iphone Strengths & Competitive Opportunities Presented by: Scott Weiss Scott.weiss@humanfactors.com 11 th November 2008
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iphone Strengths Tech wizardry Sexy Graphics Engaging Animations Fantastic Application Store 4
Tech Wizardry Flush multi-touch screen Minimal hardware interface UMTS and HSDPA 320 x480 px at 6.3 px/mm, 160 PPI Specifically created for finger interaction or multiple fingers Proximity sensor to switch off the display and touch screen when used near the face Ambient light sensor to adjust brightness Accelerometer to sense and respond to orientation GPS SVG 1.1 (but no SMIL animation) 5
Sexy Graphics 6
Engaging Animations 7
Fantastic Application Store 8
iphone Competitive Opportunities Weak Hardware Input Inconsistent UI Fad Factor Dual-handed Operation only Lack of QWERTY Keypad Slow, Unreliable GPS No Removable Battery Proprietary Music System Crashes Frequently NO Java or FlashLite Support 9
Weak Hardware Input No dedicated Send, End, or Back buttons Warm weather use only: Cannot use capacitive touch screen with gloves Poor texting experience 10
Inconsistent UI Back button functionality inconsistently available Contact editibility only occasionally available Moving from section to section awkward 11
Fad Factor There is a halo effect for iphone for a month or two After the halo period, touch UI is less fun: Texting is tedious Stretching and pinching maps requires two hands and gets boring Finding a contact is a nightmare Processor starts to feel slow almost immediately Cutesy animations hide the underlying usability problems only for so long Phone only works with two hands GPS is slow and not universally available NO removable battery 12
Lack of Buttons, or a QWERTY Keypad SureType FasTap 13
Conclusions: How to Stay Competitive For 2009, touch UI s will still be popular Include sexy graphics and animations in your UI Make transitions meaningful and attractive Include subtle, enjoyable sound effects Features that will remain hot: Easy to use Application Store GPS and location-aware applications Easy photo storage and fun sharing mechanism Easy music storage and playback Excellent web browsing 14
How to Zoom Ahead of iphone For 2010, users will miss buttons, either 12-digits or QWERTY Superior camera (5MP or more, with good optics) Dedicated Back button Cut & Paste functionality Optimise user journeys: Fast application switching Fast searching through contacts Dedicated scrolling feature or a trackball Enable adding contacts to a calendar entry and proper lookup to call, email, SMS, etc. Enable editing a contact whenever it is visible Don t always assume the user is wrong in text entry: Learn from user text entry corrections 15
Thank you. Human Factors International 16 Albemarle Street London W1S 4HW Phone: +44.207.290.3430 HFI Offices: Baltimore, MD, USA Bangalore, India Boston, MA, USA Fairfield, IA, USA Hamburg, Germany London, UK Mumbai, India Pondicherry, India San Francisco, CA, USA Singapore Contact: Scott Weiss, Executive Director, London Scott.Weiss@humanfactors.com +44 (0) 207.290.3432