All posts about
Mobile design

Why Mobile UX Is More Than Users On-The-Go

Added on 25 July 2011 Peter Bogaards
I love the phrase “Jakob Nielsen has long been at the forefront of information architecture innovation.”

“It’s a common misconception that UX for mobile is all about creating something for users on-the-go – users with little time, checking in on their mobile on the train or at the bus stop waiting for a bus. But today’s mobile user is so much more than that, with the rise in tablet usage further contributing to the growth and variety of their needs. No longer can UX practitioners expect to satisfy the mobile user with added pinch-and-zoom functionality or bigger call-to-action buttons; these things are expected, and don’t improve UX. So as mobile use continues to grow in popularity and capability, how can we better appeal to a mobile audience?”

(Laura Hampton ~ UX Magazine)

Web apps v native apps v mobile sites: a guide

Added on 21 June 2011 Peter Bogaards
“In two year’s time mobile phones will overtake computers as the most popular device for web browsing, John Barnes, managing director of digital and tech at Incisive Media, told delegates at the Mobile Media Strategies day. Users expect a seamless experience whether they are accessing websites on a Android device, a BlackBerry, iPhone, tablet, laptop or desktop.”

(Sarah Marshall ~ Journalism)

Where are the Mobile First Responsive Web Designs?

Added on 8 June 2011 Peter Bogaards
“Mobile first design is primarily about the starting point. After a site is complete, how can I tell whether or not the developer started from the mobile and built up to desktop or started from the desktop and whittled down to mobile? I didn’t want to have to tear apart over a hundred sites in the Mediaqueri.es gallery to find the handful of mobile first sites. I needed some way to narrow the number of sites I cared about to some sort of manageable number.”

(Jason Grigsby a.k.a. @grigs ~ Cloud Four)
courtesy of lukew

Responsive Web Design or Separate Mobile Site?

Added on 26 May 2011 Peter Bogaards
“Religion, nationalism, and sports-team rivalries? They can’t compare to the passion of a nerd’s technical conviction. And so kerfuffles result. Well-intentioned zeal leads to distracting dustups. Alas, complex problems rarely resolve themselves into neat black-and-white principles. The only principle that ever seems reliable is drearily unsatisfying: ‘it depends’. In the mobile world, we have the persistent and circular debate over whether the mobile web should be powered by the very same sites and webpages that render the desktop web.”

(Josh Clark a.k.a. @globalmoxie ~ Global Moxie)

Three Layers of Mobile User Experience

Added on 24 May 2011 Peter Bogaards
“In comparison to traditional cell phones, smartphones do a much better job of letting users stay connected on the go. They have bigger screens and higher-resolution displays, and their industrial design is more fashionable. Common features of smartphones include, but are not limited to touchscreens, high-megapixel cameras, global positioning systems (GPSs), and many gaming and entertainment options. Smartphones enable people to engage in a wide range of activities, including communication, entertainment, personal-information management, and social networking.”

(Shanshan Ma a.k.a. @shanshanma ~ UXmatters)

Imaginary Interfaces

Added on 24 May 2011 Peter Bogaards
“Screen-less wearable devices allow for the smallest form factor and thus the maximum mobility. However, current screen-less devices only support buttons and gestures. Pointing is not supported because users have nothing to point at. However, we challenge the notion that spatial interaction requires a screen and propose a method for bringing spatial interaction to screen-less devices. We present Imaginary Interfaces, screen-less devices that allow users to perform spatial interaction with empty hands and without visual feedback. Unlike projection-based solutions, such as Sixth Sense, all visual ‘feedback’ takes place in the user’s imagination. Users define the origin of an imaginary space by forming an L-shaped coordinate cross with their non-dominant hand. Users then point and draw with their dominant hand in the resulting space.”

(Hasso Plattner Institute)

Designing Maps Applications for Usability on Mobile and Desktop

Added on 23 May 2011 Peter Bogaards
“Maps API applications are accessed on desktop and mobile devices of many shapes and sizes. Each application has unique goals for conveying information effectively and for facilitating user interactions. Learn how to improve user experience by optimizing the presentation of your map and data and by thoughtful user interface design.”

(Luke Mahé, Jez Fletcher, Justin O’Beirne ~ Google I/O sessions)

Mobile Context Revisited

Added on 19 May 2011 Peter Bogaards
“Mobile context has been overblown. It is device capabilities and constraints plus the fact that mobile devices are with you anywhere and everywhere. But those factors are important enough that they force us to rethink Web design.”

(Luke Wroblewski a.k.a. @lukew)

Mobile Design and Development: Practical Concepts and Techniques for Creating Mobile Sites and Web Apps

Added on 29 March 2011 Peter Bogaards
Free for anyone to read – “In the book I share my advice and experience working with publishing content to mobile devices from the past decade and discuss what I think will be important in the next decade of mobile and the web. Even though mobile is one of the fastest growing industries on the planet with things changing every day, I spent a considerable amount of thought and time to try to fill the book with timeless advice that isn’t specific to a particular platform or en vogue device.” (Brian Fling)

Designing For The Future Web

Added on 29 March 2011 Peter Bogaards
“In this article, we’ll look at what the future Web might look like and how we can adapt our current skills to this new environment, as well as how to create fluid websites that are built around a consistent core and that adapt to the limitations and features of the device on which they are viewed. We’ll also look at how our conceptual approach to designing websites should evolve: designing from the simplest design upwards, and not from the richest website down.” (James Gardner ~ Smashing Magazine)

Considerations for Mobile Design (Parts 1-3)

Added on 23 March 2011 Peter Bogaards
“The three parts of the series were split into the following segments: Part 1: Speed (The introduction to the series identified constraints in mobile design imposed by bandwidth, download and upload speeds.); Part 2: Dimensions (This section attempts to establish common limitations across groups of devices based on resolution and physical size. In addition, solutions for serving specific styles to groups of devices are offered, and analyzed.); Part 3: Behavior (Perhaps the least complete of the sections, this article attempts to show how users behave differently on handheld devices compared to desktops. At the same time, this area probably interests me most, but I believe much more testing will need to be done in regard to how gesture-based interfaces can be used in an acceptable way before the ideas explored here become more relevant.)” (David Leggett)

Ten Ways Mobile Sites Are Different From Desktop Web Sites

Added on 21 March 2011 Peter Bogaards
“Many believe the basic principles and guidelines that are applicable in the design of Web sites should still apply when designing for mobile platforms. After all, Web design has evolved from basic, text-based HTML pages into today’s Web standards. So, we might expect that mobile sites that follow the same guidelines could easily reach the same level of success with users that desktop Web sites have achieved.” (Shanshan Ma ~ UXmatters)

App Madness & The Open Web

Added on 9 March 2011 Peter Bogaards
“Web content is publishing: we’ve been saying it for awhile now, and it’s starting to sink in. And if everyone is a publisher, then we—content strategists and other people who specialize in content work—should be able to advise our clients on their publishing plans, or at least those that cross into the online world. We’ve done so before, in the long push to demonstrate that the web isn’t the same as print, and that dumping print content into a web page serves neither user nor publisher. But in the last two years, the online publishing landscape has undergone a major change, both in perception and reality.” (Clinton Forry ~ Confab 2011 blog)