Gary MarsdenSlide 1University of Cape Town Genuine Usability  We are going to look at some results from a usability test on mobile phones conducted by US-West  Before we look at the results, what do you think of handset usability and how practice, age and instruction might affect it?  Interesting study as purchasers are not the end user

Gary MarsdenSlide 2University of Cape Town Usability experiment  US-West carried out a series of tests with a diversity of subjects  They had to complete 28 tasks on 3 different handsets. Times were measured and compared  Subjects were also interviewed about phone preferences

Gary MarsdenSlide 3University of Cape Town Task results  Similar usability  Plenty of “room for improvement”  Varied success –basic features good –advanced / vertical services were awful  Practice doesn’t help much  Very poor feedback –possibly a problem of handset and network feature confusion  Age makes a big difference

Gary MarsdenSlide 4University of Cape Town Consequences  Reduced network usage –Speed dials; 16% success –Save from call log; 25% success –many don’t try  Reduced usage of vertical services  Vulnerability to competition

Gary MarsdenSlide 5University of Cape Town Manuals & Instruction  Can help with success –Need to be tailored for age / gender etc. Fonts hard to read for elderly –Poorly optimised dialog “Call forwarding is on” Vs. “Your feature has been activated” Vs stutter dialtone  Instructions are age related –“Nintendo effect” cross over point

Gary MarsdenSlide 6University of Cape Town Second experiment –A second experiment was conducted to check physical attribute preference –Before looking at the next page, what do you think are the attributes people look for size colour battery life –Are attributes the same for different groups of people.

Gary MarsdenSlide 7University of Cape Town Results  Long battery life is important –for men –for experienced users  Smaller and lighter are good, unless: –you are an experienced user –you are a kid  Too small is bad  Bigger displays important –especially to elderly

Gary MarsdenSlide 8University of Cape Town Conclusions  Manufacturers must resist “Swiss Army” phones –creeping featurisim –features as rewards like Nintendo  Touch screens seem way forward  Usability must improve to reduce calls to support line but increase calls to vertical services  Network suppliers are not happy with usability  Handset manufacturers are more likely to listen to service providers than individual customers