This talk blew me away, actually. Finally I get Maria Mandel, whom I worked with at Ogilvy before she went to AT&T. She started a focus on mobile years ago. This talk opened my eyes, not about mobile, but another level of thinking on Network and device. I had already intuited the importance of mobile since my Tibetan monastic friends used mobile in rural India in a very sophisticated way when I was there in 2007. And they were already at an advanced then. I already understood mobile utility has a lot to do with context of user. What I had not stopped to think about I learned tonight: the Idea to design mobile first.
Coincidentally, last night Nedup and I were working on his trip to Bhutan. We had a laptop and this iPad. We used hotels.com and trip advisor and I installed the apps. Over and over, we preferred the app to the site. Simpler. Easier to use. Mobile first.
Raw notes:
First went through stats about mobile, huge growth and how folks are using mobile web over all else. Mentioned stats like Facebook spending lots of time redesigning for mobile web.
“Don’t assume people won’t use it on small screen.”
Fifty % of population in India and Africa *never* use anything but mobile to access web.
Entire generations of people start on web via mobile.
Joe Hewitt quote that he realized he could make something better on a mobile website.
“Did any one lose a friend to the battle of 1024 x 768”
On 320x 480 you must remove the crap. Used SW airlines site as an example.
Change blindness. So similar can’t tell diff. Compared SW Airlines mobile experience as better. Why? Very targeted and focused.
Also showed example of Flickr and how much better experience.
So design mobile first. Gets to the essential.
Also used example of Expedia. (makes me think of American Express redesign of Account summary page – much clearer!)
Delays are important. Speed delays can cause issues over time; people don’t come back.
“Intensely personal”
People use their smart phones at home overwhelmingly.
Think of people as one eye one thumb. Phone use is shorter bursts. Use “read it later.”
Analysis of fact LinkedIn use peeks in the day on desktop devices, and then on mobile at night
Probably looking for another job.
People naturally gravitate to better use cases when using mobile. They think about what the user is doing at the moment.
Gyroscope and 360 degree images as ways to explore. Examples:
– tilting to scroll
– exploring a house the want to buy
Using Touch to navigate. Direct manipulation just makes sense.
Things like touch target matters (44px)
Avg human finger pad is 8 to 10 millimeters
Quora fields too small.
Tap, drag flick, pressing and holding, rotating http://www.lukewarm.com/touch
Drag to reveal. To refresh.
(heh just figured out this wordpress thing now) very quickly hidden features become expectations of how stuff works.
No scrollbars, menu or icon. You interact directly with the content.
Natural User Interface (“NUI”)
Location detection. Can show how long until you arrive. Useful for spouses and meetings.
Used example of use case of someone who wants to find a tube station in London near me – clicks and clicks on an London Tube site until finally end up on a complicated PDF of a map. Augmented gives you another set of usability issues.
Quick mark, google products. Google goggles. WordLens: use case: don’t understand sign
Recognizr facial recognition that gets you peoples digital contact info – Google’s CEO says 6 photos and can recognize you.
Crazy growth, new devices, changing how we use stuff. Less stuff – stuff that is interesting. Not just cool stuff ! Stuff People want to use.
Question and answer:
Q: Should we do two sets of wireframes?
A: I don’t think we should do any wireframes so can’t answer.
(said a bit more but I got distracted.)
Q: ppi differences
A: don’t matter as much on mobile web
Define device groups, adhere to web standards.
(lost focus to my security duty):
Device Experiences:
Usage behaviors
Input methods
Avg screen size
Q: Does the Device matter? Are we engaged in different activities?
A: maybe use a different app. Might have different functionality.
Q: Mentions that Facebook can AOL itself by doing too much.
A: he answers that you make assumptions about what to leave out, and customers complain you into your core functionality. Fb has capability to do a lot; most company’s do not so must essentialize.
Q: how to learn?
A: in a state of lots of fragmentation and evolution – every week something crazy and new – not going to stop for a while
A: you will see a paradigm change on a daily basis
When we create these services, can’t rely on today. Must think about what is coming.
Future friend.ly
Core focus
Data exchange
Structured content
Device profiles
Just in time interactions
Q: beyond wireframes?
A: look good in abstract world, but not on device
Since stuff isn’t real, people spend lots of time on nav menu
Work Different 
Leave a Reply