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Posts on innovation, user experience, research and design
I'm currently a product innovation manager with experience in product management, user-centered design, usability engineering, brand management and visual design.
Note: This is a personal blog containing personal opinions about research, innovations and experiences that I find interesting and informative. It is not associated with my employer in any way, shape or form.
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mobile
Repetitive, bored and urgent
The NYC Usability Professionals Association recently, held the "Google Presents User Experience & Mobile Apps where Google UX designer Leland Rechis described the three user states Google uses to characterize mobile device users:
- Repetitive - Users who are checking for the same piece of information over and over again, like checking the same stock quotes or weather. Google uses cookies to help cater to mobile users who check and recheck the same data points
- Bored - Users who have time on their hands. People on trains or waiting in airports or sitting in cafes. Mobile users in this behavior group look a lot more like casual Web surfers, but mobile phones don't offer the robust user input of a desktop, so the applications have to be tailored.
- Urgent - Users who have to find something specific fast, like the location of a bakery or directions to the airport. Since a lot of these questions are location-aware, Google tries to build location into the mobile versions of these queries.
What I think is interesting about this is the "bored" group. It's neat to see an articulated strategy for delivering content to people just killing time. It used to be that usability and user experience were almost exclusively focused on helping the user accomplish productive tasks. Of course that's still the case but it just goes to show how far the Internet, and by extension web human factors, has been altered by the shift to the Web being a channel for info-tainment.
via kottke (again)
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The reconstitution of place
The contemporary convergence of mobile phone, camera, wireless Internet and satellite communication — the key ingredients of the digital handheld — accelerates the reconstitution of place from real, occupied space to a collage of here and there, past and present. But digital technology’s effects do not only blast us out of place; they also bore us into the sights right in front of us — those in our viewfinder. Our sense of place is augmented by information wired from the World Wide Web. Part of the information comes from media conglomerates. Much of it streams at us from our social networks and online acquaintances. The information allows us to peruse unseen depths of the place we’re in. We have the opportunity to gain a better or different sense of place anywhere we travel within the network’s reach.
Filed under //
augmented reality
mobile
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Super-Rich Media: Time Inc's Magazine App Concept
Time Inc. is exploring how they can port their content to a new tablet format in preparation for the impending slew of tablets hitting the market in 2010. TechCrunch has a couple of articles on it: one is an overview describing this "Manhattan Project" and the other provides videos of the device and a demo. From the writeup, here's some info about the platform/content:
- The demo was shown on an HP table computer with a touchscreen, but it could easily be ported to an iPhone or an Apple iTablet
- The idea is to create something so beautiful and fluid that readers will actually want to pay for it
- Sports scores and other data can be dynamically updated from the Web, or you can share stories and photos via email, Facebook, or Twitter
- Time is considering offering each magazine edition as an "app" with the thinking that people buy apps, so why wouldn't they buy a magazine delivered as an app
I'm not sure about the pricing approach (I personally like the concept of a subscription so I don't have to remember to go buy the next magazine app every month), but I love the the implementation. Tons of pictures, video and real-time data working together seamlessly. While one would expect a demo to be exceptionally clean and polished, if Time is able to deliver an experience like this in production, it represents a very strong foray into this new delivery channel.
With the SI demo in particular, they touch on two areas where I could see the tablet form factor making a lot of sense; providing a strong selling point:
- Fantasy Leagues: They only touch on this briefly, but I could envision SI really capitalizing on the fantasy market. While I'm not a fantasy footballer, a lot of my buddies are and a lot of them take their leagues very seriously. It's easy to imagine Fantasy Football drafts taking place around the country live via tablets or iPhones.Given the popularity of fantasy sports, this could be a big selling point. People take their drafts seriously.
- Gaming: Another interesting angle that is hinted at is the live-broadcast gaming. While the demo only touches on it briefly, the concept sort of reminds me of Moundball, but better (and worse I suppose) because you wouldn't have to be watching the game at a stadium with your buddies to play. You could be anywhere and play with any of your buddies.I could see a nice market for games like that though I'm not sure if that's enough to generate demand in and of itself.
In any case, take a look:
Update: LukeW has a great writeup on the Time Inc. tablet on his blog. Highly recommended.
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Square: Designing a Better Mobile Payment
There's a lot of buzz out there about Square these days, not just because it was started by one of the original twttr folk, Jack Dorsey. Like all innovation and social media observers, I see a lot of very interesting applications come through my Google Reader every day but Square was of particular interest to me. Earlier in my career I worked in a card merchant services product management organization and remember being impressed by the wireless card terminals that enabled people to accept credit card transactions remotely. As passe as that seems now, back then, that was pretty cool. This wireless offering was targeted as somewhat of a niche market - transient or mobile merchants like cab drivers, flea market booth sellers, etc. While there were obvious benefits to the solution (chief among them: being able to accept credit cards as payments and lower interchange rates) there was one key problem. The cost of the equipment and the contract required to use the service. I forget the exact cost, but even today, these devices aren't cheap. However, merchants had few alternatives.
Enter Square. While I'm not personally sold on the *long*-term strategy of a business built around the credit card (because of the emergence of pay-by-phone, Pay with Facebook, etc.) Square has developed a really sharp solution to an immediate need that has plenty of legs for *at least* the next 15 years. In addition to the basic concept of turning a smart phone into a merchant terminal (which is fantastic) there are a lot of other things to like.
- Integration via the headphone jack. Fantastic way to ensure the most smartphone users will be able to adopt.
- Beautiful, digital receipts. I've attached the sample from Square's site. Just fantastic. Lots of information displayed in a clean, readable format. We sort of get inured to the elegance of design sometimes, but really pause and look at that receipt. Now pull out the receipt you got at Starbucks this morning. Compare. Yea, it's pretty impressive.
- Payer photo verification - Nifty and thoughtful fraud prevention tool that shows the image of the card holder at the time of transaction to allow the merchant to compare.
- Contract-free - This is a big one. People don't like contracts. No one wants to get suckered into a commitment with something that may be awful. Square's approach here is spot-on from a user's perspective.
- Baked in loyalty card - I recently posted on the fantastic opportunities that Foursquare will afford small businesses in the loyalty program department. Square is right in the mix here too. From Square's site: "If you frequent a place that accepts Square, we’ll let them know you’re a repeat customer. That 10th cappuccino may be on the house, no paper coffee card required." In addition to being a great standalone option for merchants, I'm sure there could be some great synergies between Foursquare and Square (e.g reduced fees if you use both Square and Foursquare together perhaps?) down the road.
These are just a few of the admirable attributes of Square's offering. I can almost hear the slow-clap applause from mobile merchants everywhere. Now, some images from Square's site:
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