Hide Notes 

Slide 1: How people really use the iPhone October, 2008 Bill Westerman, Principal
Slide 2: Who is Create with Context? We are a strategic design and research firm focused on web, mobile, desktop, and consumer electronics applications We help companies with complex, strategic innovation projects: reinventing existing digital products, inventing entirely new digital products, and bridging the gap between physical products and the digital world      Consumer and business-to-business behaviors Ecommerce and social commerce Social media and communities Internationalization and multi-cultural experiences Multiplatform products (such as consumer electronics+web+ecommerce) Clients range from the Fortune 500 to technology startups Founded 2005, with headquarters in Santa Clara, California Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 3: What we’ll talk about today: Our research How people really use the iPhone Purchasing applications Eight rules of thumb Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 4: Our research Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 5: Research goals Understand how people interact with the iPhone platform What works, what doesn’t work, and why? Are there mismatches between expectations and platform? Where are there usability and/or usefulness issues? Where does the iPhone UI excel, and where doesn’t it? Observe how the mass market - not the experts - uses the iPhone Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 6: Research approach and structure Combination of in-lab and expert heuristic evaluation Interviewed blend participants at our Santa Clara research lab  People who currently own iPhones  People who have hands-on knoweldge of the iPhone, but do not own one  People who had never touched an iPhone Research focus on older, non-trendy demographic  Ages ranging from 30-55  Based on previous research, this target market has disposable income and purchases technology for self-consumption Participant session structure  Funnel approach, beginning with broad interview  Followed by specific tasks and workflows Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 7: How people really use the iPhone Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 8: How people really use the iPhone As iPhone developers, it’s tempting to believe that everyone knows how to use all of the iPhone applications and interactions In our research, however, we found that take-up of interactions - even when these were consistent across applications - was often quite slow And even ‘expert’ users were not aware of the ins-and-outs of every interaction for example, our ‘expert’ participants didn’t know the two-finger single tap to zoom out on Google Maps Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 9: Browsing the New York Times website Placement of text box mirrors the desktop browser, suggesting that URLs go here Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 10: Browsing the New York Times website None of the novice users understood the use of the (X) button Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 11: Browsing the New York Times website And some novices thought it was the Go button like in early IE Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 12: Browsing the New York Times website Users quickly figured out that they could swipe to scroll, in part due to clipped lines Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 13: Browsing the New York Times website “The magnifying glass took me out of the (New York Times) and into Google.” However, when they needed to zoom, users became confused “There’s a book here. Does that mean you can read?” Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 14: Browsing the New York Times website Definitely not what was expected “I keep thinking the plus sign is to make it larger” Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 15: Browsing the New York Times website But this wasn’t what they expected to see Some felt this icon would zoom them out to the entire page Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 16: Setting an alarm All users quickly found the Alarm button Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 17: Setting an alarm In this instance, the (+) was easy to find The spinning dials were relatively intuitive for all users However, some novices began their swipes outside of the widget Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 18: Setting an alarm And then deleting is visually highlighted, but not editing When asked to change an alarm, many users tapped on the time, instead of Edit Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 19: Creating a calendar entry Most users first hit the right arrow to get to November Although several tried to swipe horizontally Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 20: Creating a calendar entry When they could have pressed the (+) right at the beginning And then they selected the first of the month Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 21: Finding the current location on the map 100% of participants found the crosshairs Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 22: Searching for a Starbucks Users guessed that the highlighted shop was the closest, but were not sure When Address Book entries appeared, some felt they had ‘entered the wrong mode’ “I guess it's this one, but I’m not sure if that's why one of them has a pop-up balloon“ Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 23: Searching for a Starbucks One participant felt that the blue arrow itself pointed to the location of the Starbucks Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 24: Seeing a satellite image Novices zoomed in by tapping; experts by ‘unpinching’ Users chose this button out of trial and error, not visual affordance One user exited Maps twice trying to get back to Map view, because forgot about this icon Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 25: Finding a video on YouTube However, many hit the blue arrow, rather than the video itself All participants quickly gravitated to Search Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 26: Finding a video on YouTube When landing on this page, participants tapped the video thumbnail All participants were comfortable with the display auto-rotating Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 27: Playing Air Hockey Real-world affordances make it possible to play immediately, with no instructions needed Direct, 1:1 manipulation brought a smile to every participants’ face Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 28: Koi Pond Direct, immediate feedback to exploratory manipulation worked well to engage users However, (i) button disappears, leaving users to wonder how to configure application Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 29: Koi Pond Most users picked up on direct, real-time display of changes to settings Most tapped the water to close the drawer, but one ‘pushed’ it to the bottom to close However, one said “I was expecting more instant feedback” Lack of strong highlighting caused confusion as to which options were selected Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 30: Playing Labyrinth Level selection was difficult as users had to click on this icon rather than the text “There’s no real way to see how to choose the level pack.” Real-world, direct manipulation was easy for all users to pick up Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 31: Purchasing applications Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 32: Purchasing applications We also investigated participant attitudes and behaviors surrounding the purchase of applications through the on-phone iPhone App Store Attitudes towards ratings and reviews closely mirrored those seen in research we have performed for desktop browser-based ecommerce Participants provided insights into what’s considered - at first glance - a ‘good’ or ‘trustworthy’ application Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 33: Find and purchase a To Do application Clipped icon and stars helped users see that the list was scrollable All participants quickly gravitated to Search Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 34: Icon design Initial perception of application quality is largely influenced by icon design “Nice and crisp [icon]… does have a big impact on my actually going to look at what that is.” “If it was a poorlydesigned icon, I'd go right past.” “Bright red feels like it's saying ‘error, don't take this one’.” “I also like vibrant colors … a hi-res icon” Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 35: Application names For some users, catchy names get their attention But when looking to launch an app, simple names were found more quickly Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 36: Star ratings Star ratings can influence purchases, but are ‘taken with a grain of salt’ “I’ll still give it the benefit of the doubt [if it has a bad review].” “If a friend of mine liked it, I would try it [even though it had negative reviews.]” The reviews … I will go in and check them out, I won’t get swayed by the stars … Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 37: Star ratings The reviews … I will go in and check them out, I won’t get swayed by the stars … Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 38: Application pricing “$4.99 is reasonable” “Seems reasonable” “Would be a good price, although I’d be more willing to pay that for something like Quicken than for a memo pad.” “It’s not bad … I'll do research to see if I should buy it.“ “That seems pretty inexpensive. If it was something I wanted badly enough to go looking for it, I wouldn't be hesitant to [buy it].” $4.99 Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 39: Application pricing “I'd wonder what it was, does it really have that much value to me? … Anything sub-$5 may not be a money-making enterprise, or has malware.” “I usually look at the apps that are Free or cost around $0.99 because I've gotten to used to the iTunes store (for music).” “Very good, very easy to buy. $0.99 means it’s been around a long time, there’s a promotion going on, or it’s not a complex app.” “Not a huge difference (from $4.99)” $0.99 Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 40: Application pricing “Seems reasonable to me … for a World Clock widget with timezones, I'd pay that.” “Not a lot of money … would not be expensive, considering I’m doing it from an iPhone that costs hundreds of dollars.” $14.99 “There's so much that's free … $14.99 seems like an awful lot to pay. That's how much we used to pay for kids' software on the PC.” “I'd do extensive research, but I'd buy it. If [turnby-turn GPS] was $50, I'd buy it right away.” “If you can get a PS3 XBOX game for $30-40, then $15-20 seems expensive for this platform.” Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 41: Application pricing "Free trials, I love those." “If it's $4.99 and they don't have a trial version, I'd say ‘forget it.’ I would not blindly pay for it, even if it did get a good review.” Free demo “I want a demo. I liked [Blue Skies Light] enough to buy the full version.” “I'd like to get the real app with a timeout. Light versus full creates confusion - are you getting all the features in the light version?” “If it worked out for me, I'd purchase whatever it was once the free one expired.” Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 42: Application safety In many research studies we have done, users are especially wary of installing applications from third parties  Concerned about viruses  Worried about recurring surcharges and SMS spam  Don’t entirely trust the application provider (download website) These concerns were repeated among novice users  “[Worried about] breaking it temporarily, because I depend so much on my phone … I would think twice about apps I’m downloading.”  “If apps are not well-known to me, I wouldn’t do it. I've done things in the past years that have spammed my whole list of friends, things like that.”  “There’s a security concern when you download anything.” Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 43: Application safety Although advanced users largely trusted that Apple had vetted things in the App Store, they still felt that a bad app could access or damage iPhone data “Apple has made [installing applications] so painfully straightforward, [that] I'm not actually quite sure what's going on. I'd like warning to know when the app is touching phone data.” “If there's just one review and it's a location-based thing, I'll wait. But if it has 300 reviews then I'll pretty much take their word for it.” “if it has 300 reviews then I'll pretty much take their word for it.” Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 44: Eight rules of thumb Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 45: 1. Take advantage of learned behaviors Users (especially novices) were most successful when they could transfer a specific behavior from one application to the next Make sure to follow both the recommended UI guidelines as well as any undocumented (but de-facto) cues in the built-in applications Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 46: 1. Take advantage of learned behaviors Search boxes at the top of the screen Search boxes at the top of the screen Search boxes at the top of the screen Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 47: 1. Take advantage of learned behaviors Major areas of functionality across the bottom Major areas of functionality across the bottom Major areas of functionality across the bottom Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 48: 2. Avoid interaction inconsistencies While the UI guidelines are fairly consistent regarding how the various interactions work, there areas of conceptual inconsistencies For instance, most things in the interface can be directly manipulated by tapping; however, for others users need to first tap the Edit button Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 49: 2. Avoid interaction inconsistencies Blue arrow to see details Blue arrow to see details Gray arrow to see details? Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 50: 2. Avoid interaction inconsistencies (+) to create a new calendar entry (+) to create a new world clock Create a new bookmark … different icon, different location? Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 51: 2. Avoid interaction inconsistencies Upper-left: Continue this activity, go down a level Upper-left: Go back from here, pop up a level Upper-left: Cancel this activity, pop up a level Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 52: 2. Avoid interaction inconsistencies Tap Edit first, then interact with the item? Directly tap to take action (editing) Directly tap to take action (get directions) Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 53: 3. Provide clear conceptual link across widgets Some did not readily understand link between buttons and search field URL manipulation is in two locations And page manipulation is in two locations Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 54: 4. Put space between action widgets One novice hit (+) instead of (>) And became very confused when they landed in Add Event Danger! Delete and Go side-by-side “I want it to take me [to December] when I press on [the arrow]” Put action buttons far way from data entry buttons, especially if action is substantial Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 55: 5. Plan for accidental overswiping Several users accidentally hit “Top 25” when trying to scroll vertically Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 56: 6. Don’t rely exclusively on multi-touch Some users found pinching and unpinching to be cumbersome “I assume whatever I touch … is going to take me to somewhere else on the phone.” “I get the model, but my manual dexterity (won’t let me do it)…” Provide multiple methods to achieve the same action Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 57: 7. Provide visual feedback for taps “I want it to go there when I press it” Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 58: 7. Provide visual feedback for taps Grow “Add Event” pane from the upper-right Wrap entire pane off of the left, bringing new one on from the right Sweeping motion to the left to indicate erasure Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 59: 8. Provide interaction affordances All novice participants figured out they could drag to scroll horizontally Images ‘show through’ header to indicate vertical scrolling is possible (Interestingly, one said “I buy music now without knowing what the cover art is”) Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 60: Eight rules of thumb for iPhone app development 1 Take advantage of learned behaviors “Oh, this works just like the calendar” 2 Avoid interaction inconsistencies “This is weird, cancel is usually over there” 3 Provide clear conceptual link across widgets “This button must be related to that box, they’re next to each other” 4 Put space between action widgets “Oh man, I didn’t mean to send that SMS!” 5 Plan for accidental overswiping “I keep accidentally changing to a different screen” 6 Don't rely exclusively on multi-touch “It’s hard to do this while I’m holding something in the other hand” 7 Provide visual feedback for taps “Did I hit that button? I’m not sure.” 8 Provide interaction affordances “It’s obvious that you’re supposed to swipe left-and-right.” Copyright © 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 61: Thank you! Bill Westerman bill@createwithcontext.com