Mobile Design

At Interpix we've worked with mobile design on variety of fronts including everything from the design of mobile applications and websites to early-form mobile devices. Our clients have included Telus, Rogers and Microsoft, among others.

Mobile design benefits from our experience with other forms of design including desktop interfaces, ergonomic spaces and other forms of interaction that preceded mobile. The value is in distinguishing and understanding the differences in user experience that are created when you go mobile. Bringing to bear experience with user testing in a variety of other environments helps us to understand how your users respond differently and in new ways to the mobile experience. Having spent many years user testing with a variety of interfaces and applications we can attest that understanding your users comes not necessarily in the answers users give so much as the questions you ask and how you ask them. We probe deeply into users' intent and their experience with a mobile design.

 

Interpix Design Inc

1101 Clarkson Road North
Suite 302
Mississauga, Ontario
L5J 2W1

1 877 346 2998

Challenges in mobile design

There are numerous challenges in mobile design, of course, but they can perhaps all be reduced to dealing with the swelling of choice within limited user attention. Let's look at that in a bit more depth.

In the mobile user experience, attention is limited by a number of factors.

Screen real estate. Even the biggest smartphones are limited in terms of their screen space and you are likely to lose users if you try creating a long splash page. So the user needs to be able to find what they need immediately. There is little room for redundancy in order to reach the user through multiple channels but instead you need to anticipate the users' needs right away. User testing is a key factor in finding out what those needs are.

Mobile distractions. Users engage with mobile anywhere and everywhere. That is, of course the whole point of mobile. Your users may be checking out your mobile application in a library or next to a construction site. You have to have an interaction that works in both environments as well as the infinite number of other mobile environments your users are in. In the words of one usability analysis, the mobile experience presents unaccounted for cognitive barriers.

Walking down the street in the middle of noisy traffic (the likeliest scenario, really) your user is going to be more inclined to be easily frustrated. Mobile users tend to be in a hurry to get things done. Sadly, the mobile experience almost always requires users to slow down in what they are doing. Find a way to integrate as easily with the things they are doing and the way they live and you will find loyal customers. Mobile design that bypasses the distractions inherent in a typical user experience will create loyalty in users and even create new users.

Overwhelming choice. It's a cliché that in our modern culture we have a wealth of choice, so much that some come to see it as a burden. You can't burden your users with too many choices that will paralyze them or perhaps only create an unpleasant user experience. Don't make your mobile customer who knows what he or she wants miss it in the interface you have given them. And yet, of course, you want them to feel in control.

Striking the right balance between choice parameters and usability is something more you can learn from focus groups and user testing.

Why we can help with mobile design

There are many factors that go into designing for mobile users. You need to reduce the number of steps, their length and the difficulty of each step in the decision process or task flow.

Our take on cognitive load and mobile design
A secondary way of looking at this same issue is to try and reduce what is called the 'cognitive load.' Mobile design and architecture needs to quickly narrow the number of choices for a user. The ideal number as proposed by George Miller is seven, give or take two. . In other words, users can only process so much information: five choices is good and nine is the maximum number of choices you want to ever give to a mobile user. However, this is not entirely helpful in actual design practice, whether that has been for previous interfaces or for today's mobile devices runningon Android, Apple's iOS or Windows.

Hick's Law, well known to usability designers, states something rather more obvious than Miller's rule: the time to make any decision increases proportionally with the number and complexity of choices offered to a user or customer. Hick's Law is more favorable in making design decisions than Miller's, especially as design decisions are applied in mobile interfaces. In other words, even five choices is a lot when you're standing on a subway car jammed with bodies. And the difficulty of choices is as important as the number.

As much as possible you want to make the decision for that particular mobile user. Again, user testing can help you eliminate annoying options from, for example, a mobile menu.

Delving deeper into decision difficulty, this is a very abstract concept with a wide variation, for any kind of user, mobile or other. Again, mobile usability testing will provide you with rich insights into what users require and what they will ultimately find useful. Two factors are prominent in evaluating decision difficulty, though: how well users understand the need to take time to make the right decision and whether or not they are willing to take that time. Again, mobile decision making is an entirely different kettle of fish from previous generations' interfaces then, isn't it?

Avoiding confusion

Finally, there is a tendency in elegant design to oversimplify. That's why at Interpix, we say simply useful. Simplicity is needed but let's never ever forget the users need for options and full understanding. Options for full menues and complete details need to be made available in any interface. That's where we allow content developers and designers to spread their wings. You just need to make sure that you do not overload the mobile user and his or her interface. But you need to give users options to discover everything you have to offer and let him or her know how to find those options.

Mobile design is still in its infancy but we're all learning how to develop optimal user experience for mobile users. Contact Interpix to find out how we can help you create a simply useful mobile design for your application or website.