An interesting usability article on CNN.com
Scanning around CNN.com for some news, I came across this article, Making cell phones simple is hard. It’s a mainstream article on the trend of mobile phone companies to jam more features into cell phones, how some users are finding them tougher to use, and how the industry is doing more usability research to help.
The article is fairly general, but has a few great quotes from the Sprint Nextel VP of User Experience Design for the average business reader that is unfamiliar with usability.
“Coffey said the (usability) testing is worth it because ease-of-use can be a competitive edge.”
“We believe there’s a strong correlation between our standard of success and how usable the products are,” he said.”
Nice! and the result of this usability focus?
“So far, Sprint Nextel is doing something right as its subscribers spend the highest average amount for data services in the industry.”"
Glad to see that they can measure the impact usability can directly have on the bottom line!
They also speak about voice recognition technology being a panacea for all the menus and screens on the next generation of cell phones, but I think a stair step improvement in their effectiveness is necessary for that to happen. I’ve tried to use some “voice dialing” features in the past, but the likelihood of failure (high) coupled with the time cost of failure (having to do it via menus) keeps me with the simplest and surest solution… menus. What about you? Do you use voice features on your phone?
To my estimation, there are only two mobile phone solutions that are accepted by the general market for “data-type” use; BlackBerry and the Palm Treo. Both have full (or nearly full) keyboards for typing and navigating, vs. the 3-4 key hits for an average phone, but they are generally larger and focused on email use. I’m not sure it’s possible or even a good idea to put so many features into a tiny phone for personal use… how many of the general public (vs. early adopters) will be able to use it?
I love the closing paragraphs with their out-of-context quote: “early adopters are less retarded”… 8-)
But Golvin said for the market to truly grow, the programs and phones themselves are going to have to become more graceful and not just the purview of tech-junkies.“Early adopters are less retarded by the user interface,” he said. “As we’re moving from the early adopters to the more mainstream customers, it will make a huge difference.”
Have a peaceful Memorial Day in the U.S.!
Charlie
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