Mobile Internet variety doesn’t match skill
By Clare Mitchell Crow
It has been 14 years since I first surfed the web using a PC, so it is no surprise that it is increasingly rare for us to observe novice users of the Internet (yes, while they do exist, they are becoming fewer in number, and are less likely to volunteer to take part in research involving Internet use than more experienced Internet users). However, the same cannot be said for mobile Internet users.
Figures that ComScore released this summer highlight the increase in UK mobile Internet use: there has been a 26% increase in mobile Internet subscribers over the past year (they now make up one fifth of all UK mobile subscribers). This suggests that there are a lot of people who have been accessing mobile Internet for less than a year – and this trend is likely to continue with the announcement this week of both Orange and Vodafone both gaining the rights to sell the iPhone.
So it was with great interest that I recently observed a series of iPhone one-on-one evaluation sessions. It was captivating to observe the range of skill (or lack thereof) when surfing the Internet on an iPhone, especially for new mobile Internet browsers and new iPhone users. Just like in the early days of the Internet for PCs, navigation offered on websites viewed via mobile is not standardised. Nor are the mobile browsers that people are using to access the content. So this makes simple tasks such as moving back, moving forward and searching tricky for some.
In addition to loads of novice users, developers are faced with the difficult task of building mobile sites for multiple browsers, phone capabilities and screen widths. Clearly, the mobile Internet brings its own unique challenges that can only be solved with rigorous user research. But I am glad the UX community is rising to the challenge – and products like the App Sketchbook (if a bit gimmicky) will assist us usability professionals, designers and developers alike.
With 85,000 apps available from the Apple App Store, ultimately it will be the user-friendly and useful apps that become the most popular, and from the wisdom of the crowd, I hope we see some standardisation emerge – for the iPhone anyway!