Adaptive Path Blog

Hampus Jakobsson presented a fantastic talk at this year’s MEX conference about the “wild west” gold rush mentality surrounding mobile app stores. Hampus warned most players in the mobile space are merely mimicking Apple’s model, leaving many user experience challenges that hinder the app store experience unaddressed. This talk inspired a host of great discussions about many of the fundamental user experience issues that plague app stores and ways to improve the process through design.

However, Hampus’ talk brought focus to a question that’s been lingering on my mind for a while now. As the once innovative app store strategy quickly becomes “hygiene” for many in mobile, I can’t help but wonder if all this fast follower behavior is an incremental step to something much bigger.

What if the real problem with app stores doesn’t stem from Apple’s ridiculous application approval process, scalability problems, or mediocre social recommendation functionality? What if the real problem with app stores is what they are selling?

What if the real problem is the notion of applications on mobile phones?

Applications as a means for both expressing and manipulating information in a mobile context is an interaction model we’ve borrowed wholesale from the PC. While application stores have solved many issues – ease in application development, downloading applications to a device, payment – it’s easy to forget the application model was originally developed for a fundamentally different context. A static context.

What if we haven’t figured out how to accurately express information in a mobile context and we are simply borrowing the wrong model?

I’ve been thinking a lot these days about the notion expression – how artists, engineers and designers have used creative models and methods to express information, points of view, and the possibilities of their time – and moments when breakthroughs around creative expression have occurred.

The web is a great example of inventing new models and methods to express information.

Back in the days of “Web 1.0″ the internet was a vast and unexplored frontier, ripe with untapped potential. While the internet provided an entirely new way for people to access, distribute, and experience information, in 1996 nobody really knew how to create “web experiences” that unlocked that potential.

Legions of print designers applied their knowledge of graphic design and print design to the Internet, giving rise to the phenomenon of brochureware. Some designers applied immersive spatial metaphors to the web, like the famed SouthWest Airlines homepage circa 1996. And who can forget those web sites where pages had the look and feel of pages from a book. Regardless of the model, the strategy was similar; borrowing. We first borrowed models we understood, found our footing and were then able to invent new and more sophisticated ways to express information in a this new context of the web.

Art movements have followed a similar arc. A favorite example was the transition between Medieval and Renaissance Art.

A defining characteristic of Medieval art was it’s lack of dimensionality. Artisans from the Middle Ages hadn’t figured out how to represent form in perspective. Subsequently the work was highly symbolic and representational. It remains valuable and interesting work. However, from an art-making perspective, Medieval art is a study in abstraction. Artisans from the Medieval period lacked the art making methods to represent form in the way humans visually perceive it.

In contrast, Renaissance art celebrated the discovery of perspective techniques such as foreshortening, chiaroscuro and the use of balance and proportion in the art-making process. Artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael became masters of depicting form in a way that closely mirrored how humans perceive it. Humans were always able to perceive volume and spatial relationships, but it wasn’t until artists of the Renaissance discovered and honed perspective techniques that artwork reflected these qualities.

Data is similar to physical form in that it has perspective. We think about it along lines of place, time, and social dimensions… yet mobile applications rarely allow us to truly experience the multi-dimensional aspects of information. Instead, similar to Medieval art, mobile applications flatten data. Users are forced to either burrow deeply into single application or pogo stick across a host of lightweight applications, often with no through lines for the data. As we begin to prism data through more and more devices – televisions, car dashboards, screens in public spaces – the application model becomes brittle. It locks us into a way of thinking about information that doesn’t accurately represent the multi-dimensional ways we perceive and use it.

What if the app stores and “wild west” application development we’re seeing today in the mobile space is a re-enactment of the evolution of the web? What if mobile applications we download through Apple’s app store are the “brochureware” of what we will experience five years from now? What if applications are a borrowed and broken model we’ll ride out until the “perspective techniques” of data representation and manipulation in a mobile context are discovered and celebrated.

If applications go away, what will replace them? Compelling data visualizations? Adaptive interfaces? I’m not sure, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts…

Anyone interested finding out more about mobile phone usage in rural India should come to Adaptive Path tomorrow night to hear the perspective of Natasha Sakina Alani. As the lead researcher from our Mobile Literacy Project, Natasha was part of the team that traveled to rural India last fall to gather field data in the rural region of Gujarat, India. Specifically, she focused on gathering information on the experiences of non-literate mobile phone users in this rural region of the world.

Fluent in Kutchi, and knowledgeable of the subtleties of Indian culture, Natasha was a powerful force in the field. Her insight and expertise strongly influenced the design concepts developed for the Mobile Literacy project.

Her perspective is invaluable for anyone interested in developing mobile products and services for India.

The event starts tomorrow night at 6pm at Adaptive Path.

Hope you can join! RSVP at Upcoming here.

Entering contact information into a mobile device is not a trivial task. Phones are *not* optimized for text input, making this important task an awkward and time-consuming interaction for even the most proficient user.

Our research in rural India for our Mobile Literacy project identified the task of entering and saving a contact information as the single most challenging tasks for non-literate users to perform. Yet it was a task identified as one of the most beneficial aspects of owing a mobile device. More than a means to easily contact family and friends, we identified that for rural Indians, a contact list in a mobile device was essential to skillfully overcoming infrastructure challenges.

Rural India is a region of the world with limited infrastructure. Dirt roads and limited access to transportation makes travel slow, access to electricity is limited, and the most common way to distribute information is through word of mouth. People rely on their family and social networks for more than emotional support: people are the infrastructure.

Information in rural India isn’t centralized through census information, medical and health records, or a regional phone book. Therefore, the contact lists on mobile phones become an extremely valuable mechanism for creating ad hoc networks that enable information sharing. For example, several research participants recorded the blood type of the contacts stored in their phone’s address book. These users were able to act on this information when medical emergencies occurred in their village. They could quickly identify possible donors for blood transfusions and alert their network of the need — all through a simple piece of information stored in a mobile device.

In rural India, contacts stored on a mobile phone are more than a set of people users can call, it is a primary mechanism for overcoming infrastructure challenges. Solving the “save a contact” problem for non-literate users became a primary focus for our project.

MobilGlyph: Making Data Tangible from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Making Data Tangible
Both primary and secondary information provided inspiration for solutions to the text entry problem. Our team began to gravitate to the notion of “physicalizing” data and the way that humans give abstract concepts a physical form to aid in cognition. Tokens and money are great examples. Money is an abstract concept made tangible by coins and notes. Weights used on markets scales are another way people make abstract numeric information concrete. Instead of a number, the physical representation of a weight serves proxy for communicating value and weight.

We then began to explore creative ways to make text and numeric information physical. Our question became: How might we make a physical representation of person’s name and phone number?

During our ideation sessions we tossed around a lot of ideas about tokens. When we looked across the mobile landscape, we realized QR codes and the QR code reader applications on many phones would be a viable solution for our text entry problem.

Initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now used in a much broader context throughout the world for both commercial tracking applications and convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users. QR Codes can store text, contact information, images, video clips, and even games. These codes frequently appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards or and on products in stores. Instead of slowly entering information into a mobile device through the keypad, users simply take a photo of the QR code. Information embedded in the code can be seamlessly transferred to a device.

QR codes could hold an image, name and numeric information. Instead of text and numbers or abstract icons, images embedded in the QR code could serve as the primary mechanism for the UI. From a system perspective, we envisioned village mobile phone stores as a hub for this activity. With minimal investment, store owners could create cards for customers as a service and become a hub for information sharing. Most importantly, the MobilGlyph system would make data tangible — making it easier for literate and non-literate users to enter and save contact information into their mobile phone.

Over fifty percent of the world’s population resides in rural areas of developing countries. Adaptive Path’s Mobile Literacy project is a design and research project created to understand how mobile phone technology is being used by people in emerging markets. In August and September 2008, Adaptive Path sent two design researchers to the Kutch district in western India investigating the impact of mobile phones and mobile infrastructure on people in rural areas. We hope these design concepts, research findings, and design principles will inspire designers and technology manufacturers to create technology that meets the needs of these people. Below is one of the design concepts for a phone based on our research findings.

Revealing Workarounds
While conducting research on mobile phone usage in India, Adaptive Path’s lead researcher and project advisor, Natasha Alani, identified that many non-literate research participants ignored the screen when using mobile phone. Instead of engaging with the UI on the screen, participants would engage with the physical interface of the phone. They would leverage their spatial memory and gestures by memorizing patterns (i.e., pressing a button three times, remembering the patterns of numbers) or ask for assistance in dialing a number from a family member. These workarounds underscore a key problem with mobile devices in emerging markets: the interface conventions used to guide people through mobile experiences are largely misunderstood by a large portion of the world’s population.

Our research uncovered even bare bone phones like the revered Nokia 1200 is often a dismal experience for non-literate users. The text driven interface provides little meaningful information to help guide users through the experience, leaving most lost in a labyrinth of menu options. Iconography should prove helpful, but effective iconography is an abstraction of a concept which holds shared meaning. What does an address book mean if your home doesn’t have an address and you are unable to recognize alpha-numeric organization? What does an icon of an envelope mean if you’ve never received a piece of mail? Many mobile phone features are built on models and concepts that people in rural India have never experienced; an abstract icon used to represent these concepts often compounds the problem instead of providing a solution.

Most mobile devices sold in rural India contain interfaces that have been optimized for Western users. Every interface is a little world full characteristics and conventions. Mastering that world can make people feel successful and create the opportunity to reap the benefits technology can offer. The research findings inspired me to reflect deeply on the world we’ve created inside mobile phones to try and understand why that world does not make sense for users in rural India.

Physical Interfaces Speak their Power
Our research uncovered a technology landscape dominated by trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, scales in the marketplace, calculators, televisions, DVDs, radios, and cameras. Physical interface elements like dials, exaggerated buttons and information gauges — elements that “speak their power” — were common to all these objects. Unlike mobile devices that have a subtle physical interfaces, strong physical interfaces often provide an intuitive sense of mechanical processes. Knobs and scroll wheels on a radio feel intuitive because there’s a clear correlation between the input mechanism and the mechanics of tuning a radio. The gesture of turning a radio dial as well as the visual and audio feedback reinforce the interaction. Interfaces such as these that draw analogies from the mechanical world while orchestrating physical interfaces with gesture, sound and sight give literate and non-literate users an intuitive sense of how an object works.

Additionally, most technology used in rural India separate controls from information. Users view the content of a DVD through a television screen, but control key aspects of the experience like volume, forward, and reverse through physical buttons on the television or DVD player. Gas and temperature gauges in a truck are separate from the ignition or steering wheel. Software on computers and mobile devices often conflate controls and information; single buttons and input mechanisms can invoke multiple features. This practice increases functionality, but can be the cause of profound usability problems for non-literate users.

Make phones look “hack-able”
There is a strong culture of reselling, re-purposing, cobbling, and repair throughout India and this is especially true in rural villages. It is common to see trucks and motorcycles in this region of the world filled beyond capacity. While vehicles are amongst the most prized possessions, people in rural India are willing to test the capacity because they know vehicles can be repaired. Trucks and motorcycles have built in affordances like a hood that easily opens or parts that are visible and easy to manipulate that reinforce the expectation and practice of repair.

An object’s rules of engagement are strongly influenced by aesthetics. Unlike the the visible working parts of a motorcycle or the visible bolts on the dashboard of a jeep used in rural India, the physical design of most mobile devices do not reflect the notion of repair or “hack-ability.” Mechanisms for “popping the hood” on mobile phones are subtle and most devices express a sleek and streamlined aesthetic that make them “feel” precious, discouraging experimentation and play. These seemingly subtle design choices have a powerful effect on usage. Creating phones that have a “hackable” aesthetic will build on and reinforce the existing mobile repair culture that is prevalent throughout India.

Reducing Feature Sets and Amplifying What’s Important
Our research uncovered the vast majority of the phone’s features are untouched by non-literate users. There is little obvious prioritization given to the phone’s bloated feature set, creating complexity and confusion. Sound is an important part of Indian culture, yet volume settings are hidden, and the speaker and microphone are minimized. Our research participants cited the following features and functionality as the most important for their phone:
- Calling
- Texting (using voice to text or with assistance)
- Music
- Camera*
- Microphone
- Speaker
- Airtime
- Battery Level

*While most research participants did not have mobile phones with cameras, this was cited as a desired feature.

Steampunk
Steampunk became the conceptual wrapper for the mobile device we envisioned. Steampunk enthusiasts create work that reflects the design and craftsmanship of the Victorian era. Similar to the exaggerated physical interface elements found on objects modded by Steampunk enthusiasts and artists, we designed a mobile device that celebrated physical interface elements like knobs that turn, scroll wheels, and exaggerated buttons.

Removing the aesthetic of “preciousness” was a key design goal for this phone. Most modern pieces of technology like computers, phones, and televisions convey a sleek aesthetic that does not invite tinkering and exploration. Steampunk aesthetics applied to modern objects like computers and electric guitars triggers a different emotional response. Similar to the exposed inner workings of a motorcycle, works of art created to reflect the Steampunk genre possess a look of craftsmanship and cobbling. It’s an aesthetic that invites the touch of the human hand and it encourages engagement and foster curiosity and play.

Taking cues from Steampunk’s “hack-able” aesthetic, we made the phone look like an object that can be opened and tinkered with by exaggerating seams and making the mechanisms to open the device obvious. Our research uncovered that vibrant sound is an important part of Indian culture and most phones designed for western markets minimize the microphone and speakers. We chose to emphasize these elements by giving them a larger portion of the phone’s physical real estate and borrowed aesthetics from stereo speakers to reinforce their importance. Gauges are commonly used to convey quantitative information on cars and motorcycles in rural India. We echoed these familiar interface elements to communicate battery level and airtime minutes.

Finally, we drastically reduced the feature set of the phone, allowing us to assign each function a single button. We borrowed “stop” and “start” buttons from stereos and placed them on the side of the device. Taking cues from a radio dial, our Steampunk phone contains a scroll wheel — creating a strong and intuitive relationship between the physical interface element, the gesture, and the UI inside the screen.

Mobile devices are one of the most accessible pieces of technology in the world today and the benefits of communication technology for people throughout the world is limitless. Empathic design is not about forcing conventions and models on users that feel foreign, it’s about empowering users with technology that feels appropriate and familiar. Designers and user experience professionals have a responsibility to avoid viewing illiteracy as a deficiency, but as an important design consideration for a large portion of the world. Will this device concept meet the needs of non-literate users in rural India? The devil is in the details of iteration and implementation and the inherent nature of R&D projects makes it nearly impossible to predict success. However, we hope this concept opens up an opportunity for conversation and dialogue about this important issue.

Photo Credits:
Calculator photo courtesy of pocketmonsterd
Truck dashboard photo courtesy of Coveman
Steampunk goggles courtesy of catlaine

… how the “save draft” and “publish” buttons in Wordpress can look *eerily* similar when you’re in the groove of writing a blog post?

Those of you lucky enough to have an RSS reader got a sneak peek of Adaptive Path’s latest R&D project earlier today when I accidentally clicked that cursed “publish” button instead of “save draft”. Monday, we’ll be posting more information on the work. Stay tuned…

Next week I’ll be speaking at the 2009 MEX Conference in London. Marek Pawlowski invited me to create a talk around point number three of this year’s mobile user experience manifesto: Customer research methodology must be enhanced to close the reality gap.

My talk – Failures of Imagination: The Role of Research in Creating Compelling Mobile Experiences – was inspired by an NPR segment I caught recently on a road trip in Arizona. Admittedly, talk radio can be mesmerizing and the mind can forge seemingly unrelated relationships between disparate topics amongst the monotony of the desert landscape. However, I believe there was an important message about the role of imagination in the piece Where Were The Media As Wall Street Imploded? that strongly correlates to the primary reason why mobile research often fails in the mobile design and development process. A failure of imagination.

Why didn’t journalists warn us of our impending financial doom? Didn’t they see it coming? Folkenflik’s story gives some compelling and logically sound reasons as to why business and financial journalists were as dumb-founded by the recent collapse of the US financial system as the rest of us. However, it was these words that left my mind a buzz as miles of desert unfolded before me:

“If everything we had said and written came true then we might have expected some of this to have happend. But I think there was a failure of imagination among economists, policymakers, as well as journalists.”

Imagination. It’s not a word we often associate with economists and policymakers… and it’s not a word we easily associate with mobile research, either. These are professional activities that require rigor around the fact finding process. However, the evidence of the impact of facts without foresight is clear. Facts do us little good if we lack the imagination necessary to embrace the futures facts can steer us towards. I’ve seen the impact of a lack imagination with regard to research play out countless times in initiatives I’ve been involved with both inside organizations and as a consultant. Too often research is used to reinforce existing agendas, instead of informing a compelling vision of the future.

At MEX, I’ll share my ideas for how to inject imagination into mobile research and design through defining a clear and informed hypothesis for research studies. I’ll also share three case studies on mobile design research methods developed at Adaptive Path that have proven effective in the creation of compelling mobile experiences.

There’s a stellar line up of speakers planned for the conference, including:
Robert Fabricant, Executive Creative Director, Frog Design
Hampus Jakobsson, Co-founder and Vice President of Business Development, TAT
Sian Townsend, User Experience Researcher, Google

Hope to see you there!

Will we look back on the desktop experience of today in much the same way we reflect on computer punch cards of yore? If so, when will the desktop and mouse become irrelevant? How do people who want to explore the world of technology experiences that are free from the tethers of the keyboard and mouse begin?

These along with a host of other thought-provoking questions were among the topics of discussion, debate, and jest at last week’s Beyond the Desktop panel discussion. I was honored to be in the company of six brave and talented designers who are exploring the frontier beyond the desktop and thrilled to see such active interest in this topic by the San Francisco UX community.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes of the evening:

We’re still skeptics and I think that is an important perspective to have. I wouldn’t say the technology that we work with is better than anything out there right now, it’s just different. A lot of this is still a hammer looking for a nail. People come to us and say, “we want a multi-touch application.” and we say, “Why?” The challenge for us is developing an understanding for what this technology is well suited for. ~ Daren David

We use play in a lot of our design process. We find as we design stuff, we end up opening a box of things and emulate experiences on the table that way. That is one of the big things that has changed for us – our deliverables have gotten more physical and less visual. ~ Nathan Moody

The truth with all these emergent interactions and interfaces is that the conventions haven’t been established, so you don’t actually know how to work and you end up experimenting a lot more. ~ Noah Richardson

Prototyping used to be a luxury, but these types of emergent interactions, it is an important part of the design process. ~ Daren David

Often times the technology we’re designing for is still being developed. So there’s a lot of give and take and trying to understand what is possible… so we often have to attack from both ends. ~ Jennifer Bove

How do we go from bling to kaching? This is new and shiny right now, but five years from now when this become ubiquitous, what will be the meaningful experiences? And what will be the proper uses of these kinds of technology? ~ Daren David

It really comes down to experimentation. The recognition about a lot of this stuff and the reason I think a lot of people are here is that everybody recognizes and has this feeling that there is potential in this stuff, but we don’t really know what it is.
~ Jeevan Kalanithi

The common element all these interactions share is that they’re all more sociable. ~ Brett Fitzgerald

I have two Roombas in my house and they engage in gladiatorial combat. It’s awesome. I don’t feel like they’re gonna get hurt because they look like frisbees. ~ Nathan Moody

When your Roomba saves your life you won’t feel so cavalier about them. ~ Daren David

… there was a project that reminded us how different emergent interactions can actually open up different affordances and provide accessibility to people who haven’t had it. I have a two-year-old daughter and she instinctively knows how to use my iPhone. It’s frightening. And to see her walk up to the television and try to swipe it… you realize that some of the things being created by natural user interfaces really open things up…. I tend to be fairly optimistic with respect to technology and I think there is this notion of accessibility in a lot of the work that we are doing that we can take a fair amount of pride in. ~ Noah Richardson

I would advise people who want to start exploring interactions beyond the desktop to start by looking at the applications or experiences on the desktop they are currently designing and understanding that it is an instantiation of something that is probably broader. Start thinking about what happens when a user walks away from the computer. What are other the other opportunities? ~ Jennifer Bove

For those of you unable to attend the event, here’s a video of the 90 minute discussion:

Beyond the Desktop Panel Discussion from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Sketch note by Kate Rutter

Photo credits:
Panel discussion photo courtesy of Allison McCarthy
Sketch note photo courtesy of Jennifer Bove

Back by popular demand – I’ll be hosting a repeat performance of my virtual seminar titled Mobile User Experience – What Web Designers Need to Know this coming Wednesday, April 22. It’s a topic near and dear to my heart because I used to be a web designer. I made the move to mobile four years ago and distinctly remember how it felt to get up to speed in an industry I knew very little about.

In this 75 minute seminar, I’ll share:
• key differences between designing for mobile and the web
• the characteristics of great mobile experiences
• a set of mobile design principles
• directions for three easy hands-on activities designed to make mobile fun and accessible

The mobile industry has changed a lot in the last 2 years and there has never been a better time for folks with web design skills to get involved in defining where mobile user experience will go next.

I hope you can join me!
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
10:00 AM Pacific Time.

Register with the promo code BLOG and get 10% off the $129 price.

Last week, Tim O’Reilly delivered a short address at the Web 2.0 Expo where he offered insight into the five applications he believes point the way for the evolution of the web.

Two themes stood out: sensors will surpass humans in front of their keyboards as the primary data source on the web and Moore’s Law will need to be applied to humanity’s greatest problems. (via ReadWriteWeb)

He cited Google Voice Search on the iPhone, an application that combines both voice and sensor input, as an important technology to watch.

One of our panelists – Noah Richardson, manager of Tellme’s Mobile User Experience group – will share his expertise designing voice-driven systems and interfaces.

He’ll be joined by the following all-star lineup:

I hope you can join us. If you can, please head over to Upcoming and let us know. And if you have ideas about the panel or the topics you’d like covered, comment here or twitter with #btdpanel

A podcast of Jesse James Garrett’s impassioned closing plenary from this year’s IA Summit is now available online via Boxes and Arrows.

Jesse’s assertion that we are all experience designers has stirred controversy within the community, and justifiably so. Professional identity is a slippery slope. However, I can’t help but feel Jesse’s important message is getting lost in these discussion threads. Arguing over the definitions of our roles and judging the value of the contributions of each does little good if it becomes divisive within our community. Instead, it distracts us from working together towards the more important common goal: to elevate the understanding of the user experience field to the world at large.

Regardless of your position on this issue, I hope you will give this podcast a listen. It is packed with inspiring messages and ideas. My hope is that it will inspire you to generate a discussion about how we can work together to pursue the ideas – not discussions about our roles, or our processes – but ideas about how we can improve broken experiences in the world, and the big problems our industry can help solve.