Screens on mobile phones is getting bigger. That is good because Jakob Nielsen says bigger screens leads to better usability. One reason mobile phones is getting bigger screens is that mobile phones just isn’t mobile phones anymore. They have become cameras, mp3-players and internet devices as well. All this new functionality requires a bigger screen compared to what is necessary for just making phone calls.

But even though i do agree with Jakob Nielsen that bigger screens leads to better usability, the usability is of course also depended of the design presented on the screen. As Buchanan et. al. state it in Improving Mobile Internet Usability one problem is that the design isn’t tailored to the screen size. Designers try to fill a sheet of paper even though what they are designing for is a Post-it.

The article The Myth of a Big Screen, Treating the symptoms rather than the cause state it this way:

“Making the screen bigger is just the current fashionable red herring to distract you from the plain and simple fact that the vendors can’t get the design right.”

These articles are from 2000 and 2001 and therefore im surprised to witness the new Samsung Instinct and specially the design of the browser on the Instinct.

But let’s first have a look on how Apple designed Safari on their iPhone. Both the iPhone and the Instinct have big screens. But they still have small screens for web surfing. To give the user the best experience it may be logic to use every possible pixel on the screen for content.

When scrolling in Safari on the iPhone the URL text field will disapear as you scroll down the page giving more space for content. But still there is 20 pixels used for the Status bar in the top and 44 pixels being used in the Button bar in the bottom.

I think it’s a good decision made by the Safari designers to let the URL text field disapear because on such a small device every single pixel used for content counts.

Therefore i was kind of puzzled when i saw the design of the browser on the Instinct. The Instinct as well as the iPhone has a URL text field in the top. Instead of a Button bar in the bottom, the Instinct designers have chosen to use space on both the left and the right side of the screen for buttons. This gives very little space for the content.

Luckily the designers have made it possible to enter a Full Screen View by touching an icon. The strange thing is, that a Full Screen View on an Instinct isn’t what i would expect from a Full Screen View. The only thing that disapears when you touch the icon is the URL text field leaving all buttons in on the left side of the screen.

The best aproach i have seen so far on designing a browser for mobile phones is Firefox. Though Firefox for mobile phones isn’t released yet a video shows how the Firefox mobile phone team have aproached the design challenge and have understood that on a small screen every single pixel used for content counts. All pixels are used for content which i think will lead to a better user experience than on both Safari on the iPhone and especially the browser on the Samsung Instinct.

To reach the navigation buttons on Firefox you have to scroll your finger to the right which reveals navigation bottons on the left side of the viewpoint. This aproach is very clever. Firefox use every single pixel for content which is what users are interested in when they read/scan pages.

It seems odd to me that the Firefox browser and the Samsung Instinct browser are designet the same year. The Safari browser does a deasent job but could learn from Firefox. But the Instinct seems to be designet before 2000 where the article mentionet at the top stated

“Making the screen bigger is just the current fashionable red herring to distract you from the plain and simple fact that the vendors can’t get the design right.”

It’s great mobile phones now have bigger screens which makes it easier to surf the internet on mobile phones. But to what use is the bigger screens when designers just don’t understand that we are not interested in their design but content?

In this post “User experience factor 1: state glue” Martijn van Welie descripes the feedback you get from the iPhone when you delete a mail.

I think Martijn van Welie is right on spot when stating that the iPhones feedback “leads to a very satisfying experience”.

it’s particular important with tactile feedback from a device when there is no physical feedback like haptic feedback. On the iPhone it is well done with small “movie clips”.

The user needs to know that something is happening and what it is that is happening when interacting with a device in order to be able to know if the action was the expected one.

The iPhone does it in a way that makes you do it just for fun, show it to your friends or write a interesting post about it. I myself is being found guilty on all counts.

One among many usability rules Steve Krug is famous for is something like, “It doesn’t matter how many times I have to click, as long as each click is a mindless, unambiguous choice.”

I think thats right most of the time. But on the iPhone i have found one of exeption. I enable or disable WiFi whether i need it or not to conserve battery life. And from day one as an iPhone owner i have wondered why it takes so many clicks to do just that. (4 to be exact. Settings – WiFi – enable/disable – Home button. And thats only if you connect to a WiFi you have used before. Otherwise it’s at least 5.)

Am i the only person in the world who don’t want to waste unnecessary juice and who think that 4 clicks to enable/disable WiFi is way to many clicks even though “each click is a mindless, unambiguous choice”?

No i’m not. Luckily there exist an application called WiFiToggle to solve just that “problem”. Additional to a hacked iPhone you need to add “http://repo.ispazio.net” as a source in the Installer. After that you can find WiFiToggle in the Utilities folder. From now on enabling or disabling WiFi is down to 2 clicks. And that really does matter.

En nylig undersøgelse fra Rubicon Consulting viser, at circa 30% af iPhone-ejere går rundt med 2 telefoner (PDF). En naturlig forklaring kunne være, at mange bærer rundt på både en arbejds- og privattelefon. En anden forklaring kunne være, at mange i forvejen har en “FamilyPlan” som de ønsker at bruge når de ringer til familiemedlemmer. En tredje forklaring, og grunden til at jeg bærer rundt på 2 telefoner, er iPhonens mangler.

Selv om iPhonen er min gamle telefon (SE K800i) overlegen på flere punkter, så er der funktioner jeg savner, og har vænnet mig til at bruge:

• Kamera
• Radio
• “Internetmodem” til laptop

Kamera:
iPhonen har et kamera. Men i både funktioner og kvalitet ligger det milevidt bag det kamera der sidder i Sony Ericssons Cyber-shot mobiltelefoner. Især mangler jeg muligheden for at tilpasse farvetemperatur og fokus. Men den generelle billedekvalitet er også bare for dårlig. Jeg har været på flere ferier hvor mon K800i var eneste kamera. Det vil jeg ikke kunne med iPhonen. Billedekvaliteten er for dårlig til feriebilleder.

Radio:
Jeg bruger radioen i min K800i rigtig meget når jeg går til og fra mit studie. Det er blevet en vane at lytte til P1 morgen og eftermiddag og den vane har jeg ikke tænkt at lægge fra mig bare fordi der ikke er radio i iPhonen.

“Internetmodem”:
Fra tid til anden er jeg på farten og væk fra internet. Da er jeg vant til at forbinde minlaptop til min K800i via Bluetooth og på den måde få 3G mobilt internet. iPhonen tillader desværre ikke at oprette forbindelse over Bluetooth til andet end headsets og selv om muligheden var der mangler der 3G.

Uanset disse mangler er jeg meget glad for min iPhone. Nu giver det pludselig mening at tilgå internettet fra sin telefon. Browseren er en “rigtig” browser og skærmen har en størrelse så forstørrelsesglas ikke er nødvendigt. Og derudover hjælper zoom og scroll via touch skærmem med til at det er en god oplevelse og faktisk brugbart.

Russel Beattie, udvikleren af den mobile tjeneste Mowser som er en søgemaskine, der tilpasser websider så de kan læses på små skærme, anser det mobile internet for dødt. Med det mobile internet mener Russel Beattie websider der er 100% tilpasset til mobiltelefoner og som ikke har synlige fællestræk med det internet vi kender fra vores desktopcomputere.

Argumentet for det mobile internet, siger Russel Beattie, var, at der rundt regnet er 3 milliarder mobiltelefoner og når de kommer på internettet vil de langt overgå antallet af computere og derfor vælte trafikken mod mobiltelefonen som den primære enhed til at tilgå internettet. Det vil bare ikke ske, før der kommer bedre mobiltelefoner og “rigtige” browsere.

The problem is that these billions of users *haven’t* gotten on the Internet, and they won’t until the experience is better and access to the web is barrier-free – and that means better devices and “full browsers”. Let’s face it, you really aren’t going to spend any real time or effort browsing the web on your mobile phone unless you’re using Opera Mini, or have a smart phone with a decent browser – as any other option is a waste of time, effort and money. Users recognize this, and have made it very clear they won’t be using the “Mobile Web” as a substitute for better browsers, rather they’ll just stay away completely.

Som argument henviser han til tal fra M-Metrics der viser, at i USA går 85% af iPhoneejere på nettet fra deres mobiltelefon mod 58% smartphoneejere og kun 13% af det samlede mobilmarked. Om de tal så siger noget som helst om, om det er iPhonen i sig selv, der er skyld i det høje tal, eller om det er fordi der automatisk følger fri internet med iPhonen, når man husker at aktivere det “obligatoriske” AT&T-abonnement er en helt anden diskussion.

Jeg tror ikke, at det er én faktor, der er afgørende for, om folk tilgår internettet fra deres mobiltelefon, men at det bestemmes af en række faktorer, som alle er med til at bestemme brugernes samlede user experience af det mobile internet og dermed deres adoption af det. Det kunne blandt andet være faktorer som skærmens størrelse, at man selv skal installere en ordentlig browser, opsætningen af teleudbyderens internetindstillinger på telefonen, tastaturet, uigennemskuelige priser (afregning pr. mb), hastigheden, generel usability på telefonen og så videre.

Men det er en helt tredje diskussion, som jeg forhåbentlig ved meget mere om, når jeg afleverer mit speciale 1 august, som netop handler om brugeroplevelsen af det mobile internet.

Det kan hænde at man bare må blogge. Uanset hvor man befinder sig. Når en mand skal, så skal han sgu, som Erik Clausen siger i Den Store Badedag da han sætter sig til at skide på en avis på køkkengulvet.

Til det formål er der lavet et Wordpress plugin, mobileadmin. Når plugindet er indstalleret og aktiveret får man administrationsdelen i Wordpress i det velkendte iPhone websidelook.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/mobileadmin

Efter min mening er iPhonen med dens qwerty-tastatur langt bedre at skrive på end min gamle telefons 9-taster keyboard. Dog er jeg ikke tilfreds med telefonens autocorrection-funktion, der automatisk foreslår nye ord fra telefonens ordbog hvis den ikke kender det ord man taster.

Autocorrection står i vejen for at jeg kan taste hurtigt. Min konsentration skal fordeles mellem at ramme tasterne og at holde øje med om telefonen foreslår et forkert ord.

Foreslår telefonen et forkert ord er jeg nødt til at fjerne fingrene fra tasterne og føre dem til tekstfeltet i stedet for at fjerne forslaget.

Idéen er jo god og minder om T9 ordbogen på min gamle telefon. Jeg tror forskellen er, at hvor min gamle telefon havde fysiske knapper med der tilhørende taktilt feedback. Det tillader, at jeg ikke kigger på skærmen mens jeg taster. iPhonen har ikke nogen form for taktilt eller “følt” feedback og jeg er derfor nødt til at se på tasterne når jeg skriver.

En lille del af forklaringen er sikkert også om iPhonen foreslår mange rigtige rettelser eller mange forkerte rettelser. Da man skal udføre en handling for at omgå rettelsen giver det meget ekstra arbejde hvis telefonen tit foreslår noget forkert. For mit vedkommende ville det være bedre hvis jeg skulle gøre noget aktivt for at acceptere rettelsen, men då er det jo ikke autocorrection mere, men nærmere en suggest correction i stedet.

Jeg forstår slet ikke at Apple ikke har tilføjet muligheden for at kunne fjerne denne funktion. Så vidt jeg kan læse mig frem til er funktionen til stede i softwaren, men skjult. Heldigvis er der en venlig sjæl der har skrevet et hack, som bringer funktionen frem i indstillingsmenuen og derved gør det muligt at slå autocorrection til og fra i iPhonen, og en anden venlig sjæl, har skrevet en letforståelig guide om, hvordan man indstallerer hacket der giver mulighed for at slå autocorrection fra i iphonen.

7 User Experience Lessons from the iPhone
internal presentation, given in mid January 2007, to introduce our newly formed user experience group to the development team.

Mobile takes the web back to the 90s
Does this mean that mobile internet is effectively 8 years behind the web as we know it today?

Certainly the content that can be delivered is basic. I am sure if we scour the industry we can still find some die-hard HTML coders to build these sites. I am sure designers can be prized away from Flash to build some basic 16 colour designs.

Mobile phone use increases tumor risk
The current study showed, according to an Israel newspaper, that people used mobile phone for more than 22 hours per month faced 50 percent increased risk for a parotid gland tumor.

Why The Mobile Web Had Such A Terrible Start
First attempts by mobile phone manufacturers to mobilize the web were a big disappointment for quite a number of reasons. In the fixed line world the web got an incubation time of at least a decade to grow, to be refined and to be fostered by researchers and students at universities before being used by the public who already had sufficiently capable notebooks, PCs and a reasonably priced connection to the Internet. In the mobile world, things were a lot different when first web browsers appeared on mobile phones around the year 2001.

JupiterResearch Finds Creating Better Browser Alternatives Would Stimulate Mobile Internet Adoption
“Browser alternatives such as widgets or applets, which are mini applications that allow for content to be easily accessed from a home screen or with just a few clicks, can meet consumer demands for quick access to information,” said David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch. “The goal should be to engage the user through ease of operation so that accessing information in this manner will eventually become second nature.”

Nokia sees HD video on cellphones in a few years
Video recording on cellphones is set to reach high definition (HD) quality in a few years’ time, an executive at the world’s top cellphone maker Nokia said on Wednesday.

“It’s coming. Technically, we are a couple of years away,” Nokia’s Chief Technology Officer Tero Ojanpera told Reuters in an interview. “It’s still a few years away.”

Google’s Android targets iPhone power
London’s role is to come up with brilliant new ways to use the internet on a mobile phone. European mobile internet may not be mass market yet, but users here are leagues ahead of their American cousins. Which makes the UK one of the best places to test new products and find software developers who understand the medium.

JupiterResearch Finds Creating Better Browser Alternatives Would Stimulate Mobile Internet Adoption
Overall, 63 percent of cell phone owners are not using cell phones to access such Internet services as search engines or to gather such information as the daily news, which are both popular activities on computers. However, the fact that 37 percent of cell phone owners are accessing some kind of information or services on their cell phone is a clear indicator of demand from cell phone users for more than voice services.

Usability test: Does iPhone match the hype?
Let’s cut to the bottom line: In terms of usability, iPhone blew away its two competitors. Its overall score in the usability tests was 4.6 out of 5. The HTC Touch was a distant second at 3.4, and the Nokia N95 scored 3.2.

“Testers were [typically] about twice as fast doing specific tasks on the iPhone, which is pretty remarkable,” Thornton said.

Phone revolution makes Africa upwardly mobile
“This phone has become my office,” he added, smiling as he held up a Nokia registering a full bar of signal. Mr Gakungi and others like him are helping to drive a wireless revolution that has made Africa the world’s fastest-growing mobile phone market. At the start of 2000, there were eight million subscribers in Africa. According to a report by Informa, a telecoms analyst, there are now more than 100 million mobiles in use on the continent — one for every nine Africans.

35% of U.S. Tweens Own a Mobile Phone, According to Nielsen
According to Nielsen, 5% of tweens access the Internet over their phone each month. While 41% of tween mobile Internet users say they do so while commuting or traveling (to school, for example), mobile content such as the Internet is also a social medium for this audience: 26% of tween mobile Internet users say they access the web while at a friend’s house and 17% say they do so at social events.

The impact of the mobile phone
What was first considered a luxury item is now a necessity in our everyday lives. The mobile phone ranks right up there with the wallet, as items that I can’t leave home without. And if I did, well, I would feel something amiss and it would completely throw my day off.

The mobile phone also lets me do a lot more than make phone calls, play games and take photos. For example, OCBC Bank in Singapore has turned the mobile phone into a two-factor authentication device for Internet banking transactions. Newer mobile phones are also starting to incorporate GPS navigation, and wireless payment is emerging.

Mobile Manufacturers – Obsessed by cool?
I have the dubious pleasure of sitting in on a lot of focus groups with mobile users and I am always surprised at how many users want and need a phone that is robust. For example – many still treasure their Nokia 6310s and go all nostalgic when they talk about its reliability.

Festival for mobile phone films in Japan
Films made entirely on mobile phones are competing in Japan’s First Pocket Film Festival this weekend, with 48 titles in the running for the first prize of 500,000 yen (£2,200).

Ask the IntoMobile Magic 8-Ball – What is the future of mobile phones?
The UI is the future, and manufacturers are starting to realize that fact. Nokia is going with a touch-based S60. Motorola just bought a 50% stake in UIQ. Samsung has Croix. Apple has the iPhone. And therein lies the key to why the iPhone is such a success. The user interface on the iPhone is un-rivaled. Sure, it’s lacking in the hardware department, but Apple will eventually get it together and offer the same hardware specs that we’ve come to expect from high-end phones. But, the UI. Wow, the UI is incredible.

Ny portal giver det mobile overblik
Folkene bag MobStart mener nemlig, at portalen snart vil være sidestykket til Jubii og Yahoo – bare på mobiltelefonen. MobStart fokuserer specielt på hjemmesider, der er tilpasset det mobile internet.

Fuld fart på de mobile portaler
Både Sonofon og TDC jubler over deres respektive portaler, E-go og Fly.
»Inden for det sidste år er antallet af brugere steget med over 70 procent,« siger Peter Berg, der er markedsdirektør hos Sonofon.
Den markante fremgang har bragt E-gos besøgstal op på 192.000 unikke brugere, der skaber 1,5 millioner sidevisninger om måneden.
Hos TDC er der samme begejstring for portalen Fly.
»Vores opfattelse er, at Fly er en af de største mobile portaler. Vi har i øjeblikket 225.000 unikke besøgende om måneden, og vi ser en konstant vækst,« siger Morten Hother Sørensen, der er markedsdirektør i TDC Mobil Norden.

Apple trimmer iPhone til forretningsfolk
Indtil videre er det især inkarnerede Apple-entusiater og gadget-freaks, der har kastet sig over Apple-hittet iPhone. Men nu satser Apple på at udvide kredsen, og lancerer en erhvervsløsning, der skal gøre iPhone til forretningsmandens følgesvend.

Mobiler der stråler mindre
SonyEricsson S500i, SonyEricsson W580 og Samsung SGH-i600 er gode valg, hvis du ønsker en mobiltelefon med lav stråling.

A bank in every pocket?
Leonard Waverman of the London Business School has estimated that an extra ten mobile phones per 100 people in a typical developing country leads to an extra half a percentage point of growth in GDP per person.

As mobile phones have spread, a new economic benefit is coming into view: using them for banking, and so improving access to financial services, not just telecoms networks. Pioneering m-banking projects in the Philippines, Kenya and South Africa show the way. These “branchless” schemes typically allow customers to deposit and withdraw cash through a mobile operator’s airtime-resale agents, and send money to other people via text messages that can be exchanged for cash by visiting an agent.

Mobile Web: So Close Yet So Far
Similarly, surveys by Yankee Group, a Boston research firm, show that only 13 percent of cellphone users in North America use their phones to surf the Web more than once a month, while 70 percent of computer users view Web sites every day.

“The user experience has been a disaster,” says Tony Davis, managing partner of Brightspark, a Toronto venture capital firm that has invested in two mobile Web companies.

Det næste skridt for nettet er at blive mobil
“Det næste skridt for nettet er at blive mobil – det ved alle, og det er derfor næsten banalt at påpege,” siger Nokias vicepræsident Anssi Vanjoki.

Over halvdelen af tiden bruges derimod på at surfe eller chatte over nettet, 16 procent af tiden bruges på multimedier og 14 procent går på kalenderfunktioner og håndtering af aftaler.

Guitar Hero Mobile’ rocks your cell phone hard
Addicts of Activision’s Guitar Hero console game will no longer be confined to fretting their faux guitar in the living room, game room, or basement. Soon they’ll be able to play from their mobile phone.

Apple boosts iPhone CPU clockspeed with iPhone v1.1.2 firmware update
It seems all the updates hidden within the v1.1.2 firmware are more geared towards stability, security, and speed. In this case, the v1.1.2 update boosts your iPhone’s CPU clockspeeds by about 12Mhz and system bus speed by 3Mhz.

Mobile phones are lifeline for the homeless
While we’re on the subject of improving lives with mobile technology, apparently homeless people are also increasing using mobile phones. As a matter of fact, a mobile phone is considered a “critical tool in getting off the streets.” Without a phone number where they can be reached, filling out applications for jobs or housing is often useless for the homeless.

Windows Mobile – it’s a man’s world
A study conducted by Microsoft found that only 14.6% of the Windows Mobile users are women, 85.4% of users being of the male persuasion.

Lag bedre mobiler
Hollywood-produsent Lucas Foster bannet kraftig i kjerka da han på Nokia World-konferransen i Amsterdam krevde bedre mobiler, før film og video på mobilen kan bli noen suksess.

- Mobilene må få et langt bedre brukergrensesnitt en i dag. Det skal være gøy å sitte å utforske og leke med mobilens muligheter, det er det ikke i dag.

iPhone browsing market share demonstrates usability drives use
Net Applications reports that in November 2007, iPhone browsing market share was 0.09% — nearly 0.1% — of all browsers in their sample. Now that may not seem like much until you compare it with the share for all Windows Mobile/Windows CE devices, which only tip the scales at 0.06%. Said another way, the approximately 2.5 million iPhones sold to date are being used about five times more than the nearly 7 million Windows Mobile phones sold over the past six years.

Don’t think this usability matters?

iPhones Take Over the Internet
We’ve always felt that the iPhone’s game-changing feature was its Web browser. Now we have proof: iPhone owners were responsible for nearly one out of every 1,000 Web page views last month. This erases any doubt that the future of mobile devices most certainly includes the Web.

It’s obvious that people have a need for Web access even when they aren’t at their desks or at home or wherever else they have a PC. We think that businesses could make their employees more productive by making sure that the mobile devices they give them have a full-fledged browser. We’re not saying companies should go out and buy everyone an iPhone – although if you do we’d love to hear about it. But presumably, it’s just a matter of time until an iPhone-like browser is a standard feature on mobile devices.

Mobile internet is the next battleground
The mobile internet is finally taking off, and will be an important part of Vodafone’s future. The company’s results last week showed a big jump in revenues from people using data functions such as web-surfing.

Google Pre-Launches New iPhone Interface
If you visit Google.com from an iPhone, you now get a menu of services to choose from – home (search box), Gmail, Calendar, Reader and More (docs, sms, goog-411, news, photos, blogger and notebook). It’s basically all of the core Google services, accessible from a single easy to use menu.

EA makes more money on mobile than on PS3 and PSP games
The latest numbers from Electronic Arts suggest the gaming giant made twice as much money from mobile as from PlayStation 3.

SAP Unveils Its First Software for iPhone
SAP is breaking with precedent by introducing versions of the new software that are compatible with the iPhone ahead of programs for mobile devices businesses traditionally use, such as Research in Motion’s Blackberry, Palm’s Treo and devices that run on software from Microsoft Corp.

“The iPhone has become such a popular thing,” said Bob Stutz, a SAP senior vice president who is responsible for developing customer relationship management software. “Everybody wants the ease of use of the iPhone.”

Kritikere har ellers hævdet, at iPhonen ikke var anvendelig som forretningsmobil. Men det mener SAP altså ikke.

Google Android gets positive early reviews
After downloading and examining Google’s Android software development kit, some software developers gave the platform favourable initial reviews and praised it as a breath of fresh air for an industry that has long been characterised by closed devices and software.

“What you see with platforms like Windows Mobile is that there’s more of a concentration on bringing Windows applications to mobile platforms,” says Evan Prodromou, a writer and programmer who lives in Montreal. “But it seems that what we’re seeing with Android is a ground-up approach to application development… It’s a pretty decent first effort. I’m going to guess that we’ll see a lot more refinement, but it’s a good start.”

Google teaches industry how to be open but closed
Anyone coming new to the mobile industry will immediately notice its love affair with the word ‘open’: Open operating systems; Open access; and of course Open source. Without exception, open is viewed as good and closed is bad, or even evil, depending on who¡¦s doing the evangelising. But the reality is that there’s a tremendous amount of inconsistency in how the word ‘open’ is employed in the wireless industry and it is far from clear-cut that open is always good. It can sometimes be bad.

One ironic, and quite amusing misuse of the word open is in the context of handset operating systems. The likes of Windows Mobile, Symbian and Palm are frequently referred to as open OSes when they’re not open at all. In fact, they’re quite tightly closed. If you don’t believe me, ask Microsoft or Symbian for their platform source code and count the seconds it takes for the laughter to begin.