SallieNeely22
Mobile phone and PDA usability testing is vital to your organization. In fact, mobile and handheld usability testing could be even much more essential than personal computer-primarily based usability testing. The primary reasons for this are:
- The quantity of people accessing the Internet from mobile and handheld devices is rising at a massive price - in 2008 alone there'll be an estimated 58 million PDAs sold worldwide (supply: eTForecast).
- Folks usually have a lot much less experience of employing their mobile to go on-line than they do of utilizing their pc. This indicates that personal computer-based users can be assumed to have a larger level of existing expertise than mobile and handheld customers.
- The platform through which users access your site is far less predictable when using mobile phones. Personal computer-primarily based website guests normally only differ from one particular one more in their browser and operating program (i.e. most individuals will use a screen, mouse and keyboard), whereas the distinct sorts of mobile phones and PDAs differ can drastically.
Which mobile phones and PDAs do you want to think about?
Mobile phones and PDAs can differ from a single one more substantially, and this will radically modify how individuals experience and use internet sites. Some of the techniques in which handheld devices can differ incorporate:
- Screen size (modest vs. huge)
- Screen layout (portrait vs. landscape)
- Input device (stylus, numeric keypad, dial-wheel, QWERTY keypad)
Because the mobile telephone / PDA that someone is utilizing will have such a profound effect on their experience of your web site, you need to attempt to test with as numerous mobile phones and PDAs as attainable.
Of course, testing with every single mobile phone and PDA is impossible. Right here are some tips to assist narrow down the quantity of devices you'll need to have to test with:
- Your mobile website guests could belong to a particular audience. Particular audiences have a tendency to favor particular sorts of phones (e.g. phones with huge screens that are created to help on the web access vs. tiny-screen models that are not).
- There are 'phone families' that provide a really equivalent user encounter (and will not require to be tested individually).
- You may only want to test with the most common mobile phones in Europe or the most popular models that are being employed to access your internet site (you can verify your web site statistics to discover out this details).
Who do you want to test with?
The people you want to conduct your mobile telephone usability testing sessions with will, of course, rely on your distinct business and its audience. Some issues to bear in mind contain:
- How much experience they must have of making use of their mobile phones to access services. This is particularly critical as the market for accessing online solutions via mobile phones is developing and the % of 'complete novices' (i.e. men and women utilizing the technologies for the 1st time) will be far greater than for personal computer users of your internet site.
- Which mobile phone or PDA they have. We would generally advocate that folks use their own mobile phone in a session, so the test can concentrate on your website and not on the way the handheld device performs.
Exactly where ought to mobile usability testing sessions be conducted?
Mobile phones and PDAs are utilised in the genuine world so usability testing of handheld devices must as a result not only take spot in a usability laboratory.
Where, when and how a mobile phone is employed is essential to a person's experience of the website they are accessing. Any of the following situations could influence this expertise and therefore considerations of the site's usability:
- Lighting
- Background noise
- Distractions
- Concurrent tasks (i.e. anything the particular person is undertaking at the identical time)
- Physical movement
As such, we'd advise, if achievable, that any mobile telephone and PDA usability testing is performed each in a laboratory and also in the 'outside world'.
How you program and run mobile telephone usability sessions will be primarily based on your enterprise and its audience, but the most popular approaches of mobile usability testing include:
- Lab-primarily based (employing a camera to record the session)
- Diary-studies (asking people to maintain a diary of how they have used their mobile phone and any issues they encounter)
- Paper prototypes (operating usability testing on a paper-primarily based version of the website, utilizing mobile telephone screen-sized pieces of paper) continue reading
