Usability

I have recently completed some user testing and one of the devices used was an iPhone. This device is often venerated as being the epitome of style, user-friendliness and cutting-edge technology. Indeed, I often find that when handing an iPhone to a participant in the labs, a very soft “Wow” escapes their lips! (I am not sure though whether it is the phone that elicits this reaction or the reputation of it.)

I agree that the iPhone is an excellent piece of kit in many ways and those who own and use one often promote its usage (sometimes tediously!) However, my testing highlighted a couple of areas that were not acceptable to the participants and in fact, gave a negative user experience. These were: Read more about: Improving on the iPhone

Sanitary napkin jokes aside, there’s plenty of excitement about Apple’s newly announced iPad. The hyperbole is flowing thick and fast : “magical, revolutionary, unbelievable”, not surprisingly most of it is coming from the Apple camp. Admittedly, it’s a cool device and you know it will be well-designed, well-built and easy to use…it’s from Apple after all. I want to like it, I really do, but as with many Apple products once you get past the initial ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ and look at the practical user experience, the flaws start to emerge. Read more about: Apple iPad – a bridge not quite far enough?

Yesterday I mentioned five tips on some of the best ways businesses can help promote trust in mobile security. Here are some more pointers when logging in to a secure area of a site e.g. banking:
Read more about: Tips on logging into secure areas using a mobile

Several years ago, I was involved in an international project that focussed on security when using mobile devices and how trust could be enabled in users. At that time, very few users were accessing the mobile internet on a regular basis and consequently, it was very difficult for them to envisage the dangers posed by hackers, malware and unauthorised access to both personal and business data stored on their mobile device.Things have changed since then in terms of mobile internet usage as a boom seems imminent, fuelled by the rise of 3G, smartphones and affordable data package tariffs. Indeed, all around us smartphones are becoming ubiquitous with a spike in smartphone adoption predicted as users come out of contracts and seek a better deal for their money. Read more about: Security of the mobile internet

When searching for the best Top 5 applications (apps) for the iPhone, I often found reviews based on the personal preferences of their author and how well the apps were addressing particular user needs. This made me want to have a different perspective by creating my own Top Apps list based on how well apps use the iPhone capabilities to meet user requirements. For example, which app best used the new digital compass feature of the iPhone. Read more about: Top 5 iPhone apps using iPhone capabilities

Self-serve checkouts/kiosks are transforming the purchasing experience; some shops are beginning to go as far as replacing all of their staff with self-serve machines. These machines are ultimately asking, or sometimes forcing, people to change their habits of a lifetime. From a motivational design perspective, these machines are a benefit as they promote autonomy – our ability to do our shopping ourselves. However it is absolutely vital that our first experience of using these machines is a good one, otherwise we are likely to lose faith and if we are given the choice, will revert back to staff-operated checkouts. Read more about: Self-serve or self-frustated?

In today’s Metro, Miles Erwin reported on the ‘10million Britons surfing the internet on their phones’. Read more about: Phone surfing

It is quite common on many web pages to find ‘more’, ‘read more’ and ‘continue reading’ links that follow a headline or summary of an article to let users read on. The upside of this is to fit more content on the page, enabling readers to scan the headlines more quickly. Read more about: Read more what?