Ten Best Practices for Mobile Usability

In consulting on numerous projects for mobile websites and interfaces, we've acquired a good understanding of best practices when it comes to mobile websites and applications. Mobile has taken over the desktop computer in terms of usage, at least for some websites. For many other websites the day is coming soon. In redesigning your website for the mobile web or in designing your mobile application there are a number of principles and best practices for mobile design and usability in creating an excellent user experience across the iPhone, Android, iPad and other devices.

Here's a handy list of ten mobile usability best practices, from insights users have given us in usability testing of mobile interfaces:

1. Meet user needs quickly. Users are likely to be looking for time sensitive information on their mobile devices and they need it now.
2. Give users essential information they want now. This sounds similar to our first point but we're referring here to user account information and the like. A best practice here is to find out from users the three most critical pieces of information they want when they login to your site or their account - then give it to them. Personalizing this is even better so they can view information they deem important, by deciding their own home page settings.
3. Keep navigation to a minimum. While navigation on a traditional website can be quite large and repeated on every page, real estate in mobile is precious so it is a best practice to use a simple breadcrumb display with three levels at the most. Breadcrumbs can also take care of "back" options for users – also critical to mobile usability.
4. Balance real estate usage with blank space. Because space is so limited on a mobile device, many mobile designs are crammed with clickable links that are too close together. Consider the user's frustration when he or she hits the wrong link because it's too close to another link. This makes the mobile user experience frustrating. Big buttons are a necessity, of course.
5. Balance security with ease of log in. If your site requires a login and displays sensitive information, you need to find out from users how they feel about logins. Since most wifi is not considered to be secure you can request logins for users to access sensitive information but the easier you can make this for users the better. For example, auto logins that require a four digit password that incorporates one each of small case, lower case and number.
6. Confirmation queries are welcome and encouraged. While these lengthen transactions slightly, a single confirmation query is still a good idea for transactions, logouts, etc. This is a mobile usability best practice seen across many of the best smartphone applications.
7. Provide a variety of payment options. Most mobile users are younger. They may not have a credit card or they may be using their parents' credit card. Offer them a variety of payment options including PayPal or other easy payment systems. In fact this may be critical to keeping their loyalty.
8. Make user input simple. Today, most data input uses auto-fill and other options that make this easy but there is still room for improvement. Anticipating choices is easier if you interview users and find out what they are most likely to input into forms or other mobile interactions then you can avoid the form by simply offering it in a button or tab.
9. Avoid the need for help or provide it quickly and simply. When it comes to help with your interface, your first desire is that your user won't need it: designing a simple, clear interface should be your first priority. If you interaction is unavoidably complex, though, provide simple, context-rich help as easily as possible and test this on users to make sure that it meets their needs. If you expect them to look for help – or worse yet, call for help -- you are asking for trouble. Even though they are holding a phone in their hands they do not want to call for help.
   But if you give them context-friendly help, this assures your users that it's not them it's you. Since most cellphone users are young, they are likely to assume that they need to know more in order to function with your application. This is a typical attitude for very young mobile phone or smartphone users. A second level bonus: Make finding help fun.
10. Drop all your old assumptions. Killer apps for the i-age are going to be designed for digital natives who have none of the assumptions of even 20-something designers. You need to ask users questions then let your imagination run wild with answers to their problems.

 

A Fanfare study in March of 2010, showed that a whopping 57% of mobile phone user were dissatisfied with their experience. This is unacceptable by any standard.

User testing and interviews are absolutely a best practice in determining the usability of your mobile application or design, to find out how users can get the most out of it. To learn more about the value of user testing, read a mobile usability testing case study.

Learn more about Interpix's mobile usability consulting.