Off-Deck Boston: Panel discussion on the importance of good user experience on the mobile web

This was a very interesting panel discussion at Off-Deck in Boston, about the importance of good user experience on the mobile web and how it could be improved.

Panel topic: Creating a Richer Off-Deck Experience: Is Emulating the Web the Best Way to Create a Pleasing User Experience and Drive Uptake?

Moderator: Adam Zewel, Chief Collaboration Officer, INmobile.org

Panelists:
Barbara Ballard, Founder and President, Little Springs Design
Nora Goodman, Finally! TV
Marcus Ladwig, COO, Peperoni
Paul D. Smith, Founder and CEO, mPulse Media
Scott Weiss, Executive Director, EMEA, Human Factors International

Key points?

Good user experience is essential to attracting more people to use the mobile web rather than the online web. To make the user experience better, the mobile web needs to be nicer place for users to be.

This should be achieved by off-deck companies and social networkers encouraging and educating users to behave in a civil manner when on-line. This is especially important considering the large audience of teenagers, and the growing number of even younger users who are now very tech-savvy.

Users and content providers alike need to be taught to understand that the mobile web is not the same as the online web, and cannot be treated the same way.

The discussion in more detail:

Adam (moderator): I’d like to start by asking you to talk about one thing that you’ld like to see, or one thing that you’re working on that could help improve user experience?

BB: Little Springs Design helps companies from app providers and web providers through to content deliverers make their content more “delightful” – that’s our buzzword of the year. Our “one thing” is that we are building a mobile community of companies based in the mobile space. The community is based around best practices for applications and websites that everyone can use right now to help boost user experience.

PS: mPulse– our one thing is that we power a bunch of mobile widgets, meaning from a developer perspectivewe make it very easy to insert social networking features into mobile pages. You don’t need to build social aspects from scratch, you can add discrete units to your content. Our business is socialising mobile sites.

SW: Human Factors International is the worlds largest user experience company. The one thing we’d really like to see happen to help user experience is to properly iterate design with usability testing in between mobile internetupgrades. We’d like to see new designs put in front of an audience, and watch them struggle with it. The final product could be hugely improved based on that.

NG: One thing? We need guidance to help user experience, the guidance of the behaviour of the mobile user. Because of the online Internet, we have misguided the general user regarding what kind of behaviour is acceptable. We need to change that for new “digital kids” coming into the mobile space.

ML: We empower mobile social networkers. We’veworked for carriers to supply mobile social components to existing online networks. That’s where we come from. Two different worlds, mobile and online are converging. The one thing I wouldlike to see is to change people’s perspectives on the mobile web, it’s NOT the same as online. Users experience would be improved if they stopped trying to treat them the same.

Adam (moderator) to ML: I asked Justin from Mocospace how they gained their subscribers. He said it’s literally been word of mouth. How has user acquisition happened in Germany?

ML: I somewhat agree with Justin. If you have a good user experience, people will introduce one other to your site without you having to push them. It’s all about user service. It’s also a factor of time, as we’ve been operating since 2001. I also believe that if you really push people into these services then they’ll visit once and wont come back. What we’ve seen is that the most valuable users are those who’ve recommended each other.

Adam (moderator) to PS: Your product offers TV watchers social networking tools while watching their shows. Couch potatoes could really benefit from this.

PS: Our widgets are used in a lot of different ways. Some people use them sitting at home on the couch watching regular TV. We concentrate on using the mobile device as PART of that experience, using the mobile to communicate with others who are watching the same programme. We agree with the idea that the mobile device is your remote control for the real world… it’s the interactive part of the TV experience.

Adam (moderator) to BS: Is there anything for couch potatoes in your products?

BS:mPulse is not the only company working on multiple screen design. We’ve got a deal with a Danish broadcasting system which has sent out an app to 8 – 12 year olds to interact with a kids TV show going out live. As an example, ESPN gets more use out of their mobile platform than their Internet site during games. We’re seeing people getting more and more use out of their mobile – I know it’s almost a cliché at this point, but it’s the one thing that’s with you all the time, and we need to integrate it with other services, like television, in order to give users the best experience. I guess “not designing in a silo” would be the short version!

Adam (moderator) to NG: Give us the other side of the video world. You mention in your opening comments “guiding” the user. Isn’t the ultimate goal to enable a 5 year old to turn this on and use it with no guidance?

NG: Sure! They can do that already! But I’m speaking of behaviours, society, civilization. I’m talking people being NICE people on the mobile web. For example, I’m all for nudity, but it’s important to keep it away from kids and teens, to keep it somewhere appropriate. On the Internet we went away from civil norms and niceties. What we want is a wonderful global generation, not degenerates. So when I speak of guidance, I speak of guiding them as humans in our global world.

ML:I agree with that. People need guidance to understand mobile markets on a global level. For some markets it’s important that you have a good online website to interact with your mobile site. In some countries it’s not important at all. Indian users, for example, don’t have access to the online internet. For them it’s a completely different approach, so we have to take audiences into account who don’t know how to use this kind of service. These people exclusively use their mobile phone, and they need to learn how to interact with online community through that.

Adam (moderator): Let’s get back to video for a second, and the specific case of a user trying to watch TV on their phone. Is it still a terrible experience? Is it getting better for users?

ML: Some operators are video friendly, some aren’t. For us it’s really been a pain, and just a side game of what we’re originally doing.

NG: And Finally! TV we have a complete understanding of this area. What we’ve deduced is that we agree with the carriers – three minutes per video, that’s enough. Video on your mobile is a very personal experience. You don’t have 30 to 45 minutes to watch an old film. You have TWO minutes but you still want great story, great information. We only have a specific short amount of time, so you try to make the absolute most out of it, and that’s the best way to better user experience.

PS: We’re working with some markets, particularly South Africa, where the mobile phone is the only screen they have to watch. These are places where there’s no TV in the house, sometimes no electricity, where they charge their phone by handcrank. They would happily watch a video longer than 2 minutes long. Mobile TV may be less exciting to us in the West than it is to them.

BB:This area has changed hugely over the last few years. These days I’m watching 5 year olds watch entire 20 minute Youtube clips on their uncles iPods, or people on trains watching TV shows all the way through. There are still design issues, like delays and gaps in streaming media. But this is the first ear I’m really seeing people expand into media with longer playing time. This will lead to power management coming back to bite us. It’s one of the reasons the iPod battery is such an issue.

NG: I think that if you’re short on time, if you can download your video and watch it later, it’s a better experience. It’s one of the beautiful parts about off-deck, that you can download an entire 20 minute show when you have the time.