User Interface Design: Making

Wireless Applications easy to use

The number of available WML pages is growing at an
extraordinary pace
In January 2000 approximately 25000 WML pages were
available, and by September 2000 this number had grown to
4.4 million
So the end users have many choices to find the information
they want.
They choose among other things, that they find easy to use.
WML- based web sites provide usage sensitive services
If customers find it too difficult to use , they can readily to find
user friendly site.
Usable products and services can achieve an 80 percent
increase in revenue because usability influences customer
buying decisions
Web site Design: Computer
Terminals versus mobile terminals
User interface design for display on a computer terminal
is very different from for display on a mobile terminal for
several reasons:
The device is different
The network is different
The user is different
The device is different Websites are designed to be
shown on desktop computers that have highly capable
displays
These computer monitors can display millions of colors
1600 pixels wide by 1200 pixels high
Websites have highly capable input devices (such as
mouse or track ball) which enable any group of pixels on
the web page and select them.
WAP designed for use wide variety of mobile
terminals, from pagers to PDAs
Some handsets have text only displays 4 lines
and 12 character per line
Mobile terminals are less capable with pointing
devices

The network is different- web sites designed
with an internet connection speed from 28.8
kilobits/sec to more than 1 megabit/sec
Mobile data speed from 100 bits /sec to 14.4
kilobits /sec
The user is different- mobile user may not
have desk top computing experience
Applications need to enable user to
complete the tasks quickly and efficiently
The interface should be different- designing
applications for display on a mobile terminal
is very different from computer terminals
Websites cannot carried directly from
internet to mobile
The normal implementation of a WAP scenario
looks like this

Designing a usable WAP site
Usability has many aspects- refers to how easy
to learn the user interface by the user
Refers to how efficient, flexible, and powerful the
user interface is to use for expert users
Human factor- is a discipline dedicated to
improving the many components that define
usability
Human factors professionals design products
that people use and the environments
Usability is a fundamental feature of any mobile
internet service

Designing usability early into the process
requires at least two things:
An overall development process that is
focused on the end user and employs
structured usability techniques
Knowledge and application of known user
interface design principles and guidelines
Easy to use sites will aid in attracting and
keeping customers
Structured usability methods
The following characteristics of user interface can
signal problems with usability:
designed by software people, not human-
computer interaction specialists
developed by strict top down, functional
decomposition
not developed to meet written, measurable usability
specification
not prototyped as it was being developed
not developed means of an iterative refinement
process .
not empirically evaluated
The same characteristics apply to almost all
user interfaces, including WAP user
interfaces
Designing and developing internet services
is a fast moving business
Service providers that constantly evaluate
their applications, adapt to the trends.
A far easier and faster technique is to adapt
your service to make it more usable in the
design or prototype stages.


The Design Team
A multidisciplinary team should be established to
handle the design of the mobile internet
application.
No one individual or department will have the
necessary skills to design a usable interface.
The design team should include members with
skills such as development, writing, human
factors, usability assessment, visual design, task
analysis, and business processes.
It should also include representative users.
These users will help maintain a user centered
design focus

The design process



The design process design process
contain a number of phases
Phase 1. Define
Phase 2. Design
Phase 3. Prototype
Phase 4. Test
Phase 5: Iterative
Phase 1: Define
In this phase, the service is defined, and
the requirement are gathered.
Service definition gathering design
affecting pieces of information
The design affecting pieces of information
include following items
User profile
Task analysis
Platform capabilities and constraints
For designing WML- based services
User profile know your user more
valuable and easier to use for the target
population
A user profile is a description of the target
population couched in terms of the
characteristics
Creating the profile involves gathering
data about the user skills, knowledge, and
background
Partial user Profile Data summary



Users of the mobile Internet tend to share several
Characteristics:
They are unlikely to have training on your service
so keep your application intuitive (sensitive)-aware
They are impatient- so enable value to come out as
quickly as possible
Most buy phones for phone calls- so do not expect
them to be adapt at using mobile internet services
They are busy doing other things-so do not expect
them to spend time for learning how to use your
application
They will forgot or avoid complex navigation - so
keep your navigation scheme simple
Task Analysis how users perform tasks that
are relevant to the application u are designing
It involves understanding which methods are
used, why they are important, how the information
flows, what the user does, and what can be
automated
The effective task analysis is carried out by
watching users perform those tasks that are
relevant to your application and documenting
what they do.
Alternatively, customer interviews, focus groups,
surveys, and so on can be used.
Some questions that should be answered
through a task analysis include the
following
What tasks do users perform?
What tasks are most critical?
What steps are taken to perform tasks?
What are users goals for performing tasks?
How frequently do users perform tasks?
What tools are used to complete tasks?
What output is generated from user tasks?
Phase 2: Design
Mobile internet is very different from the wired
Internet. The device is different, the network is
different, and the users are different.
Application Design Goals - Designers of
successful wireless applications will break away
from those wire line perceptions:
People use browsers to browse, or casually search
the Internet for information
Finding value requires effort, takes time and us
usually impersonal (unfriendly)
Content is broadly scoped and often static
People expect unlimited access and free content
Be targeted valuable information to a
wireless user
Be fast - quickly find the information
Be personal
Be simple
Be urgent
Be timely
Adapt to the way people work
Use the web to do your users work for
them
Guide users to the appropriate content-
menus should take the form of a hierarchical,
branching tree structure
With each Menu level, menu items can be
organized in several ways:
Alphabetically
Temporally
According to the magnitude
(small,medium,large)
Consistently (if the items appear in multiple
places, keep the order the same)
According to frequency of use
Personalize your Application customizes the
application for the end user
Know Your User Use the information collected
in the definition phase about your target
audience to accomplish the following goals:
Target the information you present
Adapt your application to the way your customers
work
Present information that is relevant to a mobile user
Reduce key strokes- every key click reduces
potential user number base of an application by
50 percent
The following methods can be used to reduce
keystrokes:
Personalize your application
Provide value at every level

Optimize navigation to the most important content
Keep the content targeted
Allow users to select from lists
Take users directly to the information
Generate and test multiple competing designs-
generate several designs and then evaluate them with
end users
The most effective design combines two or more competing
designs
Reduce screen clutter (confusion, disorder)
Follow known design guidelines
Transcoders to automatically convert HTML-based
Web sites to WML-based web sites
Phase 3: Prototype
Prototypes serve many important functions and
are the critical part of the development process
They provide an effective tool for
communicating design
Also enable designers to better visualize
design, task flow.

Phase 4: Test
To find out before release whether your
customers can actually use your application
Usability testing involves giving your application
to representative users
Usability test process can take place in
instrumented laboratories with hidden cameras,
one way mirrors, intercom systems, observation
rooms and sophisticated recording equipment
Allow the users to perform tasks on their own.
Avoid hints or help
Try to provide only general hints finally give full
guideline
Phase 5:Iterate
An iteration refers to Refinement of the
services definition and design, resulting in
an updated prototype and a subsequent
usability test to identify new issues
Iterative design enables testing to occur
different stages
User Interface Design Guidelines
Guidelines for wide range of user interfaces, including
WML-based user interfaces
General design Guide lines-Top 10 guidelines by
Lund(1997)
1. Know thy user , and YOU are not thy user-
reiterates the important of understanding the user
It appears simple on the surface, but in practice it is
difficult to implement
Allow the users to watch interviews of the users and
observe them at work
Designers should maintain an early and continual
focus on the users.
As developer of a product , you have more knowledge
about the system, its design, and the subject matter to
be an average user
Focus on end users rather than on yourself and the
members of your company.

2. Things that look the same should act the same. Consistency,
consistency, consistency user to carry knowledge about how your
interface works from one part of the system to another, so reducing
how much users must learn to use your system easily and effectively
3. The information for the decision needs to be there when the
decision is made provide users with all of the relevant information
you have to aid them in making the decisions required by your system
4. Prevent errors when possible. When it is not possible to prevent
errors, error messages should actually mean something to the
user and tell him or her how to fix the problem
5. Everyone makes mistakes, so every mistake should be fixable
allow users to recover from errors
6. Dont overload the users buffers - Minimize the need for a
mighty(powerful) memory
7. Keep it simple
8. Every action should have a reaction.
9. The user should always know what is happening the user should
always know what the system is doing
- if the system requires a long time to complete a task, it should provide
status messages to the user
10. The more you do something, the easier it should be to do your
interface should be easy to remember


Variability of WAP Devices supports to wide
variety of devices
Wap devices have much smaller displays, less
capable input devices, and relatively limited cpu
memory
Also operate over a network with less
connection stability, and less predictable
(expected) availability WAP devices classified
into 3 categories:
Two-way pagers limited graphics capabilities,
limited cpu & memory
Phones- text based display, limited display and
memory
Personal digital assistants support text and graphics
improved input mechanism-keyboard, pointer

Variability of WAP Browsers WML gives browsers a great deal of flexibility


WML design Guidelines
1. Allow the users to complete their tasks quickly
2. Keep your application as simple as possible
3. Whenever possible, avoid requiring users to enter text
4. Reduce keystrokes
5. Design for smaller phones; there will be more of them, and
they are among the most constrained
6. Avoid unwrapped lines
7. Do not expect the browser menu on devices with phone.com
browsers to be easy to use
8. Avoid complicated screens
9. If a list constrains (restrict) more than two or three items,
ensure that it is obvious to the user that scrolling is required
10. Allow users full control over items that they receive via push
notification
11. If a card is referenced by or contains a menu , consider
adding a title that informs the user where they are within
your application
12. For searching be permissive with user entered text
13. For searching give users access to full results and provide
a means for narrowing a large result list
14. Provide help for all application screens and in a step wise
fashion