Designing work
for Mobile devices is increasing day by day due to changing habits &
behavior of human with respect to mobile phones & devices. This new and
more work for designers giving a challenge i.e. giving better experience with
their mobile solution. Goals for each design team are focus on preparing world
class mobile solution & deliver better user experience. In this article I
have tried to give light on a different angles on mobile phone usage which can
affect overall user experience. All these points fall under Strategy, Research,
Design & test, which are important part of UCD process. Before designing
for mobile, let’s understand the usage pattern of mobile phones.
Pattern of usage
Understanding
usage pattern is really important before designing any mobile solution because
this affects majorly. Today people use mobile phones not only for talking &
texting but for number of reasons. Checking status, notifications, chats,
listening songs, playing games etc. while running on park, walking on roads,
waiting at bus stops, sitting on toilet seat, standing inside lifts are common
some scenarios now a days. Interaction with mobile phone is more complex than
using a laptop or desktop in many sense especially ergonomically. People use
mobile while sitting on cars, bus etc. where objects are shaking due to pot
holes on roads. People use mobile in shopping mart while carrying shopping bag
in one hand & using mobile in other.
Design for outdoors
It is really an
important aspect for designing mobile solution i.e. Design for outdoors.
Outdoors can be treated as environment where user uses mobile solution. Environment
have different factors which can affect experience like sun light, background
noise etc.
Testing of design
Usability
Testing & development testing should also be performed in mobile friendly environment
(outside). Some important testing variations are given below,
Slow Network - Test mobile app in slow internet
network or in network failure. Sometimes it happens when someone goes inside
huge building or lift network get disconnected. If that user is in between some
process then app should save user tasks & continue when network comes
again.
Background sound – When your app is having audio
notifications or voice based interactions, then one should test app audio based
features in different background sounds.
Light conditions - Test your app color scheme in variety
of lighting conditions (like in sun).
Color Blindness - Test your app color scheme for color
blindness.
At last some final thoughts, mobile
devices are becoming powerful in terms of technology & adoption so design
solutions should also meet the expectations. Taking care of User’s behavior,
task, technology along with mobile environment (environment meaning outdoor,
lights, sound etc. factors) are really required for designing for better
experience.
About Author
Abhishek Jain (@uxdabhi)
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