had surprising use rates (over 20% in some user groups*). The lesson is:<br />
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<li>Do some research, check your Web analytics, and target what your audience really uses and wants to use. </li>
<li>Stop asking developers what they prefer.</li>
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* Yeah, that was last year. BBOS has dropped off to nothing in most cases now. </div>
Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-3561307214912743592013-08-27T11:05:00.000-05:002013-08-27T11:05:09.782-05:00Back to School TechnologyWe have, for now, kids in Middle and High Schools, and the past week has included Back to School days for both of them. I'll try not to harp too much on the appalling school branding (now up to 13 different eagle "icons" for the one school) or terrible writing skills of the staff and teachers when they send us forms and emails.<br />
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And I know that none of this is truly new. I've seen at least some of it, in some form, for quite a while. But I think we've reached a sort of tipping point where the result is noticeable.<br />
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There's plenty of old technology about. There are printed books. eBooks aren't even on the horizon. The kids have to take notes on paper (computers are unheard of for the students, not a one, not a question), and there are lots and lots of photocopied handouts. There seem to be a lot of families with no computers, and maybe no smartphones. Some teachers referred to getting even high school kids "used to technology" and of course they offer use of computers at school. So some of this may be<br />
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They even have phones. Like, wireline phones! The teachers never use the wireline phone in the room, but these seem telling.<br />
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There are projectors in every room. This seems great because it encourages the instructors to make everything digital. Document cameras are one of the new technologies this year in most rooms, and this is a bit sad. Too much stuff from the book publishers is only on paper, and the teachers are absolutely prevented from making copies out of the book. So, this nice technology is sort of a step backwards as it encourages old-school technology.<br />
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Most rooms are issued, and many teachers use, this:<br />
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It's a Wacom wireless Graphire, just sold through (and integrated with I assume) the SmartBoards. The teachers then walk around the room not just advancing slides, but drawing, typing and scooting items around the screen. I am a lover of the pen tablet so this excites me.<br />
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A few rooms had this:<br />
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This is that technology where the kids can vote or otherwise provide near-real-time digital responses to things on screen. Yup, all are at least a little broken (see the tape) and the Beyond Question devices are specifically oddly shaped and not designed for the environment. They are less rugged than my home TV remote. It is IR, and so there's lots of pointing oddly to get to the receiver, and the questions have to be set up by the teacher through some custom software. <br />
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The computer class was all but Sponsored by Microsoft. Not just all of Office, but also a few weeks on Access is in the curriculum. I wouldn't mind if they spent some time on database principles, but fear it'll not cover that at all. Oh, well.<br />
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Many teachers want you to sign up for one or another type of SMS and/or email reminder.<br />
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And every teacher is pretty much required (they said so) to tell us all to regularly monitor their Web Back Pack (or, Backpack... they aren't consistent). They post their curriculum, current status, homework, and so on up there. Think of each teacher like a department in your company, and their Back Pack page as their intranet page. Yup, just a flood of text and random images and lots and lots of Word or Powerpoint downloads.<br />
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And there are another half dozen cloud services we're supposed to use as well. Which brings me to my complaint that this is all terrible. It's not a thing, but a zillion things. It's controlled by the district, so the teachers can only use certain tools, but there are too many. And they aren't coordinated.<br />
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For example, to use the Back Pack, I go to the district website, then pick the school from an alphabetical list. Of all of them, not ordered by type or area, so a very long list. Then I pick the teacher. By first name no less.<br />
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Or what about fallback technology? One of the teachers is technically a sub. For the whole year, sure, but the district considers her a sub. So, no access to any of the district digital tools. Therefore, she hands out paper, and makes the students write things in their notebooks in a common format.<br />
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This all violates basic principles I talk about all the time. My student gets a single schedule, for example. They don't arrange to attend school with each teacher, but with the district. They know who we are, so should be able to figure out we have two kids in school. I should be able to enter my basic info (eliminating giving my email to each teacher), and then click straight into the classes for each of my children.<br />
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And while I am there, even if things like signup for all those SMS reminder systems (even if they have to be separate services) should be linked. And only one per family or student, with checkboxes per class. A separate signup per class is insane.<br />
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This is why I gripe about technology all the time. More boxes, wires and software won't solve our problems. Like we tell kids to stop and think before they talk, we need to stop and think before we buy or build more of this. How can we integrate, improve existing products and be intelligent with the data we have already?Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-15049950454342933452013-08-21T11:47:00.000-05:002013-08-21T20:40:06.335-05:00Raster Graphics for Android<p>The various cheat-sheet articles I see for this are now out of date, or focus too much on creation of the Launcher Icon, whereas of course we also need graphics inside our apps. </p>
<p>Now, don't go overboard. Whenever possible, use some existing or easily-modifiable drawable. This is a good reason we want specifications instead of just comps.
<ul>
<li>Gradients - No need to make repeated backgrounds for bars, etc. when you can just apply a gradient to a box.</li>
<li>Built-in Shapes - There are hundreds of icons (and form elements, and other shapes) built into Android. Check a tediously-organized but comprehensive list at <a href="http://androiddrawables.com/">androiddrawables.com</a></li>
<li>Modify Drawables - Many of them can be changed in color, and don't forget crazy things like rotate. Used for making clocks tick and so on, you can just rotate an arrow to point the other way, for example.</li>
</ul></p>
<p>But if you have to export raster images, you better do it right or everything will end up fuzzy and/or mis-sized. Note that Android considers density to also loosely map to screen size. MDPI is not just 160 dpi, but also expects a 3.5-4" screen. This seems to have either broken down or I cannot find a new translation table. The original XHDPI assumed something like 10" screens but that's clearly untrue now. </p>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Generaized<br />Desity</th>
<th>Constant<br />Name</th>
<th>Actual<br />Density</th>
<th>Physical<br />Size</th>
<th>Scale<br />Factor</th>
<th>Notes</th>
</tr>
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<td>LDPI</td>
<td>DENSITY_LOW</td>
<td>120 dpi</td>
<td>2-3"</td>
<td>25%</td>
<td>Almost legacy even by the time Android 1.3 was launched. Small and crappy screens. But, they exist and with weird devices coming down (smart watches?) this may matter again. I still export to this density.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>MDPI</td>
<td>DENSITY_MEDIUM</td>
<td>160 dpi</td>
<td>3.5-4"</td>
<td>33.34%</td>
<td>The classic medium size, though now a pretty small resolution.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>TVDPI</td>
<td>DENSITY_TV</td>
<td>213 dpi</td>
<td>?</td>
<td>44.37%</td>
<td>Yes, for TVs. You probably don't need it, but smart TVs will come up sometime.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>HDPI</td>
<td>DENSITY_HIGH</td>
<td>240 dpi</td>
<td>?</td>
<td>50%</td>
<td>The big terribly shiny screens... from 3-4 years ago. Pretty average now.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>XHDPI</td>
<td>DENSITY_XHIGH</td>
<td>320 dpi</td>
<td>?</td>
<td>66.67%</td>
<td>The start of the stupid labels by adding Xs. Everything good is Extra High density now.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>XXHDPI</td>
<td>DENSITY_XXHIGH</td>
<td>480 dpi</td>
<td>?</td>
<td>100%</td>
<td>First used on the Nexus 10, and now being used a bit more. Largest size I support, at least for now.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>XXXHDPI</td>
<td>DENSITY_XXXHIGH</td>
<td>640 dpi</td>
<td>?</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>I am not yet exporting for this scale. When I do, I am sure there will be an XXXXHDPI, or they will have changed their mind, and my process will have changed to account for that.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Note that "Scale factor" is mine and based on my procedure. My export procedure may make you giggle, but I don't care. This is what I do and it works for me:
<ul>
<li>All icons are drawn in vector programs. Usually InDesign for workflow reasons, but Illustrator is fine also. They are drawn to a physical scale so I know how big they need to each be in the final render. </li>
<li>Grab all the graphics I will need to turn into rasters, and put them on one page, still in their relative scales.
<ul>
<li>This is all about making images the same physical size on each displayed device. You are reasonably likely to not want to do this, so adjust accordingly. For example, your spec should have designed and stated that devices with so big/small a screen. So, just put that scaled size for the image separately</li>
<li>Label stuff. So you don't forget. And, so you can see things. I export lots of white icons, and on clear they are hard to see. Labels help locate them in the next steps.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Export that page to a PDF. </li>
<li>Open that PDF in Photoshop. My pages are always tabloid (11x17") size so I set the import resolution to the <em>physical</em> width of the drawing sheet (here, 1224 pt) and the resolution to 480 ppi. This makes it the right size and density for XXDPI. All others will be scaled down from that inside Photoshop.</li>
<li>Go into the Photoshop document and add guides to be used as crop lines. Leave a bit of space around items. Remember anti-aliasing; it can easily need 2 pixels past the hard image edge for this. If you don't provide that, the image will look odd. Provide more for shadows, and be sure to use the eyedropper to make sure you aren't missing any shadows.</li>
<ul>
<li>You can also plan for this, especially if you have shadows, by sticking bounding boxes into the vector art before export. The box won't be able to be a snappable line and will itself get fuzzy over time, but can be a helpful guide for things like shadow edges or gradients to nothing.</li>
</ul>
<li>Clean up the edges. You must pixel push as everyone's scaling messes up sharp edges. There tend to be bright and/or dark lines just inside the edges. Clean those off. Do not overly remove anti-aliasing even on straight (vertical, horizontal) items. A little bit makes it look more polished.</li>
<li>Crop to each item (or, copy and paste to a series of new documents, depending how how your brain works best) then export as a 24 bit PNG
<ul>
<li>Rarely, there is no transparency, and you can use 8 bit PNGs to save size. Rarely.</li>
<li>Use all your optimizing skills as usual for exporting to Web. Don't have any? See articles like <a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/15/clever-png-optimization-techniques/">this one</a>.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Now scale to the next size down by the appropriate factor, and change the density to the new ppi value.
<ul>
<li>Do this in Image Size, and be sure to change Resolution first. Then switch the Pixel Dimension to percentage. Often, it'll already be spot on, but the rest of the time it'll just be close. Type the right percentage value in one of these boxes to snap it back to correct dimensions.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Zoom in and clean up the images, again, for this size. <ul>
<li>As you get smaller, cleanup may mean changes to the image. Even if you don't export special small sizes, do things to make it work well. For example, I often have a /slightly/ darker stroke around the edges of my icons (if not white ones, obviously), to make the edges stand out. When they get small, the stroke takes up so much of the area it looks like an element itself, so I need to remove it.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Crop if needed, and export these. Same way.</li>
<li>Go into history, pop back up to the cleaned up version of the original size. Do all scaling from the largest useful size. Progressive scaling will make them fuzzy.</li>
<li>Repeat till done.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>Be sure to put them in a useful folder structure and name them well.</p>
<p>Also a good idea to clean up all images to remove un-needed data using online tools which I'll link to later.</p>
<p>Much of the core data is from the developer.android page on <a href="http://developer.android.com/reference/android/util/DisplayMetrics.html">Android Display Metrics</a> and <a href="http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html">Supporting Multiple Screens</a>. Check that out if you worry they've changed or added a density or just want a much, much longer overview. </p>
Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-78264792348635256682013-08-11T18:49:00.001-05:002013-08-11T18:49:57.470-05:00Designers Can't Code<p>And again with <a href="http://joshuaseiden.com/blog/2013/08/designers-shouldnt-code-is-the-wrong-answer-to-the-right-question/?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=bufferf10fe&utm_medium=twitter">this thing</a> in which a key point is stipulated: We're talking about the Web.</p>
<p>That incessant stipulation kills me every time. Because:</p>
<p>I</p>
<p>don't</p>
<p>build</p>
<p>Websites</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>And if you do, you are probably doing it wrong. Oh, sure, I build stuff that's <em>on the Web</em>. But not "Websites." I build products. Generally information products. Much more often than not, digital products. But they might be the Web (desktop or mobile, in "HTML 5" or not, with any number of plugins like Modernizr or Bootstrap), CSS, JS (with all it's libraries like JQuery which might as well be languages there is so much to know), native apps (for desktops, for mobiles, and each of these use their own language, mostly customized enough to the SDK that it doesn't matter if you knew it before), or maybe it's hybrid (but then you need to know not just a little HTML but also what the hybrid tool, like Titanium, does), or they are printed bits of paper, or stickers, or package designs, or putting the buttons and lights in a specific place on the case. </p>
<p>So, go up to a serious developer you know, and see if he knows how to code, really well, in HTML, CSS, JS, C++, Java, MySQL or...</p>
<p>Oh, and while you are at it, he knows how to run a press, and an injection molding machine, so he can print stickers and make cases also. Right?</p>
<p>You cannot, <strong>CANNOT</strong> be good at multiple widely different languages. You can, and should, as a UX guy, be slightly versed in the limits of everything, and have a lot of books or links to go look up what you do not know.</p>Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-57255770772689735822013-06-27T13:30:00.001-05:002013-08-27T11:11:55.826-05:00My time with Pebble: The next revolution will be on your wristI am a watch guy. For some years now I have been wearing mechanical, dial-indicating timepieces.<br />
<br />
And not just as a fashion statement. I legitimately read the time with it, instead of just pulling my phone out of my pocket all the time. I keep it set properly so I can trust it. I use the twisty bezel to time things, like my running or biking.<br />
<br />
And I am both excited and sad to say I have hardly worn a dedicated watch for months. <a href="http://getpebble.com/">Pebble</a> has ruined them for me.<br />
<br />
<h3>
What's a Pebble?</h3>
I keep thinking that these are a well-known device, but I think for a change I am suitably cutting-edge. I have seen zero others in the wild, and while I get street cred for wearing it from those in the know (the Apple store employees suitably fawned at me wearing one last week) very few people are in the know. In brief, it's a smart watch.<br />
<br />
Yeah, those exist. You don't have to wait for Apple to define what a smart watch will mean and can go buy one now. <a href="http://www.imsmart.com/en/store/buy-i-m-watch/color-buy">Several</a> <a href="http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/gadgets/casio-g-shock-gb-6900aa-1127036/review">others</a> <a href="http://sites.garmin.com/fenix/">exist</a> <a href="http://cookoowatch.com/">already</a>. But I think the Pebble sets the trend. Now, it's not perfect.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Dick Tracy Got it Wrong</h3>
Smart watches as an idea have been around <a href="http://techland.time.com/2013/02/11/dick-tracys-watch-the-most-indestructible-meme-in-tech-journalism/">forever</a>. I sometimes think this is the result of <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/08/henry_ford_never_said_the_fast.html">faster-horse</a> syndrome. We just try to stretch technology that exists otherwise to fit in our pockets or on our wrists.<br />
But then I remember that the people who made machine-age stuff really thought it through. That there were generations of work to evolve and improve products. Like watches. We didn't wear wristwatches right away, but evolved to that. Then used them for a long time. There are standards around them, so my Pebble takes standard bands. Which is great as the one it came with is atrocious. I wouldn't wear it if not for my Maratac nylon strap.<br />
<br />
Smart watches have actually made it to market <a href="http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/03/21/new-samsung-smart-watch-will-be-companys-third-stab-at-wrist-accessory">since at least 1999</a>, but I think most or all previous attempts failed at one key attribute. They try to be self-contained units.<br />
<br />
The new generation are just monitors, or remotes, that connect to other devices. This works great now because the smartphone has evolved to be the new <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/11/switched-on-why-the-digital-hub-died/">digital hub</a>.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Read Only</h3>
I think the other key change is that we've finally gotten to the point we're comfortable with the concept of a remote, or monitor. Dick Tracy's two-way wrist radio (later: TV) was two-way. It was not just a free-standing device but required lots of input, talking into it, etc.<br />
<br />
I've seen an early 2000s Samsung smart watch (not the one in the link above) and a research report on it. It was terrible, and almost all because it was a phone in a watch. Now, lots of apps for the Pebble are two way, though limited in scale due to the small number of buttons. The <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.finebyte.pebbleglance&hl=en">Glance</a> app for Pebble has lots of extra features, for example, that allow you to send pre-packaged SMS responses.<br />
But I never, ever use any of these features.<br />
<br />
<h3>
It's About Context</h3>
Because, I think, of the unique context of Thing On Your Wrist. Like I said, I use it constantly. And I use it to avoid pulling my phone out of my pocket. Hell, even leave my phone on my desk, and can walk around the house/office and know what's going on still.<br />
<br />
Smart watches extend the glanceable paradigm further than we could have guessed. There's no need to pull the handset out to check if you got that SMS, or find the time, or get basic weather.<br />
<br />
There's much to be improved on these, and I hope to see Samsung and maybe Apple really bring these to the next level, but I strongly feel the concept is more or less world changing. If everyone won't carry a smart watch, maybe <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/embraceplus/embrace-a-smart-piece-of-wearable-technology">even</a> <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-33620_3-57577376-278/my-life-with-the-nike-fuelband-activity-tracker/">simpler</a> devices, or <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/01/smartphone-too-big-get-a-smaller-phone-for-your-smartphone/">other types</a> of remote and monitoring devices. All connected to your mobile, and your cloud where all your information lives now.Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-75109944696979847152013-06-19T11:33:00.002-05:002013-06-19T11:34:30.899-05:00You can love Apple, but do you have to /love/ Apple? <p>I didn't get why 10.9 was called Mavericks, and then was more confused when some people defended it as being all about Apple's inspiration and so on.</p>
<p>This week I am at a conference in San Jose and far, far too many people do not just carry an iPhone, but professes absolute love for iOS. Not preference, but rather gushingly.</p>
<p>Though I still don't know why this is true, I think I have figured out an aspect of it. Apple is a brand where it's okay for their inspiration, their opinion, and their design sense to be more important than your own.</p>
<p>I have two iPads, an iPhone, two iPod Touches, and innumerable older iPods. I don't feel I am an Apple hater. Except that I am perceived as one to those who are Apple fanbois. Because I also have dozens of other devices, and pay attention to what my clients and users want, and use. And, because I can say what is good, bad, limiting and disagrees with my opinion, desire and ability to get work done, on any platform, from any company.</p>Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-5732981088068478682013-06-11T10:03:00.001-05:002013-06-11T10:08:25.517-05:00When even Radio Shack had Good Design<p>A friend recently showed me this:</p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/shoobe01/9017157952/" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7325/9017157952_b96c4e0d55_z.jpg" /></a>
<p>It's a weather radio. Says so right on it, but what I found most interesting is how little else there is. It's a cube. With an antenna and a switch. The switch would have made even more sense in the era in which is was made, as it looks like a tape deck switch in size, shape and action. Flush is neutral, or off, down is on.</p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/shoobe01/9017159666" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3742/9017159666_44a760367c_z.jpg" /></a>
<p>That's it. Classical simplicity. Oh, when you get one you need to tune to the local station? Or, adjust the volume? Yes, those are rarely used features so were eliminated due to the size and simplicity they were going for.</p>
<p>Of course that's not what happened. They are on the bottom.</p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/shoobe01/9015971143/" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7342/9015971143_e59fdc88e1_z.jpg" /></a>
<p>Why the bottom? Well, they are out of the way from accidental activation, but easy to get to. The same reason we do things like this in, say, mobile app or Web design today. Even this is an unusually well-designed device. Other weather radios of this era tried to achieve simplicity by doing things like hiding the tuner inside the device; you need a screwdriver to adjust it.</p>
<p>If even the third-tier Radio Shack designers, knocking off the principles of simple design in decades past can figure that out, why can't we all figure out the same for current digital designs? Surface the basic features, express simplicity in operation, and obscure the extra functions that are still needed, but make these controls easy to use when revealed.</p>Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-82982099312511316572013-03-25T11:00:00.001-05:002013-03-25T11:14:48.375-05:00Mobile Screenshots<p>Another in my series of "things you all should know, but I keep having to explain how I do it." If you design, specify, manage, develop or test, for mobile you have to take screenshots. Maybe a lot. Most of us do not have the SDK installed or when the need pops up we're not tethered to a computer anyway. We need to be able to take a screenshot easily, at a moment's notice.</p>
<p>To get the screenshot:
<dl>
<dt>Android 4.0 and higher</dt>
<dd>The official key combination is Power and Volume Down. Hold them both, and after a brief pause the screen flashes.</dd>
<dd>A few devices use their own. The Galaxy S3, at least, uses Power + Home. Why, I do not know.</dd>
<dd>Images are stored in a folder alongside all the other photos you take with the device, so can be found in the Gallery.</dd>
<dt>Older Android</dt>
<dd>Most of these have no specific key combination. It's not built into the OS, but a few OEMs did provide the functionality. Google your phone name plus "Screenshot" and see if anything comes up.</dd>
<dd>The best way I've found to get screenshots off these devices is <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.edwardkim.android.screenshotitfullnoroot&hl=en">No Root ScreenshotIt</a>. You'll install an app, and also need to put a tiny application on a desktop computer (at least Windows and Mac). The only tedious part here is that when you power cycle the device you will need to re-enable the screenshot function by plugging into the desktop and running the app. Especially if testing, your phone may crash, so you'll need this capability with you, so it doesn't work well for some corporate users who cannot install desktop apps. I prefer this app to native things in some ways, as it has nice features like timed capture, so you can get stuff hard to capture otherwise.</dd>
<dd>Files are stored in a unique location, so you'll want to get a file explorer also, so you can make sure they are being taken, view them, and so on.</dd>
<dt>iOS</dt>
<dd>Just press and hold the Home/Menu button (big one on the front of the device) and the Power/Lock button (top of the device) as the same time. The screen will flash white for a moment.</dd>
<dd>Images are stored in a folder where all other photos are stored.</dd>
<dt>Blackberry OS</dt>
<dd>There is no built in screen grab utility.</dd>
<dd>The best to download seems to be <a href="http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/23993/">Screen Grabber</a>.</dd>
<dt>Blackberry 10</dt>
<dd>Press both the Volume Up and Volume Down keys at the same time. You'll hear a quick camera click.</dd>
<dd>To find the files, use File Manager, make sure Device is selected, then open the Camera folder.</dd>
<dt>Windows Phone</dt>
<dd>Press the Start (Windows key) and Power buttons at the same time.</dd>
<dd>Screenshots are saved in a "Screenshots" album in the Photos Hub</dd>
<dt>Bada</dt>
<dd>Press and hold the Menu and Lock keys. After a short delay, the screenshot is taken and a message indicates this.</dd>
</dl></p>
<p>Long ago I heard that way over 99% of all photos never got off the phone. I believe it, and think the problem is just as bad on screenshots. You have to be able to send it places, edit it, post it, and a lot of people get hung up at this point.</p>
<p>Android allows just browsing the file system, so if you have time and a cable that's not a terrible solution. iOS doesn't really allow direct file system browser, but you can find scripts to download only specific camera rolls to specific places on the computer.</p>
<p>Emailing is at best tedious. And if you screenshot an entire process -- or there's an actual or de facto corporate "no email attachments" policy -- that won't work well anyway.</p>
<p>The best is some cloud storage solution. There are several options for remote synch storage, but I find <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/">DropBox</a> to work the best for this sort of thing. It can be configured to automatically upload images from various folders, but even if you have to manually select screenshots, it's not too bad.</p>
<p>On Android, DropBox will show up as a shareable option. Pick the images, and go. iOS makes you go from the DropBox side, but you can still pick individual files, and put them in specific places (like to segregate one client from another).</p>
Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-42025561508133090092013-02-07T09:25:00.000-06:002013-02-07T09:25:31.054-06:00Towards a philosophy of digital interface design<div dir="ltr">
Dissatisfaction with skeuomorphism leads to the question, if we're against it, what are we for?</div>
<div dir="ltr">
The obvious refrain was to design in a way true to the nature of the medium. See the Good Design principles (1950) for this formally acknowledged as a key precept of, it would seem to follow, good design.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
I admit I might have missed a brilliant treatise here and there, but in general I have heard responding silence on the matter of what is the nature of, say, a touchscreen mobile phone.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Certainly we can abide by the OS principles, but even that seems too tactical. Many seem to insist that there is no nature to follow — the glass is too featureless and the bounds too infinite. Impossible, I say. Nothing is without flaw out limit.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
As I type this, I can see some wall tiles, clearly meant to look hands painted, and just as clearly actually screen printed reproductions. The shapes are technically there, but at insufficient fidelity, so the directionality of the strokes gives way to the reality of the halftone grid. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Our maybe that's too decorative. What about paper? Lots of designed experiences are still on paper. At it's best (I think here of intaglio and letterpress techniques) design and execution for aper meet the goals of the design while allowing the medium to , and to enhance the final work. An offset reproduction of a letterpress poster is not the same thing, as there's a physicality that moves past the flat page. Designers on paper are aware that ink sits on top and changes the paper itself by being run through the press. That ink should be applied in certain orders to achieve specific effects. We work with the process and medium, not against it. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
How do we do that with digital design, for glowing screens? I haven't worked it all out, but for starters, there is dimensionality. The display layer is behind the glass, often some distance behind it. Even on a flat device without a bezel (use any iPhone as an exemplar) the interface is not flat, but behind the interaction layer. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
And it's not perfect. Even setting aside glare and so on, the screen does not illuminate perfectly evenly. Oh, our conscious brains adjust for this and we don't notice it really, but it's there, and we subconsciously perceive it certainly. To see it, try making the screen one solid color and then take a photo of it (a screenshot won't work). The variation in brightness is not an artifact though it may be exaggerated by the camera. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
When we design perfectly flat interfaces, we're designing for flat interaction and perfectly-smooth reproduction which does not exist. Without direct evidence, I believe that this is why subtle gradients and shadows behind elements (bars, strips, buttons) work well. They emphasize the nature of the phone display – color variation and depth of interaction. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
Or maybe not. </div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
More to come, if and as I figure it out. </div>
Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-85729908837521768892013-01-31T10:38:00.001-06:002013-01-31T10:38:12.546-06:00The Fanboi Effect<p>We've all seen some of the results. Reviews with amazingly slanted headlines, pointing out that iOS bests Android in some minor area, ignoring the rest. Cherrypicking data and comments. But no, I am not even talking about the obvious, visible effects. The problem is much more insidious and deep rooted.</p>
<p>Articles like this one insists <a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/01/30/the-data-doesnt-lie-ios-apps-are-better-quality-than-android">The Data Doesn't Lie</a> and discusses a recent analysis of Appstore/Play Store ratings and reviews to determine iOS has higher quality apps than Android.</p>
<p>For the hell of it: Ignoring Windows, Symbian and Blackberry makes the uTest guys look like iOS defenders, out to prove a specific point instead of doing a general survey. The math is not shown, so we can't do anything with it, including determine statistical relevance of the (small) margins. It's not clear the data was normalized to account for grade inflation or any other anomalous rank/review behavior, or the use of different words due to different features on each platform.</p>
<p>But let's say it's true. It might be. What causes that? Well, <strong>you do</strong>. And your friends who carry iPhones and design, develop or specify an iOS app first, or only. And even your decisions three years ago when you hired that vendor with the write-once tool, that insists your organization can design for iOS and they will port to other platforms.</p>
<p>Here's a quote that summarizes it for me from the comments:</p>
<blockquote>problem is with us developers, who most of the time either directly port iOS apps or don't do unit test before pushing to Android Market.</blockquote>
<p>Directly port iOS apps. I still, long into the global dominance of Android, and far after it's a critically important platform (if not clearly the dominant one) even in the US, see iOS developed first, and Android grudgingly ported over later. Often, with zero input from anything like a design team. Often with no oversight or really direct approval from the product owners.</p>
<p>When I say I see this, I mean at clients I work for, or slightly secondhand from clients others I know work for. Of course, it's pretty easy to observe when an app launches on iPhone, then six weeks later gets a half-assed Android version. Back to clients: I've seen the user tests. iOS design doesn't work on Android. (P.S. crappy hybrid that doesn't /quite/ look like iOS, doesn't even work on iPhones).</p>
<p>So, we've seen the problem with the UX of Android apps. And the problem is in many ways, us. The UX community. I don't even blame developers as much as us. I say it every time I give a presentation on this, and a lot of the time I write about any topic that covers multiple platforms. I'll say it again. <strong>Respect your users. Respect their choices. Do not assume they are being duped, they are cheap, they are stupid.</strong> The vast Clean-Design-Wing conspiracy to trample all platforms other than iOS has failed, and when you see that Android has 60% of the traffic (looking at a chart on the wall right now) then you have to believe it.</p>
<p>If you are sure that, say, iOS is the only important platform then absolutely build for that. But if you see the data or are otherwise required to make an Android app, or a Windows Phone app, or a Blackberry app, then make that. Design it, for real, like you mean it. Like what you say about users and their contexts is something you believe in. Not just lip service before you say "of course iPhone users are the best" in some probably quantifiable, but ultimately short-sighted, self-serving way.</p>
<br />
<p><em>One caveat: This is true in North America most of all. When I design for India or MENA or just globally, any client based or largely operating outside the US seems to be able to look at the stats, and I get tasked to design for S40 or Blackberry or Android first, and consider bada or Windows Phone for the future. Because that's what the stats say.</em></p>
<p><em>I should also say that I really, really try not to be a fan of any platform. My phone rings to an Android now, but because it's the most popular platform in the world. I have carried iOS, WebOS, Symbian, and probably more in the past few years. My briefcase pretty much always has a Nexus 7, an iPad 2, a Blackberry Curve, an iPhone 4, a Nokia C2, and a couple other Androids for keyboard and old OS compatibility. More devices are at home. I build to the platforms I am asked to build to, and if I had to pick a favorite platform I would say "SMS."</em></p>Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-40317388595932888242013-01-30T12:44:00.000-06:002013-01-30T12:45:02.816-06:00How offices work: buzzwords, expectations, realities<p>Applying for work, and being turned down because I travel or am not local already, reminds me of some of the frustrations arising from mismatches between what we all talk about as cool and trendy, what management expects and what actually happens.</p>
<br />
<h3>Buzzwords:</h3>
<p>Read any article, anywhere, about the new (or maybe coming) state of business and collaboration and you'd think we're all mobile workers. We work from home, we can live anywhere we want with universal connectivity, we can go for an afternoon bike ride and answer important business messages, or draw diagrams while waiting in line for their coffee. We're miles past paperless, and are all globally-connected, digitally-collaborating all the time.</p>
<p>I am calling these buzzwords, but they do exist here and there. I know people who have wormholes in the conference room, or where the entire office doesn't exist, and they all meet at a coffeeshop (or share space) weekly or monthly, and otherwise work from home.</p>
<br />
<h3>Expectations: </h3>
<p>But that's rare.</p>
<p>I routinely do not get jobs (or am not considered for them) as I am not a local. Air travel is cheap and plentiful, and for three years I have been traveling up to 100% for work. I'll go where you want me to, no problem. But no, the expectation for far too many organizations, is that everyone is local.</p>
<p>And not just in the office, but a local. Even the committment of relocation makes them antsy, for what amount to the reasons that the digital remote office make sense. It takes time, and it's a distraction. The expectation is that offices exist, everyone has a desk and issued computer and it docks in right next to the office phone and we all work together every day.</p>
<p>Yes, even for freelance jobs. I've seen people posting, say, a mobile IxD in London for 6 months that will not consider someone in another country because they want to meet face to face. How often? Not clear, but locals-only please.</p>
<br />
<h3>Realities:</h3>
<p>This is actually two different things. Two very, very different things.</p>
<p>Much of my favorite and most well-known work is with clients I have never met. Ever. Some are on entirely other continents. We get along very well with email, sometimes SMS, lots of Google spreadsheets, and other collaboration tools (bug trackers, task lists, etc.). I even use my normal processes of collaboration and send out partially completed files, show off halfassed prototypes others can look at on handsets, and so on.</p>
<p>But I usually have what I call a "day job." It's usually also the bulk of my income (not always) but is the one place that insists I be available 9-5, and generally gives me a desk which I have to be at, either more or less always, or on some other very strict schedule. Which is, just to start with, insane. I am routinely the only guy in the office, as everyone local gets to wander off for the kids' soccer game, or just decides to work from home on Friday.</p>
<p>In fact, I have flown to another city several thousand miles away, dressed appropriately for work and gone to my desk (or folding table in an abandoned floor), worked 5 days and never once had a meeting or important (business-related) face-to-face interaction with another human. I have also come to sit in a cube farm full of co-workers, but because there is not enough conference rooms and half the team is in another location, I spend the whole week when I do have meetings on the phone. There is no point to being in the office, except that it is expected.</p>
<p>For large corporate clients, I won't even get too far into collaboration tools. Google Docs and Bugzilla are not even considered. And the enterprise tools are buggy and awful, so no one uses them unless actually required to. Collaboration is email. Or the corporate IM, which only works over the corporate network, so people working from home often cannot be reached at all.</p>
<p><em>If you think this is about you, it's not. I wrote something similar as a private email over a year ago, and it keeps being true based not on any one case, but on trends with dozens of different organizations.</em></p>
Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-73574345848063266092013-01-26T11:51:00.003-06:002013-01-26T11:51:51.508-06:00How to get started in UX<p>This is something I get asked at least once a month. Usually, by someone who isn't that far off. They are in another design field. Or development. Or used to be a web designer but had to quit. So, there's a base of knowledge.</p>
<p>Anyway, this is a response I sent to a specific designer today. He's working on signage, hence the references to that, but the same would apply to almost any field. You can apply your existing knowledge to the field you want to get into. It's inherent in your mindset and career choices; if you didn't want to be a UX guy, you couldn't do this.</p>
<p>It's also a bit Bay Area specific, but there is probably some UX-related group in whatever town you are in.</p>
<br />
<p>I'd love to give you a list of books or something, but... I've been asked by a few others and have nothing good! Nothing I really like except the usual suspects in general UX stuff. I'm working on it, though. </p>
<p>I guess I'd say the way I stay up to date is the way you already started if I remember right, and you were at the Yahoo! event. Network. Info snack. Sign up for lots of UX blogs, and follow UX people on Twitter. You are free to steal some ideas from me. <a href="https://twitter.com/shoobe01/">My twitter account</a> is, AFAIK, not secret so look who I follow and grab any of them that look interesting. I do think Twitter is a good place to start as it's one of the "hypermessaging" services that posts most usefully links to articles, which you read then sign up for the RSS feed they came from.</p>
<p>I write for <a href="http://www.uxmatters.com/">UX Matters</a> magazine. I rather like that. There are more popular ones, but I think this tends to discuss foundational issues really well, so might get less buzz but is good to know the basics of the field. For /really/ nerdy stuff, I am a member of <a href="http://www.acm.org/">ACM</a>. They are a computing society, but I also joined the <a href="http://www.sigchi.org/">SigCHI</a> sub-group, and get the amazingly good <a href="http://interactions.acm.org/">Interactions</a> magazine. Not cheap overall, but at least a few articles are online so look it up and see if that's interesting as well.</p>
<p>Oh, there are lots of good LinkedIn groups also. Just <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/search-fe/group_search?pplSearchOrigin=GLHD&keywords=ux">search out UX</a> and any other keywords. They do the same as Twitter, posting questions and links to other articles you can read.</p>
<p>Go to events; there are a lot of good ones here in the Bay Area. Sometimes they are hosted by big organizations and have almost always have good people speaking. Sometimes, you can get fun surprises. I arrived early one time at a Cooper event and got to corner Don Norman for 20 minutes about stuff.</p>
<p>And, start correlating what you do every day with what you want to shift into doing. A lot of web/mobile designers like to quote articles about design of road signs, for example. I absolutely have done the same. Think about (or look up) the issues of 10-foot UI (TV) compared to a mobile. Similar, and the size is irrelevant because its about angular resolution. Distance matters. As does lighting conditions and other environmental factors. You might very well have a good grasp on the principles we all work with.</p>
<p>Oh, and speaking of principles, feel free to just read my book. Which I suggest partly as it's free online: <br />
<a href="http://4ourth.com/wiki">http://4ourth.com/wiki</a></p>
<p>It's mobile specific, but there's lots of ranting in the intro about principles and processes, lots of stuff in the section intros and appendices that link to other design patterns and discuss principles of psychology and physiology, and a big (poorly organized though) set of references you can look into.</p>
Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-86396618684709060252013-01-16T09:05:00.000-06:002013-01-16T09:08:12.623-06:00All my devices, and how they are changing our behavior<p>A lot of you have seen the <a href="http://4ourth.com/wiki/Where%20Did%20These%20Patterns%20Come%20From%3F">huge pile of devices</a> that I used as examples when writing the book. Often I get the question of "which one do I actually use," which of course misses the point of even a consumer today; we use multiple devices, in different contexts.</p>
<p>I carry several handsets and tablets in my briefcase (or have them next to me on the desk) to try new products only available on one platform, to check out how a new design of my own works on specific devices (or every device) or just to generally gain insight into how users of some different device class or OS might experience the world.</p>
<p>But I've also noticed lately how many devices are around the house. Let's look:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/shoobe01/8386218128/in/photostream/"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8506/8386218128_0a7f1de0a5_z.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>These are all the mobile devices in my bag or pocket, carried around by the wife or daughter, or sitting in the living room waiting to be used all the time. Everything here is used at least weekly, and most of them many times a day.</p>
<p>And it leaves out a lot of connected devices still. There's also an older Tablet PC in the living room, the TV (okay, BD player) is connected so we can watch Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, etc. and of course there are also three laptops and a desktop mac, and two more WinTel laptops issued to me by clients. And there's a WiFi hotspot I use to connect a lot of these to the network (I lost another, so the Mini serves that purpose for my wife now).</p>
<p>What I have found interesting is how it's not too many devices. Instead, everyone becomes accustomed to having them. I travel a lot, and take half of these away with me regularly. I'd assumed the various tablets were just work devices and if I thought about it at all, they are a bonus when I was around. But instead the rest of the family has become accustomed to them, and misses the ability to use decent tablets as an adjunct to handsets. So I had to buy another one (the Mini) for the wife, and clean off an old junky one (the Polaroid) for the child. Who is sad she doesn't get a Nexus 7 or iPad Mini for herself.</p>
<p>It is hard to analyze something that I am this close to, but I get the impression that the vision of a <a href="http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD">PADD</a> (or... whoever it was who posited several sizes of devices long ago) is a good one. I can envision a world where MID/Tablet sized devices are cheap enough and have some multi-user setup, so they can be strewn around, can be lost and broken without worry, and can be used by anyone.</p>
<p>I am not there yet, but I can see this world right around the corner.</p>Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-3794992712617404042013-01-06T11:43:00.000-06:002013-01-06T11:43:29.901-06:00You probably don't know what a featurephone is, and that's bad<p>Yes, something about my brain tends to nitpick, want to take contrary positions, etc. I do have a happy side, and am pleased with many things even in the mobile UX realm. But <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/view/508561/im-going-back-to-my-dumb-phone-should-you/">this</a> <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/view/508871/my-dumb-phone-experiment-week-one/">one</a> <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/view/509161/my-dumb-phone-experiment-week-two/">here</a> really pisses me off. I have tried to ignore it, but it's really nagging at me. And it <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/view/509406/my-dumb-phone-experiment-what-is-an-iphone-anyway/">won't stop</a>, and a frightening number of people agree.</p>
<p>In summary, a writer for MIT Technology Review is undertaking an "experiment" to not use his iPhone for a while, and is writing about it. Here's a list of my issues:
<ul>
<li><strong>It's not an experiment</strong> – I see no hypothesis, or methodology. I don't know what he's using the featurephone for. Voice I presume. SMS I am pretty sure. MMS? Photos? What else?</li>
<li><strong>He doesn't know what a dumbphone is</strong> – He insists on calling the device he picked a "dumbphone." Yeah. That's wrong. His phone has 3G and a browser and can install apps. It's a "featurephone." Dumbphone has a meaning to people like me who care, and it means little data, no browser, no apps installable. Maybe MMS, but I wouldn't bet on it. Using "Dumbphone" to mean "not iPhone" is insulting, and misses the point.</li>
<li><strong>Featurephones do a lot</strong> – I don't know if he's not aware, but he never mentions that featurephones have browsers, use MMS, have a perfectly nice Facebook app, etc. His has a browser built in. Does he use it?</li>
<li><strong>All smartphones are iPhones</strong> – Let's quote him "I’ve been an iPhone user for a little over four years. Like many people, I found it did nothing short of transform my life, when I first started using it in the fall of 2008." Yes, I presume he's one of those who assumes there were no smartphones before this, and despite writing about it, cannot get his head around the fact there is history, or that until this year most of the smartphones in the world were Nokia S60 devices.</li>
<li><strong>Feature use is a choice</strong> – If you understand that you can Tweet and Facebook and browse the Web from a featurephone, but just don't, then why can't you just not do the same on an iPhone? There's not explanation.</li>
<li><strong>An iPad is not mobile</strong> – I have seen several folks do this. Use the iPad as your connected device, and not the handset. Sure, it's something, but it's not like you only use a typewriter, or even a laptop/desktop. They are portable. If you get a 7" tablet, you can put them in a pocket (my Nexus 7 handily fits in a jacket pocket so it goes to client meetings). How is this not just a big phone at that point?</li>
<li><strong>He is carrying an iPhone anyway</strong> – It took a bit, but he's now carrying a data-plan-free iPhone. So, the experiment failed? I have friends who haven't eaten food packaged in plastic for a year, and other people can't avoid carrying around an iPhone for three weeks?</li>
</ul></p>
<p>So, why do I care? Well, because it's out there, and people are reading it. So why do you care? Well, because 61% of all living humans in the world (babies, the elderly, very poor people, prisoners) have mobiles. Most of them still have featurephones or actual dumbphones.</p>
<p>Let's set aside my love for things like the N95. One of the more successful smartphones ever, it had no touch and a 10-key keypad, so no iPhone fanboy would ever pay attention to it. Plus, it's old. But lately I have been using a C2 (Nokia S40) for a bit here to try something out for a project. It's pretty much current, and a tiny, non-touch featurephone. It's frighteningly usable as a primary mobile. No, I don't mean mobile phone, I mean mobile <em>device</em>. It has a couple browsers, and you can install others. A very good Facebook and Twitter app. Lots of other things can be downloaded. Disambiguation (you call it predictive) typing is very, very good so it's easy to text and tweet on, even with a 10-key pad.</p>
<p>And there are much better featurephones than this. There are touchscreens, and QWERTY keypad ones with clever music players and Flash plugin support. Or pretty much anything you want.</p>
<p>Being dismissive of everything that is not a smartphone (or more often, everything that is not an iPhone) is the most elitist, rich-white-male thing we can do. I never want to see anyone talk about the social benefits of mobile or greening the world through technology and then assume that everyone better get an iPhone.</p>
<p>And, you are missing out. Happy with a million users, or 100 million? There are BILLIONS of mobile users out there. Something like FIVE BILLION people use SMS. And you can tell me with a straight face that it's fine, we'll just wait until they all get a smartphone to target them?</p>Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-42088522483596336492012-12-12T17:05:00.003-06:002012-12-12T17:15:38.529-06:00I wish this was my resume<p><strong>I am a designer.</strong> I am not a developer, but have been a DBA, and written code, including neat stuff like the first CSS for a Fortune 50. <em>I can specify, report bugs and speak developer.</em></p>
<p><strong>I am mobile.</strong> If you aren’t sure that it’s time to go mobile, stop reading. I’ve been doing mobile design since 1999. Don’t ask me to choose between iOS and Android. <em>Offer the platform you know the user wants.</em></p>
<p><strong>I believe in people.</strong> I know enough about pixels, scale, code and platforms to not believe in them. Technology is transient. <em>People are your audience and customers.</em></p>
<p><strong>I live for quality.</strong> It makes me legitimately sad when products are built from fear, lack of knowledge, as copycats, or always take the easy path. <em>I’d rather not work than build terrible products.</em></p>
<p><strong>I believe in communities.</strong> I believe in the transformative power of connecting and empowering people, through technology and social relationships. <em>Whenever possible, remove barriers to engagement.</em></p>
<p><strong>I like drawing.</strong> And writing. Good tools and processes make better design. Bad tools impede it. If you insist on using Visio on Windows XP, I probably don’t want to work with you. <em>My bag has markers, and a Macbook Pro.</em></p>
<p><strong>I collaborate.</strong> If I can’t talk to the business, work with implementation teams and preferably talk to customers, it’s not worth having a designer. <em>Teams work better than people.</em></p>
<p><strong>I talk.</strong> A lot. In public. I have written books, and articles, and spoken at numerous conferences. I change my mind, but only for good reasons, not because you say so. <em>Want to know what I think? Look me up.</em>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://4ourth.com/wiki"><em>Designing Mobile Interfaces</em> and more resources to support mobile design</a></li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/shoobe01/">Twitter</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/shoobe01">LinkeIn</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/shoobe01">Facebook</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/shoobe01">Slideshare</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/shoobe01">YouTube</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/shoobe01/sets/72157627094523863/with/5677337008/">Flickr mobile devices and interfaces</a></li>
<li><a href="http://shoobe01.blogspot.com">Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/04/eyes-on-the-road-or-mind-on-the-road.php">Article: Eyes On the Road or Mind On the Road?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/07/identifying-product-value-then-designing-the-right-product.php">Article: </a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/09/mobile-inline-form-validation.php">Article: Mobile Inline Form Validation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/11/mobile-input-methods.php">Article: Mobile Input Methods</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/12/designing-for-users-and-their-devices.php">Article: Designing for Users and Their Devices</a></li>
<li><a href="http://4ourth.com/wiki/Speaking">List of everwhere I have spoken lately-ish</a></li>
<li><a href="http://4ourth.com/wiki/4ourth%20Mobile%20Touch%20Template">A piece of design hardware I made, and sell</a></li>
</ul>
</p>Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-57906683209492808382012-12-05T12:02:00.000-06:002012-12-05T12:02:11.374-06:00Mobile Input Methods<em>Published on <a href="http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/11/mobile-input-methods.php">UX Matters</a> November 1, 2011</em>
<p>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.</p>
<p>One key area that surprises a lot of designers and developers that I have worked with is input methods. Yes, they know that users don’t have a mouse, but there’s still an unstated assumption that all desktop Web input widgets will work. Perhaps more troubling is that their personal preferences and rumors sometimes supplant data regarding the kinds of actual experiences that exist out in the world.</p>
<p>I’m referring to the presumption that everyone has a touch-screen smartphone. [1] On development discussion forums, some developers say they’ve “never owned anything other than a touch-screen phone”—and of course, all of their friends have touch-screen smartphones, too. But anecdotes, fanaticism, or even conspiracy theories about why your favorite platform is the best really do not help. [2]</p>
<br />
<h3>Bad Experiences</h3>
<p>Almost every mobile app that I use—and this applies to a lesser degree to the mobile Web—fails me in a few common, often-repeated ways. Many apps don’t rotate, so work in only one orientation, at least on some screens. For example, when I want to browse a list of movies on my DVR, I must first type a search string. But the app insists that I view the search results in a vertical list. This doesn’t make a lot of sense for the slide-out keyboard I want to use. And as many as half of Android devices, like the Samsung Galaxy S shown in Figure 1, have a hardware keyboard.</p>
<a href="http://www.donttouchme.com/blogimages/mobileInputMethods/InputMethods_Fig1_L.jpg">
<img src="http://www.donttouchme.com/blogimages/mobileInputMethods/InputMethods_Fig1.jpg" alt="Figure 1—Samsung Galaxy S, with a slide-out keyboard" title="Figure 1—Samsung Galaxy S, with a slide-out keyboard" border="0" /></a>
<p><em>Figure 1—Samsung Galaxy S, with a slide-out keyboard</em></p>
<p>Or, apps don’t automatically switch to the proper input mode, as in the example shown in Figure 2. In this case, although flight number is always a number, the developers forgot to tell the field that, so on a touch-screen device that has a virtual keyboard, the keyboard always opens in the default, alphabetic entry mode, requiring me to manually switch to numeric entry, every time.</p>
<a href="http://www.donttouchme.com/blogimages/mobileInputMethods/InputMethods_Fig2_L.jpg">
<img src="http://www.donttouchme.com/blogimages/mobileInputMethods/InputMethods_Fig2.jpg" alt="Figure 2—Alphabetic entry mode is all too often the default for a numeric field" title="Figure 2—Alphabetic entry mode is all too often the default for a numeric field" border="0" /></a>
<p><em>Figure 2—Alphabetic entry mode is all too often the default for a numeric field</em></p>
<br />
<h3>Many Different Types of Keyboards</h3>
<p>First, all of you iOS fans must recognize that not all of your customers have an iPhone, and you must respect their choice. Often, rather than a touch-screen keyboard, other mobile devices have different types of keyboards for data entry. [3] While statistics on mobile devices are closely held, it seems that around half of all Android devices—for which there are relatively broad form-factor choices—have a physical keyboard of some sort. [4,5] Surveys indicate that users have a significant preference for hardware keyboards. Over half of the user population may prefer hardware input. [6]</p>
<p>No matter what you think the trends may be in the future, devices have a lifespan of several years. You should update your Web site quarterly; your app, at least twice a year. (You wouldn’t want to leave half or more of your users open to being snapped up by the competition.)</p>
<p>But, there’s a lot to accommodating different types of keyboards—even if you want to assume that every high-value customer you have will use some mythical high-end device. For virtual keyboards, there are entry modes that my experience indicates some designers may not consider, and there are new types of user interfaces coming out all the time, each with its own distinct challenges. [7] So first, let’s review the available input methods.</p>
<br />
<h3>Touch Screens and Virtual Data Entry</h3>
<p>By default, the data-entry method on an iPhone is a touch-screen, virtual keyboard. Virtual keyboards are really interesting because they are so flexible. Input settings for each field can change the layout of the keyboard, as well as the keys it includes. On-screen keyboards can employ interesting user interfaces that range from gestural typing to virtual thumbwheels that let users provide constrained values such as dates and times.</p>
<a href="http://www.donttouchme.com/blogimages/mobileInputMethods/InputMethods_Fig3_L.jpg">
<img src="http://www.donttouchme.com/blogimages/mobileInputMethods/InputMethods_Fig3.jpg" alt="Figure 3—Two on-screen entry methods: gestural typing and virtual thumbwheels" title="Figure 3—Two on-screen entry methods: gestural typing and virtual thumbwheels" border="0" /></a>
<p><em>Figure 3—Two on-screen entry methods: gestural typing and virtual thumbwheels</em></p>
<br />
<h3>Virtual Input: Keyboards and Keypads</h3>
<p>Keyboards are for typing words, and keypads are for numbers and symbols. More or less. While, for virtual keyboards, the boundary between their function can get fuzzy, recognizing that there are differences between them is important.</p>
<p>Mode switches are really interesting. When you switch modes, the keycaps, or labels, for each key, as well as the position and shape of keys can change. This means you can effectively have an unlimited number of modes. For example, an email address field would display a keyboard that includes an @ symbol key and a .com shortcut key, and eliminate characters, like commas, that would be invalid in an email address, while retaining the rest of the keyboard layout.</p>
<p>Numeric data entry is one of the most interesting input modes. For example, the layout of a phone dialpad is different from that of a numeric keypad, and in some cases, numbers are arrayed across the top row of keys of an alphanumeric keyboard, as on a computer keyboard.</p>
<p>Gestural data entry using a virtual keyboard—as with Swype, by Nuance, shown in Figure 4—allows speedier typing. A user can type using a single gesture that stops or changes direction at each character the user wants to type. This is just an optional entry mode—a user can still type by tapping individual keys on the keyboard—and doesn’t affect the appearance of the keyboard.</p>
<a href="http://www.donttouchme.com/blogimages/mobileInputMethods/InputMethods_Fig4_L.jpg">
<img src="http://www.donttouchme.com/blogimages/mobileInputMethods/InputMethods_Fig4.jpg" alt="Figure 4—An explanation of gestural entry using Swype" title="Figure 4—An explanation of gestural entry using Swype" border="0" /></a>
<p><em>Figure 4—An explanation of gestural entry using Swype</em></p>
<br />
<h3>Virtual Input: Constrained Data Entry</h3>
<p>My favorite virtual keyboards, however, aren’t keyboards at all. Date and time pickers and other single-purpose selection mechanisms allow a user interface design to imply arbitrary value entry, and each provides a special data-entry method rather than a keyboard.</p>
<p>Look closely at the design of these pickers in iOS. They are in the same frame as a keyboard or keypad, with Next, Back, and Done buttons. But each is a variation on this general type of entry method.</p>
<a href="http://www.donttouchme.com/blogimages/mobileInputMethods/InputMethods_Fig5_L.jpg">
<img src="http://www.donttouchme.com/blogimages/mobileInputMethods/InputMethods_Fig5.jpg" alt="Figure 5—Form navigation buttons inside the virtual keyboard in iOS" title="Figure 5—Form navigation buttons inside the virtual keyboard in iOS" border="0" /></a>
<p><em>Figure 5—Form navigation buttons inside the virtual keyboard in iOS</em></p>
<p>Some of these data-entry methods—such as the date and time picker wheel on Android—allow users to enter values directly, in addition to allowing gestural selection. Tapping a value opens a virtual keyboard or keypad below the field to allow typing.</p>
<br />
<h3>Virtual Input: Pens</h3>
<p>A pen, or if you prefer, stylus, provides another means of entering data. Depending on your viewpoint, pen-based systems are either having a resurgence or simply will not die. It’s best to think of pen input as analogous to a virtual keyboard. For data-entry purposes—rather than special drawing or note applications—pen input is usually a mode, and users can easily switch back to a keyboard or keypad.</p>
<p>Pen input may be by character or by word, also with a mode switch. A device converts what a user writes to candidate characters or words, with options for the user to either pick from other candidates or re-enter the data. (I wrote at least 10% of a long book using a pen interface.) The accuracy of pen input varies widely. It can be very good but can also make it almost impossible to enter data with special formats such as URLs.</p>
<p>Supporting pen input is especially useful for low-literacy populations, some unusual character sets, and allowing text entry while standing or when vibration or movement is likely. It also allows those suffering from repetitive-stress injuries to continue working. And at least a small subset of the population simply prefers this mode of data entry.</p>
<br />
<h3>Virtual Input: Voice</h3>
<p>I’m not talking about assistance applications like Apple’s Siri here, but voice-entry modes. [8] Such speech-to-text systems have been part of Android for a couple of years and iOS more recently. Like pen input, they have varying degrees of utility and generally provide similar methods of proposing candidate translations, which the system automatically accepts. The user may then select from among alternatives, edit values directly, or try again.</p>
<p>Voice entry is useful for hands-free input or whenever it would be inconvenient or dangerous to directly manipulate an input device.</p>
<br />
<h3>Hardware Data Entry</h3>
<p>For about 140 years, pressing physical keys has been almost the only method of creating text aside from handwriting. Even for mobile devices, data entry using a hardware keyboard or keypad reigns supreme. Half of all mobile devices in the U.S. are still feature phones similar to that shown in Figure 6. These devices encourage heavy use of SMS, email, and some activities on the Web.</p>
<a href="http://www.donttouchme.com/blogimages/mobileInputMethods/InputMethods_Fig6_L.jpg">
<img src="http://www.donttouchme.com/blogimages/mobileInputMethods/InputMethods_Fig6.jpg" alt="Figure 6—Two typical message phone–style feature phones, with hardware keyboards" title="Figure 6—Two typical message phone–style feature phones, with hardware keyboards" border="0" /></a>
<p><em>Figure 6—Two typical message phone–style feature phones, with hardware keyboards</em></p>
<br />
<h3>Hardware QWERTY Keyboards</h3>
<p>QWERTY keyboard seems to have become the standard nomenclature for hardware keyboards on mobile devices that let users type words. Yes, for English and many other languages, virtual keyboards also use the QWERTY layout. But the term QWERTY keyboard is what we most commonly use when referring this type of hardware keyboard.</p>
<p>Keyboards on mobile devices can be either fixed, as on a traditional BlackBerry, or sliding. Other types of keyboards are very uncommon today. Overall, the percentage of mobile devices with hardware QWERTY keyboards is very high. Some reliable, though vague data indicates that half of all Android devices may have a hardware keyboard, and multiple preference surveys have confirmed this level of usage. [9]</p>
<p>A user can type by pressing keys, each of which has a fixed, printed label as on a computer keyboard. The keyboard supports shift and shift-lock modes—in some cases, locking a mode requires double-tapping the mode key—as well as function or other keys that provide access to numbers or special characters, depending on a keyboard’s layout.</p>
<p>Key labels, which are called keycaps, usually include any alternative symbol or function. For example, a device’s E key might also include a yellow 4 and a smaller blue $ to indicate the key’s several functions. Of course, the colors of such labels vary by device.</p>
<p>You can lock the entry fields in a user interface to allow only certain characters such as numbers, just as with as a virtual keyboard. But of course, the layout and labels of the keys on a hardware keyboard cannot change.</p>
<br />
<h3>Hardware 10-Key Keypads</h3>
<p>Some people call these input devices by other names—for example, numeric keypad or 12-key. While there are actually twelve keys, I always use the traditional term from the world of data entry: 10-key.</p>
<p>Using these keypads for numeric data entry is obvious; if a user needs to type a number or dial a phone number, they work as advertised. But look closely at the alternative labels on keypads. There are three letters on most of the keys.</p>
<p>Note—Letter assignments are unique to the countries using the North American Numbering Plan, so vary a lot in the rest of the world. [10]</p>
<p>Text-entry fields can be constrained to certain data-entry modes, and users can choose to switch their modes. In text-entry mode, each key can type a specific sequence of letters, numbers, and symbols—usually not labeled. For example, the labeling on a key might indicate that it can type A, B, C, and 2, so you know it types those. Thus, in a text field, pressing the 2 key once types an A, pressing it twice in quick succession types a B, and pressing it three times types a C. This is called triple tap because the maximum number of alphabetic characters on any key is three. Pressing the key a fourth time would type a 2. Thus, pressing the 2 key repeatedly, in quick succession, would type the sequence of characters A B C 2 / @ and ?, then back around to A.</p>
<p>Almost all keypads, even many virtual implementations on remote or touch-screen devices, support disambiguated entry—invented by Tegic and now marketed as Nuance T9 and in related products. [11] In this case, a user presses a key only once for each character he wants to type, and an algorithm matches the most likely character to the keypresses a user had made. With this type of data entry, as a user types 2 2 8, the text entry field displays A, then Ba, then Cat, the word the user wanted. [12]</p>
<p>The device presents character options as a list of candidates, much as for pen- and voice-entry modes. However, this user interface is not always clear on small-screen devices. People, almost universally, have mistakenly called this approach predictive typing. But if you look up that term, it’s actually something else.</p>
<br />
<h3>Scroll-and-Select Data Entry</h3>
<p>Most often, the term scroll-and-select refers to a method of selecting items on the page when using a mobile device with no touch screen. Here, I am referring to the five-way control with Up, Down, Left, Right, and Select buttons that lets a user do data entry by scrolling through a grid of characters. This mode of data entry is common on all sorts of devices, including printers, GPS units, cameras, and other consumer electronics products.</p>
<p>For full-text data entry, a virtual keyboard appears on the screen, and the user must scroll until the desired character is in focus, then select it. This type of data entry is very slow.</p>
<p>On many devices, some form of scroll-and-select data entry serves as an adjunct to a keyboard. Its most common use is for the selection of any extended characters—such as symbols or accented characters—on devices with hardware keyboards. Though touch-screen devices sometimes employ a similar user interface. Scroll-and-select data entry is very common on devices that rarely require text entry, so have no keyboard or keypad at all, and no touch screen.</p>
<br />
<h3>Remote Data Entry</h3>
<p>Think about what your poor TV remote control must do as our devices get smarter and more connected. Selection and even text-entry methods are becoming quite common. Input devices for remote data entry are usually based on one of those that I’ve already covered, such as:
<dl>
<dt>scroll-and-select data entry</dt>
<dd>This usually takes the form of a virtual keyboard.</dd>
<dt>10-key, triple-tap data entry</dt>
<dd>More rarely, this type of data entry employs a disambiguation system.</dd>
<dt>mixed input data-entry methods</dt>
<dd>These are virtual keyboards with fewer keys and disambiguation systems.</dd>
<dt>a combination of data-entry methods</dt>
<dd>For example, the remote keypad shown in Figure 7 provides 10-key, triple-tap data entry, and a 5-way selector that supports a scroll-and-select virtual keyboard.</dd>
</dl></p>
<p>The Nintendo Wii is a device that requires fairly heavy use of on-screen keyboards or keypads. Users control them by pointing its remote at the screen. In Figure 7, the remote’s data entry is set to a disambiguation mode.</p>
<a href="http://www.donttouchme.com/blogimages/mobileInputMethods/InputMethods_Fig7_L.jpg">
<img src="http://www.donttouchme.com/blogimages/mobileInputMethods/InputMethods_Fig7.jpg" alt="Figure 7—Nintendo Wii remote in disambiguation mode" title="Figure 7—Nintendo Wii remote in disambiguation mode" border="0" /></a>
<p><em>Figure 7—Nintendo Wii remote in disambiguation mode</em></p>
<p>Some remote devices use relatively unusual methods of selection—for example, the Nintendo Wii’s combination of a virtual keyboard with device gestures. Don’t forget that many remote devices have Web browsers, and applications for these devices are beginning to be a big enough market that browser usage on them is being tracked. You may be designing for 10-foot UIs—that is, user interfaces for large devices like televisions that people sit about 10 feet away from—sooner than you think. [13]</p>
<br />
<h3>Designing for Users and Their Devices</h3>
<p>Among some mobile UX designers, it has recently become fashionable to consider that mobile context is only the purpose and environment in which people use their mobile devices. But it’s still equally important to consider device characteristics and how people interact with their mobile devices. So, while we must, of course, be mindful of users’ motivations, needs, and environments, we must also be aware of the characteristics of different mobile devices, and design our Web sites and apps to work well on all of them. As I have made clear in this column, there is more to device diversity than what operating system a mobile phone or tablet uses or what screen size it has. We must also consider what input methods a device supports and the user expectations that arise from the type of mobile device they use.</p>
<p>Next month, I’ll discuss how you can use this information about input methods for mobile devices to make your mobile user experience as good as possible. Until then, start noticing all of the different types of mobile devices around you—or gathering statistics on your users’ devices—and think about how you might need to change the user interfaces that you design to support them.</p>
<br />
<h3>Notes</h3>
<em style="color:silver;">
<p class="bibliography">[1] Some developers assume that all mobile devices are touch-screen smartphones. Here’s a quotation from one developer, “I might add that I never had a phone with keyboard hardware.” Though, when challenged, he is reconsidering his position. On the <em>Game Maker Community</em>, another developer asked, “<a href="http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=546766" title="Game Maker Community">Android—Do you want hardware keyboard support?</a>”<a href="http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=546766" title="Game Maker Community"></a> Retrieved October 9, 2012.</p>
<p class="bibliography">[2] My remark on “conspiracy theories” is in reference to several conversations I have had with designers or developers who essentially insist that anyone who buys an Android phone really wanted an iPhone, doesn’t know better, or was tricked by a salesman, who get larger commissions on Android devices. “<a href="http://www.iphonehacks.com/2012/08/att-instructs-retail-staff-to-sell-anything-but-iphone.html" title="AT&T Allegedly Instructs Retail Staff To Sell Anything But the iPhone">AT&T Allegedly Instructs Retail Staff To Sell Anything But the iPhone</a>,”<a href="http://www.iphonehacks.com/2012/08/att-instructs-retail-staff-to-sell-anything-but-iphone.html" title="AT&T Allegedly Instructs Retail Staff To Sell Anything But the iPhone"></a> on<em> iPhone Hacks</em>, August 1, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2012.</p>
<p class="bibliography">[3] A MobilityNigeria report from 2010 includes highlights such as that 22.4% of mobile devices are QWERTY keyboard phones, while only 16.8% are touch-screen phones. Of course, in other regions, the percentages are different, but in Africa, the 10-key device still rules. From <em>Mobility</em>, “<a href="http://mobility.com.ng/2010/11/01/mobilitynigeria-state-of-the-mobile-web-report-%E2%80%93-october-2010/" title="MobilityNigeria State of the Mobile Web Report - October 2010">MobilityNigeria State of the Mobile Web Report – October 2010</a>.”<a href="http://mobility.com.ng/2010/11/01/mobilitynigeria-state-of-the-mobile-web-report-%E2%80%93-october-2010/" title="MobilityNigeria State of the Mobile Web Report - October 2010"></a> <em>Mobility</em>, October 2010. Retrieved October 9, 2012.</p>
<p class="bibliography">[4] A mid-2012 Nokia survey indicated that far over half the user population still wants a hardware keyboard. However, some distrusted this company-funded survey, because Nokia had traditionally made huge number of smartphones with hardware keyboards. However, they’re now making touch-screen phones as well. From <a href="http://www.androidauthority.com/author/lucian/" title="Posts by Lucian Armasu">Lucian Armasu</a>’s<a href="http://www.androidauthority.com/author/lucian/" title="Posts by Lucian Armasu"></a> “<a href="http://www.androidauthority.com/nokia-qwerty-keyboar-107145/" title="Nokia Poll Says QWERTY Keyboards Still Rule">Nokia Poll Says QWERTY Keyboards Still Rule</a>,”<a href="http://www.androidauthority.com/nokia-qwerty-keyboar-107145/" title="Nokia Poll Says QWERTY Keyboards Still Rule"></a> on <em>Android Authority</em>, August 11, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2012.</p>
<p class="bibliography">[5] I learned from Google that they don’t release their data as complete reports on demand, However, Admob occasionally gives out nuggets of information and, for some years, has said that about half of Android hits on their network are from mobile devices that have a virtual keyboard. From “<a href="http://www.dmsss.com/motorola-droid-still-leading-the-android-pack-spun1.html" title="Motorola Droid Still Leading the Android Pack">Motorola Droid Still Leading the Android Pack</a>,”<a href="http://www.dmsss.com/motorola-droid-still-leading-the-android-pack-spun1.html" title="Motorola Droid Still Leading the Android Pack"></a> on <em>DMSS.com</em>, April 20, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2012. </p>
<p class="bibliography">[6] A Sprint press release from August 15, 2012, titled “<a href="http://newsroom.sprint.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=2364" title="Kyocera Rise Brings Affordable QWERTY with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, to Sprint and Virgin Mobile USA">Kyocera Rise Brings Affordable QWERTY with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, to Sprint and Virgin Mobile USA</a>,”<a href="http://newsroom.sprint.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=2364" title="Kyocera Rise Brings Affordable QWERTY with Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, to Sprint and Virgin Mobile USA"></a> stated, “A survey by industry analyst firm Yankee Group earlier this year revealed that 69 percent of consumers called a QWERTY keypad a ‘must have’ or ‘nice to have’ feature on their mobile devices.” Retrieved October 9, 2012.</p>
<p class="bibliography">[7] “<a href="http://www.designer-software.com/articles.html" title="Nothing New Under the Thumb">Nothing New Under the Thumb</a>”<a href="http://www.designer-software.com/articles.html" title="Nothing New Under the Thumb"></a> is a lengthy article on various input methods that focuses on some unusual methods that either have never made it to mass production or have not achieved widespread adoption. Just imagine how much more complex the world could be. From <em>Designer Software, Inc.</em>, June 2008. Retrieved October 9, 2012.</p>
<p class="bibliography">[8] Most publications on speech systems are very dense and academic. On the blog <em>VUI Design, Speech Recognition Apps & All That,</em> which is very readable and even uses pop culture references to make their points, Maria Aretoulaki posted “<a href="http://aretoulaki.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/the-voice-activated-lift-wont-do-scottish/" title="The Voice-Activated Lift Won’t Do Scottish!">The Voice-Activated Lift Won’t Do Scottish!</a>”<a href="http://aretoulaki.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/the-voice-activated-lift-wont-do-scottish/" title="The Voice-Activated Lift Won't Do Scottish!"></a> on July 29, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2012.</p>
<p class="bibliography">[9] Tomi Ahonen’s “<a href="http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/08/some-thoughts-on-qwerty-vs-touch-t9-and-voice-inputs.html" title="Some Thoughts on QWERTY vs Touch, T9 and Voice Inputs">Some Thoughts on QWERTY vs Touch, T9 and Voice Inputs</a>,”<a href="http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/08/some-thoughts-on-qwerty-vs-touch-t9-and-voice-inputs.html" title="Some Thoughts on QWERTY vs Touch, T9 and Voice Inputs"></a> on <em>Communities Dominate Brands, </em>August 14, 2012, provides a lengthy analysis and discussion of input method preferences that was spurred by the Nokia survey. Retrieved October 9, 2012.</p>
<p class="bibliography">[10] There’s a brief description of the keypad layout on handsets in the NANP region on <em>Wikipedia</em>:“<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Numbering_Plan#Alphabetic_mnemonic_system" title="North American Numbering Plan">North American Numbering Plan</a>.”<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Numbering_Plan#Alphabetic_mnemonic_system" title="North American Numbering Plan"></a> Retrieved October 9, 2012.</p>
<p class="bibliography">[11] There is an excellent, long article about the development and history of T9, “<a href="http://www.validconcept.com/articles-t9.html" title="T9: Text on Nine Keys">T9: Text on Nine Keys</a>,”<a href="http://www.validconcept.com/articles-t9.html" title="T9: Text on Nine Keys"></a> on <em>Valid Concept</em>, February 26, 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2012.</p>
<p class="bibliography">[12] Shumin Zhai and Per Ola Kristensson recently provided an academic overview of the method by which disambiguation keyboards like the T9 work, “<a href="http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/9/154575-the-word-gesture-keyboard/abstract" title="The Word-Gesture Keyboard: Reimagining Keyboard Interaction">The Word-Gesture Keyboard: Reimagining Keyboard Interaction</a>,”<a href="http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/9/154575-the-word-gesture-keyboard/abstract" title="The Word-Gesture Keyboard: Reimagining Keyboard Interaction"></a> <em>Communications of the ACM</em>, Volume 55, Number 9. Retrieved October 9, 2012.</p>
<p class="bibliogLast">[13] As I stated in this column, you might <em>think</em> that smart TV is coming, but it’s already here. Samsung has already sold millions of apps for their smart TVs through their dedicated app store, according to <em>IT Pro Portal </em>in “<a href="http://www.itproportal.com/2011/05/23/samsung-serves-five-million-internet-tv-apps/" title="Samsung Serves Five Million Internet TV Apps">Samsung Serves Five Million Internet TV Apps</a>,”<a href="http://www.itproportal.com/2011/05/23/samsung-serves-five-million-internet-tv-apps/" title="Samsung Serves Five Million Internet TV Apps"></a> May 23, 2011. Retrieved October 9, 2012.</p></em>Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902949051864384839.post-15945090163202128462012-10-25T10:37:00.000-05:002012-10-25T10:37:18.119-05:00Apple: market creation vs. invention<p>I cannot believe I keep reading articles <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5954433/apple-is-a-follower">like this</a>.</p>
<blockquote>Compare the Apple of 2012, then, to the Apple juggernaut of 1998 to 2010. That Apple didn't react to markets. It created them. Who wanted a tablet before the iPad? Who gave smartphones a second thought before the iPhone?</blockquote>
<p>I'll lay it out as a bullet list, so you can read it more easily. Apple can be considered a disruptive influence in four markets:
<ol>
<li><strong>Personal Computing – </strong>Setting aside who stole what, they created this market. I won't use "invented" because even when they specified hardware and write code, they made choices from existing projects, from existing microcomputers out in the wild. The accomplishment, and these others, are amazing, but are business accomplishments and not art or invention.</li>
<li><strong>Portable Computing – </strong>Laptops, even as we'd recognize them, existed and were a force in business computing (selling enough to be tracked and talked about) well before the first PowerBooks. Apple (eventually, after the false start of the luggable Mac Portable) helped solidify the space around the still-current layout.</li>
<li><strong>Personal Music – </strong>We all know MP3 players existed for a couple years before the iPod, and even that Apple bought the code and hardware fundamentals, only applying a finishing sheen to it all, and eventually a really robust ecosystem that changed the industry. Before this, it was the realm of nerds, and there was no reason to set aside your </li>
<li><strong>Smartphones – </strong>Smartphones were a huge thing, and already growing at a weirdly large clip before the iPhone. Remember back pre-iPhone when we all talked about how Japan is so much more advanced? That's because we were backwards. Blackberry? Meh. Try </li>
<li><strong>Tablets – </strong>I'd tend to say the Tablet PC is not even in the same category. But, since they didn't launch an all new product per se, using the same OS and gestures and basically everything, it's hard to say they invented anything here even if I stipulate that. They were inventive, and created a market from scratch, but did not invent anything truly unique. </li>
</ol></p>
<p>So, what do I think of the iPad Mini? Not much. Not that I hate it per se, but literally that it's just a variant. It's not carving a new niche, but is an option in an existing lineup. No one much asks when there will be a 17" MacBook Air.</p>
<p>I think this is probably a good idea. I can imagine someone making a radically new style of 7" tablet, and Apple would be a good company to try that. But, then you have to sell this competing /class/ of device. I wouldn't bother.</p>
<p>No one knows outside their buildings, but sure, it seems obvious that Apple didn't want to loose any part of the tablet ecosystem to anyone else, so made a smaller one. I am actually insulted by their claims that it displays more than a Nexus 7. Of course it does: It is bigger! They made their choice, and I think it's bad but all the rest is marketing.</p>
<p>If I had to pick one thing Apple is really good at, it's cutting their losses. Annoying if you own one of those devices, but I am thinking of the reduced marketing drive and refresh or actual discontinuation of (in no order and not comprehensive):
<ul>
<li>Pippin</li>
<li>Newton</li>
<li>eMate</li>
<li>Cube</li>
<li>Mac TV</li>
<li>ITV</li>
<li>I'd argue Apple TV</li>
</ul></p>
<p>Note I didn't even go back to Lisa and the luggable. There's plenty of others. Which is great. They try things, and let some fail. And learn. </p>
Steven Hooberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02906610345363264283noreply@blogger.com0