Designing Mobile Phones and Communicators for Consumers

1
Designing Mobile Phones and Communicators for
Consumers Needs at Nokia

• By Kaisa Vaananen-Vainio-Mattila, Satu Ruuska
• Review by Irina Ceaparu

2
History

• initially - strategic communication devices
• designed for durability, difficult interaction
• 1980s - become consumer products
• phones - basic comm. device that deals with text-
  and voice- based comm. services
• communicators - advanced comm. devices
  (multimedia comm. capabilities, personal
  assistant tasks)

3
Sociological Cultural Issues

• 1st wide-area cellular net Nordic Mobile
  Telecommunication (Scandinavia)
• necessary cond. for a product to be part of a
  lifestyle
• - externally driven gt socially accepted
• - stable gt rationally accepted
• evolution serious tool (military), business
  tool, consumer product (e.90s-Finland, Sweden,
  UK)
• personalization gt adaptation to consumers
  lifestyle
• cultural background gt adoption of new device
  (language, mental model, personal safety issues)

4
User Satisfaction Quality of Use

• Quality of use the extent to which a product
  can be used by specified users to achieve
  specified goals in a specified context of use
  with
• - effectiveness
• - efficiency
• - satisfaction
• Context of use characteristics of the users,
  tasks and the organizational and physical
  environments

5
The Mobile Context of Use

• ideally, being mobile should remain transparent
  to the user
• in reality, diff. interactions/presentations
  options depend of the context of use
• - mobile infrastructure context
• - physical context
• - social context

6
The Mobile Context of Use (cont.)
Infrastructure context Physical context Social context
no or bad network coverage low communication bandwidth wireless use noisy surroundings unstable and varying usage position moving environment environmental factors need to collaborate /share info need to keep interaction paths short and quiet need for privacy need to differentiate oneself from other users
7
Scenarios and Tasks

• Purpose of usage scenarios
• Make work practices more concrete
• Identify areas for improvement
• Identify critical tasks
• Taskssmooth flow, flexible for switches and
  interruptions
• Common tasks flexibility customizability
• Classification of tasks based on frequency of
  use
• Very critical (done under pressure)
• Critical (done frequently)
• Medium frequency/pressure
• Not frequent/not under pressure

8
Interaction User-Mobile Terminal

• HCI in PC applications
• Direct manipulation
• Multimedia (visualaudioVR)
• Groupwork support (shared doc., real-time
  meeting)
• Standard UI platforms and P/L
• HCI in interactive applications
• Indirect manipulation
• Small displays
• Miniaturized and monolithic form factor of
  terminal
• Lack of UI standards and conventions

9
HCI Challenges and Solutions in Basic Phones

• Challenges
• Indirect manipulation
• Input - Seq. of button presses
• Feedback tactile, audio, visual (text, graphic)
• Small display, brief terminology
• No direct mapping, hierarchy of functions
• Alpha input
• One-hand/hands-free usage

• Solutions
• Ordering/prioritizing menus by critical functions
• Offering shortcuts
• Limited amount of dedicated buttons
• Flexible task flow
• T9 writing method
• Headsets/speech UI
• Larger displays, improved tactile feedback

10
HCI Challenges and Solutions in Communicators

• Benefits over basic phones
• Larger screen area
• More complete keyboards and more softkeys
• Two-handed use

• Challenges
• Quick easy access to frequent/critical tasks
• Smooth task flow
• Media design
• Flexibility(switching, undoing,backtracking)
• Transparency of the underlying technology
• Personalization of UI and device

11
Design of Mobile Terminals

• Requirement Analysis
• Usage contexts cannot all be anticipatedgtmore
  resources to understand user needs
• first-time /experienced user requirements
• professional/leisure time requirements
• Design Iterative evaluation

Concept Design Interaction Design Visual Design Industrial Design
-fulfill specific needs not limit target market innovative but match resources -not too many navigation and control alternatives optimal input methods customization -increase visuality - where I am, where can I go, what is available -ergonomic research -studies of aesthetics
12
User Centered Design at Nokia

• Data gathering
• Concept Creation
• Data analysis
• Scenario and task building
• First designs
• Concept Evaluation
• Usability tests/Contextual interviews with paper
  prototypes
• Design iterations
• Simulation tests expert evaluations
• Testing with functional HW prototypes

13
The Contextual Design Approach

• Participatory design methodologies
• Usability evaluations
• Walkthroughs
• Contextual interviews
• Focus groups
• New method Contextual Inquiry gathers insight
  into users work context and life

14
Visions of the Future

• Third Generation Services
• Online Mobile Video Conferencing
• Location-Based Information Services
• Seamless Connectivity between Devices
• Symbian Platform for usable and utilizable
  mobile application
• Future user needs quality of service,
  interaction, new functionality