Elements of Mobile User Experience

Hello everyone! Here is my next blog post on the elements of mobile user experience which I could learn and implement over the past 6 months. With whatever knowledge I have gained over this time I felt I should be sharing it with people who can read and probably leave their comments and feedback that will help me improve each time. Here you go… 
The fast growing mobile technology and the usage of smart phones and tablets has created a need for improvising the mobile user experience. The basic attributes that ensure good and flawless user experience are: Functionality, Usability, Design, User Input, Feedback, Social sharing, Security and Information Architecture. Each of these attributes has a certain set of  guidelines which are as below,

•  Functionality: The basic criterion of functionality is to allow users to complete tasks and achieve their goals efficiently. Optimising fundamental features and content for a mobile or a tablet can enhance the user experience. For example, in case of store locator feature ensuring that the store locator shows the nearest stores based on the device’s location would add value to the mobile user experience. Also in case where the user wishes to view a phone number of a particular store from where he wishes to place some order, the numbers can be made click-to-call so that the burden of remembering the number or noting down the number can be avoided.

• Usability: This attribute speaks of the ability to use the mobile apps smoothly. Highlighting or indicating the touchable and the tappable UI elements properly can enhance the usability of the mobile apps. In case of iPhone or iPad apps the icons are specifically designed to make them look tappable with appropriate colours, shading and size. Having a same gesture for two different actions can also lead to a bad user experience as this will lead to lot of ambiguity. Touch targets are to be appropriately sized and well spaced to avoid selection errors because is the touch targets are too small then it might lead in selecting the wrong element where as if the touch targets are too large and heavy then it will lead to a poor user interface. Ensure that the tappable icons and buttons are at least of 30 pixels wide or tall. One more aspect that can add value to Usability criteria is by creating apps that are more intuitive and interactive. This has a direct relation with the user emotion. For example, the Facebook / Twitter apps do not need any description below the icons as the icons themselves are self explanatory.

•  Design: This is a visual presentation and interactive experience of mobile that include graphics used and the layout. Maintain visual consistency in order to help users identify the objects without the brand names. Consider both landscape and portrait views during the design process as users switch between the orientations for many different reasons. Example:

If you can observe carefully you will notice that the icon used for “Call” is self explanatory which needs no additional effort to define its functionality.

•  User Input: Limit input to essential to the respective fields. Never compel the user to provide unnecessary information which could be annoying at times. Example: Limit registration forms to the minimum fields required, and use shorter alternatives where ever possible, such as a ZIP code instead of city and state. Display default or mandatory fields for making the task much simpler and easier. Use appropriate input mechanism and display the touch keyboard to save users from having to navigate their keyboard screens to enter data. For example: If the user wants to enter a phone number then ideally a number keyboard has to pop-up also when there is a need to enter text then the alphabetical keyboard has to pop-up.

•  Feedback: This is to ensure the user about the completion or in-completion of the action performed. Without having the audio or a visual feedback it is difficult to know whether the task is completed. The ideal example is the audio feedback after tweeting! J Or it could an alert message when something goes awry. Keep alerts brief and clear, explaining what caused the alert and what the user can do, along with clearly labelled buttons. Notifications should be brief and informative. Provide feedback and confirmation on screen without disrupting the user’s work flow. At the same time minimise the number of alerts displayed in the apps as it could be an annoying factor.

•  Social sharing: Facilitating social sharing on established social networks gives a feeling of connectedness to the user.  Integrate social networking features into the apps to make it easy for users to connect with their own social networks and their friends circle in order to share information.

• Security: Privacy and Security are the top two concerns among most of the smart phone users. Considering this fact the apps that are designed must give a sense of confidence, trust and comfort using the apps. Collecting personal information about the user without explicitly asking for user’s permission could raise a security concern. For example, the app that is able to track the location of the user without the knowledge could certainly lead to a bad user experience as this might give a feeling of being cheatedJ. Clear and less ambiguous information about the business practises, privacy policies and terms and conditions will make user feel trustworthy about the app.

•  Information Architecture: This speaks of arranging functionality and the content into a logical structure to help users find what they want. Allow easy and minimum steps to navigate to the most important content of the app. User should be able to realise that each tap is helping them achieve their task. Every additional step means more taps which means more waiting for a page to load and hence consumption of bandwidth. Mobile breadcrumbs are often implemented by replacing the “Back” button with a label showing users the section or category that they came from. Use concise, clear, consistent and descriptive labels for navigation items and links.

                                                       

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