Discovering New Opportunities

for improving the User Experience

in Cellphones.

Part 1.

Anirban Basu MallikSr. Graphic Visualizer and User Experience Designer

Copyright 2008 Anirban Basu Mallik. All Rights Reserved.

People want to talk to other people -

not a house, or an office, or a car.

Given a choice, people will demand

the freedom to communicate

wherever they are, unfettered by the

infamous copper wire. It is that

freedom we sought to vividly

demonstrate in 1973.

Martin Coopers Vision

One single differentiatior which led to the invention

of the cell phone and an entire industry around it.

Inventor of the CellPhone

What is a cellphone?

Was Is Will be

Personal Communication

Device

Whats the shape?

Personal Communication

Device

PDA - (Business)

Gaming

Photography

Applications

Music

Internet Access Device

Navigator

?

A cellphone...

How Products Evolve over Time.

Starts off with

basic functionalities

Improvement and

enhancement of

features. Look &

feel also starts

to evolve.

At this point a product ceases to be an object of necessity to

that of luxury.

More advanced

features, more

improvements in

look and feel.

Personalization

1. 2. 3.The Future...

New Technology,

newer metaphors,

newer modalities.

4.

The First Cellphone (1973)

Motorola Dyna-Tac

9 x 5 x 1.75 inches

2.5 pounds

None

30

35 minutes

10 hours

Talk, listen, dial

Name:

Size:

Weight:

Display:

Number of Circuit Boards:

Talk time:

Recharge Time:

Features: Nokia Aeon Concept Phone

Apple iPhone

Blackberry

Nokia

Source: http://thehistoryof.net/history-of-cell-phones.html

?

Factors which drive the cellphone user experience.

Phone Form IxD ServicePhone Features, Look &

Feel, Materials, and so on.

Human Computer

Interaction.

The businesses built

around it-Custom Apps,

Customer Support,

Coverage and so on.

1. 2. 3.

How does the phone look?

Whats the shape?

Is it matt or glossy?

Sporty, business or chic?

Tiny, compact or huge?

How much does it weigh?

What are the accessories and

personalization options?

How does the phone open?

How does one hold the phone?

How does one navigate the

phone?

How does one interact

with the various features?

How does one keep the phone

when not in use?

How does the phone alert

the user?

Whats the network coverage?

Hows the Customer Support?

Is there any community?

What can be Add-ons and ways

to personalize the UE?

Way before cellphones were there...

The interaction of operating this was an experience

in itself.

Case Study~1: Nokias success story.

Nokia dominated the market by-

And most importantly...

Building phones for everyone

Personalization

Changing physical interactions of the phone

Building robust phones

Having the best reception

(how

phones open)

(Phones which fell from the

4th floor and still worked)

Source: http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/nokias_phone_history_timeline.php

The Nokia Product line.

How the phones open...

Case Study~2: The Apple iPhone.

The iPhone.

And most importantly...

Integrated hardware and software and service.

No more buttons-uber kewl interaction (touch)

Incorporated the Safari browser, so viewing web

pages over the net is much much easier.

A great product design.

Discovering Hidden Opportunities.A.There are still many hidden opportunities for us to improve,

by analyzing user experience gaps in competitor products

Participants were asked 1 question ~

When did you feel let down by your cell phone?

( What happened and when was the last time it happened? )

A few scenarios taken from the survey.

A.

B.

I went to a new office location. There was no charge

in my phone. As my mom did not know this, she called

me to ask whether I reached the office. There was no

response because my phone was not active. She got

really worried. Unfortunately I went home late that day.

When I reached home, she was crying and didnt even

eat any food for the day.

My cell phone battery was let me down when I was

trying to contact my old friends meet-up, looking for

exact location at outside. It was not allowing me to

even find their phone numbers from the address list and

refuse to switch-on. But when I was using my old model,

it was indicating the Low-Battery and then we can use

atleast 10 minutes. But my new model 6300 is turned

off immediately prior to low-battery indication.

Issue: Charging, Battery

Issue: Charging, Battery

Solution:

Give an extra battery or 2 chargers

with the phone.

Have personalized voice messages

which an user can record which can be set

for individual contacts.

Keeping contacts online.

Solution:

Give an extra battery or 2 chargers

with the phone.

Give a Low-Battery status message an hour

earlier.

A power saver mode, where one can access

only sms and contacts list.

Keeping contacts online.

High

High

Severity

Severity

A few scenarios taken from the survey.

C.

D.

Cant really say I felt let down that would be giving my

phone too human a feel. But it was exasperating when

my phone of 2 yrs conked off and I was incommunicado.

And worse, when I lost half of my contacts and all of the

images, etc. that were saved on my phone. This was

about a month back so the irritations still fresh.

Only thing I was not happy was that being a Music

edition N70 didnt provide equalizer and other music

features.

(We can install different third party softwares but

sometimes it feels risky to install softwares from

unknown publishers)

Issue: Charging, Battery, Data Backup

Issue: Interaction Design

Solution:

Users store images, videos of memories in

their cell phones. Cant we built in a system

where users data can get backed-up while

charging or a restore function as in computers

Solution:

Something like what Apple iPhone is

aiming to do, built an immense collection

of applications to run on the iPhone.

High

High

Severity

Severity

A few scenarios taken from the survey.

E.

F.

Water went inside the mobile was useless for 3 days. It

affect the camera.

I was let down by my cell phone, when my friend call me

during his father was admitted in the hospital. The

incident happened last month. He called me for getting

some money from the bank, since he was with his father

at the hospital. But unfortunately, I didnt hear what he

conveyed because the speaker in my phone was bad and

not audible. Finally when I went to the hospital, I was

embarrassed when my friend asked the money.

Issue: Phone Built

Solution:

Why cant we have waterproof phones or

at least a waterproof case?

High

Severity

Issue: Charging, Battery

Solution:

Give an extra battery or 2 chargers

with the phone.

Give a Low-Battery status message an hour

earlier.

A power saver mode, where one can access

only sms and contacts list.

Keeping contacts online.

High

Severity

A few scenarios taken from the survey.

G.

H.

The time when my mobile was crashed while performing

Multitasking (A damn Nokia model which i was

using earlier)

Searching for the networks while travelling. Especially

when you are on vacation at a hill station. Till you alight

your handset is as good as a paper weight.

Alternately, I should not be locating network manually.

The handset should have in built facility to