Is ‘Responsive Design’ Enough? Don’t Forget the ‘Context’

The number of consumers using smartphones and tablets to access websites, brands are increasing. This had led to reconsidering how to design user experience for various devices. Roughly one out of every four visits to leading e-commerce websites now comes from smartphones and tablets, representing a whopping 138% annual increase. And with reports of year-over-year PC sales declining for the first time in more than a decade2As companies now need to cater to various devices and their screen sizes, ‘Responsive Design’ is increasingly being used to have a single design catering to various screen sizes.

Advantages of Responsive Design:
It is a solution that allows your website to adapt to any screen size and orientation, providing a more consistent experience across devices. The user’s web browser changes how the page appears for a specific screen size. It is also on client side unlike previously designed pages for mobile, which were on server-side and would transcode web pages on the fly.
The biggest advantage of responsive design is the time and money factor in building a website. As a single design is used (while defining how layout should be changed, content hidden/shown according to device) it helps conserve design resources. Responsive design also makes it easier to develop and maintain than multiple style sheets for various device forms.
 As mobile websites increasingly become popular, compared to mobile apps (due to improvements on network speed on the mobile) responsive design has become an industry standard.

Does Responsive Design Create Optimal User Experience?
To a certain extent it does. It can show/hide content based on the device. It also lays out websites to be easy to read and navigate with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling, making websites usable on devices.
However, it does not focus on the ‘Context’, which is the most important factor for defining the user experience. Usable websites do not always sell a product. Meeting the user’s needs and expectation helps sell a product. This is where we need to look beyond ‘responsive design’ and focus on the ‘context’.

Users use mobile sites in a ‘mobile’ context. While desktop sites are used with a fairly ‘specified’ context – focused user, comfortable surroundings, full sized keyboard etc. – mobile sites and apps are ‘mobile’, meaning they can be used anywhere - public space, home or office. This means users will have limited attention due to the various distractions from the surroundings. The connectivity in the surroundings and battery usage provide additional complexity.
With multiple devices in hand, users today use multiple devices to purchase a product. Hence, the same design, even though built responsively, may not work across channels. It is very important to understand user’s behavior for using various devices.

According to Google, majority of users use devices sequentially and not simultaneously. Which means, users research a product on mobile, but make a purchase on desktop (as it allows users to be more focused) and track it on tablet or mobile.
 Google has also categorized three types of user behavior on mobile - urgent now (request to find something specific fast, like the directions to an ATM or finding the roadside assistance number), repetitive now (user is someone checking for the same piece of information over and over again, like checking the same stock quotes or weather), and bored now (users who have time on their hands, while on trains or waiting in airports or sitting in cafes).

It is very important that before you design, you should understand the ‘context’ and ‘behavior’ on why and how your customer may use different channels. You can build a journey map (click here to learn how to do a journey map) to understand this. It may be required to have features, which are unique to different channels and not have a single design rendering ‘responsively’ to various devices.

Are ‘Responsive Design’ and ‘Context Driven Design’ Mutually Exclusive? 
Not necessarily. Both can be complimentary.
Before you decide on whether to have to have the same site across all devices or a separate site, it is important to identify the primary device the user will be accessing the application on. Eg: if 70% of users will use the application to check status on mobile, define all the features to aid the user to access it on mobile.
Next, focus on the context they will use on various devices. Eg: A user will mainly use a roadside assistance website to find the roadside assistance number while having a flat tire on mobile instead of signing up for a roadside assistance program. Hence, ensure that the number is displayed upfront instead of sign up button which is focused more on a desktop site. Again, responsive design can be used to hide/show or change the layout of display.

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“Tizen” Knocking the door… Do we really need another Mobile Operating System?

Reports have confirmed that “Samsung”will be using “Tizen OS” for its new upcoming high-end smart phones. Well the smartphone domain is the most challenging one, with OS like Android and IOS dominating the 95 % of the smartphone world. Android being open to all is adopted as the main stream mobile OS for companies like HTC and Samsung.

 

If we see how the smartphone world has shaped up, definitely Apple has been the leader but with Google acquiring Android and Samsung making Android as their main stream OS platform for mobile device the race is just between these two, Well organizations like HTC and others are doing some innovations but Samsung stood high on this and that is why we see that it is the leader of Android powered phone in the market now.

 

Nokia once the leader of mobile phones choose different paths and Windows also trying to prove it’s mental on the smartphone domain joined hands. Nokia these days releasing phones powered by Windows 8. Though they are trying there level best to enter the mainstream market but it is still and armature OS and lack of application and intuitiveness has been a roadblock for them for quite sometime. There are only a handful of people who still wants to go with Nokia.

 

On the contrary Blackberry once a leader finding itself out of the contest of mobile OS race made a heroic effort to release BB 10. Well at first it did prove to be better crisp and new for all but it is still losing to its competitors. Couple of stuffs like lack of application haunts it too and the price tag is quite high which is becoming a pitfall for Blackberry now.

 

Earlier this year Canonical also realized that it is high time to release their own OS and to make a good impression on the market they provided insight on Ubuntu OS for mobile. Firefox is also going to come up with something on this context and making OS for mobile.

 

So multiple vendors and so many mobile OS’s, and you should also not forget about some preliminary OS’s like Bada or Symbian etc. So do we really require any new OS? This January Samsung Inc. announced that they will be using Tizen as their new OS for smartphones. Well in early stages Nokia did experiment with Linux based OS and released Nokia N9, a consumer centric Linux OS based mobile phone and then moved out of it. After that it went under multiple folds of development and today it stands as a more crisp clear OS for mobile as announced by Tizen Community. Samsung’s’ Bada OS that is meant for the low end devices is fast fading away and even lower ranged devices are using Android as their main platform. Almost 95% of Samsung devices are powered by Android and for which they have to pay high royalty to Google.

 

Now is this the new way to avoid Google? Samsung has always wanted to have its own mobile OS and Tizen being open source might pave the way for it. But as expected it would have been used for the low-end devices but on January conference they announced that it would be using this for its new high-end mobile devices. We also saw that Samsung has already released their new Galaxy Branded Galaxy S4, which is powered by Android latest. It is very hard to say what is in stored for Samsung and Google, but it is for sure Samsung did contribute a huge amount on Android and took it to new levels, but it seems that something is going wrong for which they have decided to add Tizen to its segment too. It is time that will say what is going to be in this world of Mobile Devices and OS fight, but it is for sure the complexity is increasing for the service providers.

 

Service based organizations that mainly depend on developing applications that are targeted towards consumer will have a tough time. Consumer base is increasing and with new Mobile OS and platform opens up to new possibilities as well as complexity because now it will not be only Android and IOS but Tizen & Ubuntu also will come into context. 

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The not-so-smart market shares of smart phones

We shouldn't be surprised if the latest IDC figures make Andy Rubin do it the Gangnam style. Android notched up 75% of the smartphone market share last quarter.

It's true that Android signs-up about 5 new users for every new iPhone user. But what the  statistics fail to highlight is that at least 3.5 times out of that 5, it's a fairly basic, relatively low spec & most likely buggy Android smart phone activated in some corner of the world. Since top-end Androids are Ice cream sandwiches or Jelly beans (or the fresher Jelly Bean 4.2)*, the Android version market sharenumbers make it a no-brainer to infer.

Let's talk about a Mr. Average Joe. Joe wants a new phone. And Joe picks up an Android phone be…cause: 

1. Everybody around Joe is buying a ‘smart’ phone. Who wants to stay un-smart?
2. The phone shop guy (sales girl on the phone) sings paeans about smartphones and how one would change Joe’s life (everyone’s pushing smartphones hoping to make some money once you enter that eco-system)
3. The Android smart phone is a fairly affordable choice. It costs Joe the same/ a tiny bit more on contract as a non-smart phone. Who wants to stay un-smart when ‘smart’ costs just a few bucks more?

Joe does not buy the Android phone because he wants an ‘app for this & that’ or to leave an indelible mark on everybody’s timelines or to become the Superstar of the cafeteria he has lunch every day at with his mates. He may eventually try some of it because others are doing it. But these things don’t really matter when he picks up the Android. These are just nice to hear possibilities that made the few extra bucks worthwhile to spend. Most Joes end up regularly checking emails, indulging in a lil FB'ing, clicking & sending photos to family & friends and locating addressees on the map.

Now let’s talk things, ‘i’. The hallowed iPhone. Even Joe had heard on the news that the 5^th avatar had come. But when the phone shop guy/ sales girl on phone tells him it’s ₹45,000/ $750/ £530 or a proportionately exorbitant amount every month, Joe doesn't pursue the topic any further. But then the phone shop guy/ sales girl tell him the happy news of the affordable Android that does all things that the iPhone does. And Joe loves it.

Joe would have made the necessary sacrifices to spend if was a believer in the Apple religion. But he isn't  For the middle-class budget conscious, the non-geek & the Comic Sans people (that’s most normal people), when they invest the kind of money that you have to spend to own an iPhone, it’s an unjustifiable overspend. It’s not the conscious ‘investment’ decision that fanbois, geeks & designers make driven by the desire for a digital lifestyle they wish to maintain; there’s hardly a correlation between their average monthly bank balance and the purchase decision. Or the nonchalant spend of the “my dad’s an ATM” tee wearing teenager, the rich show offs or the well-off professionals.

It’s amusing that many articles talk of the differences between the iPhone user & the Android user like it were of genetic origin. Doesn't this popular infographic about iPhone user vs. Android user just illustrate the rich –poor divide? The affluent buy iPhones. And the less privileged end up buying Androids because they don’t want to lag behind in the smartphone race (or simple they don’t want to look stupid.)

With Google starting to wage a price war with the new Nexus devices – the 4, 7 & 10, this divide would widen. If every Android device cost as much as an iOS device, the users would be similar, behave the same way and spend the same on a variety of apps. After all, there's nothing more behaviourally equalizing than affluence - the rich are the same, world over. It's the poor who add diversity (& IMHO make the world an interesting place.) And market reports & statistics would never capture this.

* Diabetics, steer clear of Androids! And someone investigate if people with a sweet tooth are more likely to buy an Android smartphone.

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Sarit Arora talks about Emerging UX Trends & Practices at 'd+b Talks'

Few days ago, Sarit Arora from Yahoo! visited our campus to give a talk on 'Emerging Interaction design trends and User Research for Innovation'. Sarit touched upon areas of evolving nature of UX complexity and providing emotional, rational and meaningful solutions. Particularly interesting was leveraging the new interaction patterns of touch devices, Natural User interfaces and thinking of bigger ecosystem to derive at a concept. You can view some of his thoughts in the presentation he showed us below -

Emerging Interaction Design Trends

View more presentations from vinasoni

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This week at d+b talks

This week at d+b talks, Sarit Arora from Yahoo talks on 'Emerging Interaction Design Practices'
and 'User Research for Innovation'.

25 May 2012 (Friday), 3:30-4:30 PM IST. Leave a comment if you want to attend.

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Mobile Barcodes, The Next Generation mode of marketing

Is there a segment of the communications market more exciting and more rapidly evolving than the mobile space? Hardly. While it wasn’t the first to introduce a smartphone to the market, Apple’s iPhone has provided a boost to the mobile industry rivaled by none and a leader in mobile strategy. Only Motorola’s introduction of the StarTAC back in 1996 helped pull the industry forward to any like degree, but the application and content development the iPhone has driven sets it on a stage above all others. Users are more in to costly Apple device because of what it provides more than just a device just to make call rather do anything and everything on the fly.

There are currently more than 500000 applications available on the App Store, and more than 25 billion application download is the most hyped market till date. Sources tell almost 50% of apple revenue is generated from application downloads. Applications are available for nearly every use case, some offering business productivity enhancements, others pure entertainment, and still others delivering information to mobile devices. The same holds for the Android Market andBlackBerry AppWorld, though both pale in comparison to the volume of applications available to iPhone users.

But, despite the proliferation of mobile apps, they engender little interaction between users and brands other than the device manufacturers. However, another mobile segment is quickly coming into its own, highlighted at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which will change that: the 2D mobile barcode. In addition to creating an interactive experience between the user and the vendor, the use of mobile barcodes in marketing and advertising campaigns provides an opportunity for network operators to monetize their assets.

A variety of mobile barcode use cases have proven not only its viability, but the breadth of application scenarios that are possible. Here are just a few:

• Masabi has enabled rail U.K. rail system users to purchase tickets by sending an SMS and receiving a barcode on their phones that can be scanned by conductors in lieu of paper tickets.
• The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is including barcodes in its print editions directing users to its mobile reader, which will soon also include additional content, including images and videos.
• Pepsi placed barcodes on 400 million products in the U.K. last year, looking to better connect with the 18- to 24-year-old consumer group, offering mobile content specifically targeted for that audience.
• In South America, Telefonica is using barcode technology to enable access to telecom services, such as adding SMS bundles.
• Sports Illustrated included barcodes in its latest swimsuit issue that would allow users to receive short video clips of models on their phones.
• NeoMedia ran a fundraising campaign at MWC to benefit Haiti, where it contributed $1 for each scan of barcodes on promotional posters at the event.

Currently, most mobile barcode applications focus on marketing and information dissemination efforts, where users are directed to Web sites or receive additional information via SMS or MMS, though the barcode-based purchases, like train tickets, are growing.

Two obstacles stand in the way, however.

One is use acceptance. As Chris Drake, Neustar’s vice president of marketing and product management, converged addressing Services, explained that the key to a successful mobile campaign is being able to deliver content and offers that are contextually accurate. In other words, they have to be tuned to the interests of users, which means they must be augmented with user profiles and even location-based information, driving higher conversion rates. Personal data of the users when mixed and ventured with the business scenario provides the added advantage then plain pale application. Users are highly motivated and driven by the scenario as they feel they are the part of the application and drives users to use it to the limit.

This also means mobile campaigns must be driven by user opt-in, rather than mass dissemination to broad user groups, which is why initial campaigns, like those of Pepsi, SI and the Post-Gazette, are likely to play a significant role in increasing acceptance of mobile barcode use. Once consumers begin to understand the convenience and ease of use of barcode technology as a means of retrieving information, they will be more likely to accept its use for revenue-generating transactions.

The other challenge is that most barcode applications are tied to operators and particular barcode readers. Neustar is also helping overcome that with its mobile barcode clearinghouse, designed to facilitate interoperability between readers and barcodes, which will also drive adoption of mobile barcodes as a mobile medium.

“The Neustar clearinghouse will unleash interoperability and allow you to understand any barcode, regardless of your reader and get to the offers you receive,” Drake said. “That’s a significant enhancement in ease of use and the customer experience.”

The great advantage the barcode market has over other mobile applications is that there is really only one prerequisite – a camera, which is now included with most devices. Readers can be downloaded at any number of Web sites (visit the Mobile Barcode Innovations Center at http://mobile-barcode.tmcnet.com for an extensive list of downloadable readers and the latest barcode news and information).

Given the availability of the technology to end users, the mobile barcode space offers a significant opportunity for vendors to connect with consumers, regardless of device and, with the help of Neustar, mobile operators. Also, because mobile barcodes employ pull technology – campaigns rely on an action by the user to trigger a message – they comply with privacy requirements and regulations, which often preclude major brands from engaging in cutting edge campaigns for fear of alienating their audiences or potential litigation.

And, for all you trade show attendees out there, including media members, who are used to weighing down bags with marketing collateral, mobile barcodes offer a green alternative. By scanning a barcode at a vendor’s booth, we can retrieve documentation electronically at any time from a Web site instead of worrying about luggage going over prescribed weight limits. So all in all it can be said you come empty handed in to the show but you get a bag full of datas that you can use for whatever needs you want and that too you carry in your pocket. Smart simple and effective way of managing your needs with barcodes.

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Can Gamification help achieve better adoption?

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. This proverb holds a lot of meaning in almost everything we do in our life, especially when we implement technology to do ‘stuff’. Technology can enable enterprises to become operationally more efficient and accurate, or help them connect with customers better. However, it is difficult to visualize and guarantee the long-term success of technology implementation without weighing it against underlying motivations and intrinsic human behavior (essentially of the people who are supposed to use these systems).

Almost all organizations have issues with respect to technology adoption, such as:

• Users not filling time sheets accurately and on time, leading to revenue leakages
• Delay in expense filing, leading to wrong financial data reporting
• Employees not using newly developed intranet portal for information access
• Employees not utilizing travel budget wisely

Behavioral psychology says that human beings have an inherent tendency to seek out novelty and challenges, to extend and exercise their capacities, to explore and learn. This is exactly what Gamification as a system design concept leverages to deliver more persuasively, and by engaging human and computer interactions, leading to a system that is not just adopted but loved by its users. Stephen Anderson describes some of these principles quite well using the Mental Notes that he developed to help designers design more persuasive interactions.

For example:

Website	Design Challenge	Gamified Solution	Principle
Dribbble.com – It is one of the top designer communities showcasing quality design work by individual designers.	How to get people upload quality design content	Dribbble intelligently puts the challenge back to its users by allowing them limited number of slots to post their work. Additional slots are only opened when a user has significant amount of “likes” on the work currently posted. People are awarded with badges as they gain popularity among other users.	Deliberate scarcity: We infer value in something that has limited availability or promoted as scarce. It is also used by airline and hotel sites where they show limited number of seats or rooms available at a certain price.
ILike.com - It is one the popular music sites that allows users to listen to their favorite music.	How to get users to find their favorite music easily out of millions of artists and bands online	ILike.com has an interestingway of on-boarding new users by predicting their taste and preferences for music. As part of the registration process, they simply ask users to “click on your favorite artists.” As part of this process iLike learnt a whole lot more about what a user likes to listen to and is able to immediately predict and present more relevant music choices to the user. This exercise is certainly mutually beneficial.	Feedback loops: We’re engaged by situations in which we see our actions modify subsequent results. iLike made a very small suggestion: “The more artists you rate, the better.” Curiosity: When teased with a small bit of interesting information, people want to know more. I was curious about how would clicking on the artists I like affect results on the next page!

A few people may think that Gamification is the solution to all technology product adoption problems, which may not be. Moreover, a bigger misconception around Gamification is that, it is an added “layer of fun”. I think it is much bigger and more powerful than just adding a pinch of ‘fun’ because it can potentially impact human behavior in positive ways.

A more relevant discussion would be around ‘sustainability’ of some of these concepts that are derived out of game design thinking. When it comes to games, people have the tendency to either master or trick the games and then find them not so challenging and relevant after sometime. Given this, should designers rely completely on these concepts or should they continue to seek newer ways to design engaging interactions?

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"Where is the train heading to?"

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User Experience: Petrol Pump

Objective: How to enhance the user experience at a Petrol Pump?

The Story:

I recently came across this problem statement, that was given to the manager of a Petrol Pump. I imagined myself to be that manager, and thought, thought hard! Then I browsed the internet to have a look at the variety of petrol pumps that we usually come across.

I also thought about some of the characteristics of a petrol pump :

• Petrol is more of a commodity, with prices differing only between states. Some companies tried to create Premium products but I have seen commoditization even on those premium products. So, a person is largely indifferent on where the petrol is getting filled from! 
• There might be exceptions: Example: People believe petrol available on highways might be impure and ruin their engines. 
• Personnel at a petrol pump understand numbers, so one needs to indicate what and how much is required. And since, petrol or diesel doesn't usually have local names, language barriers are low. 
• Services usually offered at a petrol pump: Petrol filling (obviously!), Air Check and Pollution check
• Petrol pumps are businesses of scale just like hyper markets. 
• Service design - 
• How many vehicles can fit in at a time?
• Maximum capacity
• How will vehicles get in?
• How will vehicles get out?

Now, my thoughts went on to how can one enhance the user experience given such characteristics of a service. And an important point to note is that, "Enhancement of User experience is not an end goal, it is a continuous process. One can add some components in a service that may seem to achieve the goal, but it will be momentary."

Without any proof, I dare to show how a user experience curve might look like, something like this decay curve over time!

Hence, my point here is not to build the perfect service, rather build relationships over time; relationships between employees and customers, that give the necessary feedback into the system to enhance further. Here we go with my observations on how some petrol pumps do that:

• As soon as we enter some petrol pumps a person guides us to the shortest line, or stops us or the line to get shorter. He also indicates the approximate time required to wait. In India, usually it is 2 minutes!
• We also observe arrows to indicate the manner in which our vehicles should enter the filling areas and out of it.
• A friendly smile when we stop the car is always welcome!
• While, our vehicles are getting their food, someone comes over to ask "Sir ji! Shall I clean your windshield?" So, by the time the refilling id done, your windshield gets a makeover!
• If you are paying by card, there is an apprehension as the cashier takes the card along inside a queer building. To change all that some petrol pumps are now equipped with mobile card swipes for Visa to American Express! (American Express, although an express, is the least accepted card in India, according to my observations! That's why it needed special mention :) )
• I would love if someone would be able to check the tire pressure as well while I am filling. This trend is yet to catch up due to some unknown reasons. But this would be really useful!
• Extra lubricants, and oils within a hands reach is always better at the petrol filling station. Not many petrol pumps do that, hence causing that unnecessary delay in delivery the service
• Petrol pumps are also the best places for driving directions (till the days when we will each get a GPS!) So, an intelligent, direction-informed attendant is a good resource at any petrol pump.
• I think the idea of a supermart at a petrol pump has still not picked up in India. But, I have surely seen the potential for a small vendor selling ready snacks like chips, tetra pack of juices, cans of cold drinks etc.
• And finally, if the person filling up my car gives that "I know you!" smile and the greeting then it makes us feel special! We feel like sharing our car troubles with him. We also give the person tips at times! And, as we embark on our journey for user experience, this is the just beginning.... ...

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Jumping to Solutions

What do you think is the biggest challenge in an Ideation exercise?

Why do you think, most of the solutions fail?

Why does even research does not bring out all the issues?

How can you hold a brainstorming session to build a solution more fruitful and effective?

As we deal with these barriers and many more, we realize that there is a key to at least put ourselves on the right track. The key is obviously driven by the capability of the people working on the problem. But, as long as a conscious effort is made to remember the key, we would not lose our focus.

And, no we are not going to suggest that building a clear objective is the key. Although, we do not deny the importance of building a clear objective, but we are going to delve one level deeper. And we are going to explain it with the help of some examples.

So, what is this key? The key is to understand the underlying systems, components, players and influencers before jumping on to solutions. In other words, it is necessary to first understand what the problem is. 

Right Approach

Wrong Approach

Now, let’s go through some examples:

Example 1:

One of the big problems in South Africa that people were trying to tackle was human-elephant conflict. Elephants used to encroach on farmland and destroy livelihoods. In response, some farmers resorted to poisoning or shooting elephants.

Environment conservationists jumped to solutions for solving this problem. All kinds of modern technology solutions were proposed, and many trialled: Electric fences, RFID tagging, sensors and live-GSM-tracking among them. Most of the solutions failed since they were not replicable, scalable, and/or affordable.

Solution: Elephants run away when they encounter bees. According to this BBC article, early research in Kenya indicates hives can be a very effective barrier, so much so that 97% of attempted elephant raids were aborted. Where satellites, RFID tags and mobile phones failed, humble honey bees proved to be the answer. 

Also note how honey bees also proved to be an alternate source of income! 

Example 2:

Wimbledon had an interesting battle on and off the courts: against the pigeons. Each summer, as tennis players battle it out on the lawn courts, the authorities used to battle and stop pigeons from interfering with the play. Authorities armored themselves with all sorts of modern technology that was available: lasers and radio controlled aircraft to gas guns and ultrasound emitters. Now, we can understand what the courts would have looked like with all equipments, like a battleground?

Solution: Now, if we look from a pigeon’s perspective, all these high tech equipment might be dangerous, but nothing is a match to a bird of prey! Hence, Wimbledon’s answer doesn’t involve anything more high-tech than a bird of prey! A few laps by Rufus, the hawk, around the tennis courts are enough to scare the hardiest of pigeons away! (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13939805)

In India, we solve a similar problem of monkeys using langurs to scare them off!  

Example 3:

One very big cosmetics company in Japan received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty. Management of the company immediately traced the problem to the assembly line that conveyed all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty. 

Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. The engineers worked hard on the first solution that came to mind, using X-ray technology. They devised an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors. Two workers were deployed full-time to monitor all the soap boxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. They managed to solve the problem but it was an expensive solution.

Solution: The solution was taken to the assembly line and the installation was started. Out of curiosity, one of the workers asked about the installation. On hearing the whole story, he told his engineering manager that the solution was much easier – install a fan- it will blow away all the empty boxes and the assembly line will deliver only full, heavier packages!

Conclusion: As our world is becoming more complex, our problems are becoming even worse! We have numerous methodologies to solve these complex problems, but we observe, increasingly that these solutions are not s effective or efficient as we would have liked them to be! The reason, which we also call the “key”, to get our final solution right to a greater extent is not to jump onto solutions. Some of the examples here might help us in realizing our shortcomings, hence, improving our methodologies and thinking!

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Usages of iPAD

So we have new iPAD, iPAD 2, iPAD 2 3G! Phew! That’s a lot!!! But what do we do with this new luxury iitem? It is a gadget that can replace a number of other products. I am sure there must be some really wonderful usage of the iPAD. Here is a compilation of some iPad usages from internet and own experiences.

1. Surf the Internet

iPad is the best way to experience the web. View whole pages in portrait or if you may like it, in landscape on the large Multi-Touch screen. And let your fingers do the surfing. You can sync your bookmarks from your Mac or PC, and add even more right from your iPad. Besides, MobileMe keeps your Safari bookmarks in sync on your iPad, iPhone, Mac, and PC - wirelessly and automatically. So no matter where you go, you'll always have the most up-to-date information at hand.

2. Games

t's great for playing simple little games. There are many free gaming applications for the iPad already. If you're willing to pay for games, then there are many to choose from, many are made specifically for iPAD.

3. E-mail

It's ideal for checking e-mail and sending short e-mails, especially when you're on the go. There's nothing like the Mail app on iPad. With a split-screen view and expansive onscreen keyboard, it lets you see and touch your email in ways you never could before.



4. E-reader

With the new iPad. you can access all of the books on Amazon, just like a Kindle, but the display is much bigger. You can view your book in portrait or landscape, and the way the pages flip is awesome - you flip it with your finger and it looks just like a real book.

5. Photo storage and viewing

The iPad is great for storing and viewing your photos because of the large display and the way that you can flip easily from one photo to the next, and jump between folders with ease.

6. Music

The big, beautiful iPad display lets you browse your music collection by song, artist, album, genre, or composer with the touch of a finger. See your music as full-size album art. Flip through all your albums and tap to choose what you want to hear. iPad makes music look as good as it sounds.

7. Recipe book

It's great to have in the kitchen with you when you need to follow a recipe since it takes up much less space than a laptop. There are many great recipe websites, plus there are many free apps related to recipes and cooking.

8. Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) i.e. Skype

The iPad has a speaker and built-in microphone so it's ideal for making phone calls over the Internet, and watching the video as well in iPAD 2! Tried this recently and absolutely loved the experience.

9. Movies

Great for using on airplanes or even at the gym, the iPad has a big screen and is great for watching films, especially when compared with a cell phone or an iPod.

10. Weather & News

Apart from e-mail and Internet, this is probably what the iPad is most used for at our house. There are plenty of great apps for quick news and weather reports at your fingertips, many of which you can customize to your own interests.

Do you have more ideas/ usages? Go on…add here.

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Experiences at an Airport

Airport is a place, where we are bound to come early for Check In and other formalities. As I reached Bangalore Airport and Delhi Airport 2 hours earlier to the scheduled departure, I wandered around and wondered.......

Some of my observations:

• People go around looking for something new and exciting around the airport
• A BMW kiosk was the center of attention. The Kiosk displayed BMW cars and at the bottom gave information about the airport.
• Many people were also going through the display of clothes by many Fashion retail houses like Tommy, DKNY etc. Interestingly I could not find even a single person buying or even trying out the clothes. But, some people were buying small accessories, chocolates, sweets and  most of the people bought eatables and food items.
• Regarding food items, I have observed that people are increasingly buying packaged food to be consumed on flight. This is becoming a phenomenon after low cost airlines have become a rage. These airlines do not provide "free" food on flight, so, I believe people find a wider variety and better deal on airports rather than on flights.
• Foot Massage chairs are usually kept for demonstration in malls and were available here at airports too. Noticeably, only a few use the chairs available at malls but at the airport, there was a queue to have a demonstration for the same.
• As soon as the newspapers came in, everyone jumped on them. Almost everyone picked up every newspaper daily possible. As I watched a couple of people, they browsed through the spicy parts of the newspapers and then kept them aside. Only a few went on to read some news articles in details. All such papers went into either waste baskets or got collected by an airport staff (I think to be sold in junkyard).A few people also saved the newspapers for the journey.
• When we got onto the flight, just a 2.5 hours journey, the observations were even more interesting.
• Most people fiddle around with every object around them
• The flight magazine
• The safety manual --> Some keep it back as soon as they pick it up, dejectedly, but others pick it back to read.
• People cannot make any calls using their mobile phones on flights. But, they keep playing with the device, just in case it would come alive and get them some entertainment (engagement)
• Alas, some people start small talk with their neighbors over silly things such as: how rude was the airhostess, weather, India etc.
• When we touch down, then somewhere in the back of our minds is there a tiny doubt over our luggage: Will we get it back? When will it come? Is it broken? 
• Public transport and public transport information from the Airports is still not all that great, although we get some options: Buses, Taxis, Metro, Shared Taxi, Autos, Shared Autos; but the challenge is in identifying what suits my needs best and how to know about it. 

I believe, Airports provide a lot of opportunities, and the opportunities are even more attractive because of one major reason:
  "People are actively seeking for solutions!"

Do share what other opportunities come to your mind, or what other observations do you make while in an Airport?

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Signage: A True Global Language

Walking on the streets of Phuket, unbelievably thirsty, of all the Andaman Sea water around me, I wanted a fresh water tap/ bottle and I spot a familiar water tap sign. What a relief!!! A foreign country, an unknown place, language differences and a sign that is literally water to thirsty!

Signage is any visual graphics created to display information to a particular audience. It is a crisp information display that can be globally understood. The most common places for display are Roads, Hospitals, Public Places, and Airport. Signages are designed with smart appropriate usage of following elements:

Shape: The various needs lead to range of shape. Rectangular -the most commonly used shape appropriate to display information. There can be a picture and text to convey the message within the shape. Triangle, Square, Hexagonal, Circle, Oval, Block arrow are other shapes used across the world.

Color: The basics of color psychology using red to show stop, danger; yellow for Alert; green- positive sign to give permission. Various background colors example white, yellow, and black to enhance the graphics, text used in the sign.

Fig 1: Shapes and colors for signages

Pictures/Graphics/Pictograms: A sketch, outline or picture of known objects, Graphics of relative things and beings. Adding graphics to signage’s helps in relating the sign.

Text: Alphabets, alphanumeric characters are used in signages. The usage of variety of font types, font size, Font colors. The text can be country, language specific.

Fig 2: example showing signage’s by combination of the elements

These elements can be used together in various permutation and combination for a Signage Design.

There are different types of signage’s to serve variety of purpose. A signage can be to direct the person to the right information, guidance, Branding. Based on the purpose it serves, broadly signages can be:

Street/Traffic Sign: Seen in every part of the world. Used to identify traffic roads, traffic rules, types of roads.

Fig 3: Traffic Signs

Banner Sign: Banner is a flag or other piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or other message. Banners are used mostly for advertisement, Marketing.

Commercial,Public Places signage: These are pictorial or brief text signages used in various commercial, public places. These signage’s help to identify the required information.

Fig: 4 Signage’s example at Public Places

The Usage of the signage’s helps in finding the way, expanding the information reach beyond language and cultural barriers.

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Dissecting Discipline of Designing Experiences

Often I come across different viewpoints on Experience Design discipline about what it is and what exactly experience designers do. The executioner’s (in software business) school of thought is that experience design is the practice of designing technology products and services (each of which is a human experience) based on the consideration of an individual's or a group's needs, tasks, desires, beliefs, knowledge, skills, experiences, and perceptions. Thus, it results into achieving certain user goals and leads to a successful system acceptance by users.

The other school of thought is more at an abstract level that defines experience design as a discipline of designing mental journeys that leaves the customer with memories of having performed something special, meaningful, engaging, with sense of achievement or just fun and entertainment.

Like any other discipline, I think experience design can also be understood as an organized production system that is about creating output in the form of desired experiences using available inputs such as knowledge and ideas, and finally using resources in the form of design processes and skills.

Let’s take an example of thematic restaurants. Today, food is more of an experience rather than a necessity, as only a minor part of the average income (approximately 10 per cent) is spent on food.

Dining is a combined body and mind (sensory) experience and has aspects of culture and society. The body tastes, smells, sees, hears, feels and digests the food. The mind reads the food consciously and unconsciously in the form of activated emotions and memories.

Theme restaurants are cautiously designed to deliver customer experiences by influencing customer’s state of mind with the right ambiance, environment, lighting, music/live performance, and personal service on top of the food served to stimulate emotions like happiness and so on. A great deal of skills and processes are required to accomplish delivery of such desired experiences in the restaurant business.

Another example could be watching theater, which is another form of immersive experience thoughtfully crafted for audience. The stage performances are scripted around a theme to entertain and educate audience (selective sometimes) by stimulating emotions such as anger, happiness, surprise, confusion, and more.

The two examples mentioned above can help us dissect different aspects of organized experience delivery system.



Core Activity
The core activity is what a customer wants to accomplish as a task or an activity. For example, watching a play in a theater or eating in a restaurant.

The Concept (or the ‘Feel’)
The core concept is the theme that the customer admires and what the product stands for. For example, a concept “Happiness is in small moments of life and must be shared” is the theme of Unilever ice cream brand and is well translated into the design of ice cream packaging and ice cream vending machine designs where in a customer is delivered ice cream when he/she smiles into the face recognition system. See demo

Peripheral Experience
Peripherals are supporting experiences (part of the overall customer experience) to which a customer initially pays extra emphasis. For example, the way seating is arranged, welcoming gesture at the entry, cleanliness, and so on.

Core Experience
Core experiences are activities in which a customer gets involved physically and mentally. For example, taste of the food, dialog delivery of an actor, sound and music and so on. Developing core experience is a skilled job and the output is actively consumed by customers. However, core experience cannot be appreciated without a good theme.

Support Services
Support services are materials such as cutlery, menu, and order delivery that are used to accomplish the core activity.

Such a dissection would help in understanding design and delivery of experiences. In my next blog I will make an attempt to explore how a similar approach can be applied in design for software applications.

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How to Design sized web content for Mobile web

Previous post highlighted some of the guidelines that will help, while designing for mobile web.
But if we specifically talk about iOS, then it has capability of displaying content designed for desktop. So same content can be used across devices.

iOS displays existing web content in two ways, it can display the web content on the screen resolution of the device or it can render the page at the actual size of the page and then "zoom out" to fit the page on the screen of the device. This virtual screen is called "Viewport"

What is Viewport?

It can be defined as the rectangular area ( screen) where the content is displayed.

Image below displays the "Desktop Viewport" and "Viewport on iOS"

















For most of the devices the screen resolution and the display size are equal to the viewport. This thing is applicable in case of desktop , laptops etc, but in the case of mobile it is different. Many pages on web, wont render well on all phones, at their screen resolution. In order to render all the pages well, mobile phone render pages on the virtual resolution and then scale them down to fit on the screen of the device.
For example: In iOS the device screen width is 320 pixels and the viewport size width can be 980 pixels, so in this case, the webpage with 980 px width, will fit perfect on the screen.


Viewport Meta Tags

Safari on iOS displays almost all the pages well, that are designed for desktop. If this doesnt work then you need to change the settings by configuring the viewport. Configuring the Viewport is easy, just add a line of HTML to your webpage. It is basically done through viewport meta tags. Typically viewport meta tag is used to set the width and initial scale of the viewport to improve the presentation of the webpage. For example : if the width of your webpage is less than 980 px, then you should set the width of the viewport to match the width of your webpage.

"Viewport meta tags are basically used to configure the width and the scale of the viewport"

If your webpage is narrower than the default width, then set the width of your viewport to the width of the webpage, as displayed in the image below:





















Viewport settings for Web Applications

If you are designing web application specifically for iOS, then the recommended size of your webpage should be the size of the iOS. Apple recommends that set the width as “device-width” so that the scale is 1.0 in the portrait orientation and it doesn't change when the device is in landscape orientation.














Configuring the viewport helps resizing the web content for the device. But it will not be able to give a good user experience every time, because in some cases text will not be readable, user has to zoom in, zoom out , scroll a lot, in order to read the content, reach the targeted link etc.

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Content Design guidelines for Mobile web

While creating a website the first thing that a designer decides is the appropriate dimensions for it . But when it comes to mobile, the resolution and dimensions are not fixed. They are changing very rapidly, also the lifespan of mobile devices are much shorter. The constant release of new mobile devices also adds to mobile device resolutions. So this wide variety of resolution, makes it difficult for designer to select an appropriate dimension to work on.
























Figure1: This is a very limited list and not complete. It is just to give an idea about the resolutions.

To answer this problem, we need to create layouts for specific collection of devices. These layouts changes depending upon the resolution and orientation of a device, in order to enhance the experience on mobile.The main reason of this mobile resolution specific experience is the “one web” approach to the web design.

…One Web means making, as far as is reasonable, the same information and services
available to users irrespective of the device they are using. However, it does not mean
that exactly the same information is available in exactly the same representation across
all devices. The context of mobile use, device capability variations, bandwidth issues, and
mobile network capabilities all affect the representation. Furthermore, some services and
information are more suitable for and targeted at particular user contexts…

Guidelines for Designing for Mobile web

Many of these guidelines will improve the reliability, performance, look and user experience of your webpage, on all mobile platforms.

Simple
Users on mobile, quickly want to get the desired information. So mobile site should be simple than the standard site. Standard site is already simple, simplify it further more, to optimize it for mobile. This may include re doing the menus, removing images, breaking texts at certain places etc. You need to simplify the site from design and functionality perspective. Make sure that everything presented on the site should be simple, readable and useful.

Example





















Lightweight
Use lightweight graphics for mobile site. Even it is good to use a simple, separate mobile theme for mobile site. Mobile theme means you can actually consider how user are using your site and then optimize it for mobile accordingly.

Example





















Use Columns and Blocks
Use columns and blocks to layout your webpage like many online newspapers. If the content on a webpage, cover the full width with content, then it generally becomes difficult to read. Columns and blocks breaks the webpage into parts, thus making it easier to read and also allows user to double tap on objects on page.

Example





















Limit Page Length
Include as much content from your actual site as practically possible. But include that too a limit. Don't make the user to scroll too long , to view the complete page. In a touchscreen phone its still easier to view a longer page, but also think about a user with a keypad based phone. Break the content into parts, use pagination etc to avoid long scrolling.


Don't use pop ups or open new window
Do not use pop ups or open new windows, while browsing a website on mobile. As it can infer between the browsing experience.


Don't rely on flash or java script
Not all phones support flash or java script. And if some of the phones support, then it is not sure that its the latest version. Make sure that content on your mobile site is plain HTML/CSS, otherwise large content of your site will be on risk, if users will not be able to access it.


Limit scrolling to one direction
It is really annoying when user has to scroll in multiple directions, while browsing through a site. And this become worse, if user has to browse that over a mobile phone. Limit your browsing to one direction (vertical) to give a better experience to the user.

Example





















Link to the Standard site
Whatever platform users might be using, they might want to see the standard site, as nowadays many smartphones, i phones are capable of presenting the desktop site as it is. Always give a link to the main site, it can be link it the footer. It should also allow the user to go back to the mobile version from the main site without using back button.

Example





















Size and Sequence
Plan the proper sequence of the content on your site, depending upon the importance of the content, buttons, navigation links etc. Interface should also be designed keeping in mind the touchscreen interface, where buttons, click able links should be bigger.

Example





















References: noupe.com , UX booth, cyberdesigz.com

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