Android DevCon 2013 Usability

transcript

Easy MobileMaking your app easier to use

Thursday, May 23, 13

I’ll Cover

‣ The cost of bad usability

‣ Data on successful apps

‣ Examples of good and bad usability

‣ How to easily improve usability

‣ Your apps & problems

My Goal

‣ Help you understand usability

‣ Make it simple to improve

‣ Everyone leave here with 3 practical

things they can do to improve their

app THIS WEEK.

After the Break

‣ How visuals support brand

‣ Applying this to mobile

‣ Making your apps better

‣ The importance of icons

A Little About Me

I like chaos

She does the hard work

We make cool stuff with cool people.

I also like

‣ Change

‣ Technology

‣ Simple solutions to complex problems

We’re agile

Agile Can Be ScaryHere’s what it means to Gravity Switch

WORKING SOFTWARE OVER COMPREHENSIVE DOCUMENTATION

CUSTOMER COLLABORATIONOVER CONTRACT NEGOTIATION

RESPONDING TO CHANGEOVER FOLLOWING A PLAN

INDIVIDUALS & INTERACTIONS OVER PROCESSES & TOOLS

Remove Waste

1. Measure

2. Identify waste

3. Remove waste

4. Repeat

Spare the Good

Visual Design &Written Voice

Communication

Signoff

Programming

Communication

Go Live

Monitor & Improve

Value Ad Non-Value Ad

Design Revisions

One Tasks & Tickets

Timely Reminders

Zero Inbox

Five-Minute Rule

Rule of 3

Ask for Help

Don’t MultitaskIt doesn’t work.

Do The Little Things

2 Weeks. 10 Hours.

Top 10 Reasons

I Procrastinate:

Usability Example1 Week

Drop-off in the first 2 minutes is HUGE!

Getting Started Screens

We have to do better

Why 1 Week?

Perfect is the enemy of good

Winners ship

We don’t need longer

A Little About You

Why’d ya come?

Existing App

New App

Whacha building?

Utility

Productivity

Music/Photo/Video

$.99 - $2.99

$3.99 - $9.99

$9.99+

Other (internal app)

Pricing

Company size

Lone Gunslinger

2-10 Employees/Partners

11-100 Employees

100+ Employees

Android only

iDevices & Android

Anything else? HTML5?

Your superpower?

Programming

Design

Usability

Want to learn more

Some experience

Conducted software testing

Measured results

Usability experience

Overview

UserNeeds

BusinessNeeds

Easy to use.

⇥ Technology ⇤ Design ⌅ Usability ⇧ Business

Geeks start it.

(Programmers, NASA

engineers, etc.)

You won't hit the majority until you

have a commercially viable product!

The building blocks of technology

The mobile difference

Portable

Personal

Bandwidth matters

Interrupted

Typing sucks

Apps that “get it”

Interrupted (2 mins)

No Internet Needed

Uses Touch

In 2008, Pandora built an iPhone app that let people stream music. Almost immediately, 35,000 new users a day joined Pandora from their cellphones, doubling the number of daily signups.

Personal

On the Road

Avoids Typing

No Internet Needed

Successful AppsTraits

Top iPhone apps

94% Are useful because they’re mobile

Top iPhone apps

94% Are useful because they’re mobile

56% Use touch meaningfully

Top iPhone apps

3% Use video

3% Use the camera meaningfully

4% Use tilt meaningfully

11% Use GPS

15% Are multiplayer

4% Use two of these features

0% Use three or more

What don’t you do?

The most successful

companies have a list of

things they DON’T do.

More Features = Hard to Use

Whatever

... What about Android Apps?

Why buy Android?

4. Need reading glasses

3. Geek / Tinkerer

2. It’s not Apple

1. International availability

9 Utilities (+0)

5 Geeks (+4)

5 Games (-3)

3 Music (+0)

1 Camera (-1)

1 Office docs (+0)

28 Games (+6)

4 Angry Birds

3 Word games

1 Music (+0)

1 Utility (+1)

Top 20 are ALL gamesGames (+10)

Music (-3)

Social media (-2)

News (-2)

21 Games (+9)

4 Photo (+2)

2 Social networking(+2)

1 Education (+1)

1 Entertainment (+1)

1 Weather (+1)

0 News (-2)

0 Music (-3)

Apple “Hall of Fame”

Are You Focused?‣ Useful BECAUSE it’s mobile?

‣ Uses touch to *enhance* experience

‣ How many of the following does it use?

- Camera

- Video

- Tilt

- Multiplayer

Goals Before UsabilityWhat are you trying to do?

Fortune?

Your boss?

Ask why 5 times

Trinity of UsabilityStorytelling, wireframing, testing

1. StorytellingUse case vs. user scenario

Storytelling

Use case = How features work

User scenarios = How people work

2. WireframingTo wireframe or not to wireframe

Wireframing

‣ “Paper prototyping”

‣ Easy to test

‣ Easy to change

‣ Hand-drawn

‣ No colors/fonts/pictures

Wireframes

spec => wireframe => prototype => experience

3. Usability TestingWhat’s useful and what’s not

Tap-TapFirst mobile app

developer to make

$1m profit every

month.

Started with 4 apps,

and built out the one

that tested the best.

When to test

KnownUnknown

When to test

KnownUnknown

When to test

KnownUnknown

When to test

KnownUnknown

When to test

KnownUnknown

Steal ideas first!

Usability testing

1. Focus Groups

2. Surveys

3. A/B Testing

4. Usability Testing

Focus groups are not useful for testing.

focus groups

‣ set goals

‣ get buy-in (stakeholders)

Surveys are only useful for specific questions.

surveys

‣ do we call it refresh or reload?

‣ does this make us look like hacks?

‣ which tagline works best?

‣ which icon gets the most traffic?

surveys

‣ do we call it refresh or reload?

‣ does this make us look like hacks?

‣ which tagline works best?

‣ which icon gets the most traffic?

you can A/B test

these too

A/B testing rocks.

A/B testing

‣ Sanity check big changes

‣ Fine-tune details

‣ Find problems for usability testing

‣ Get buying early from stakeholders

A/B testing

David Hyman (CEO) of

MOG’s #1 tip for mobile

usability is to “reduce

barriers”

How can he increase the

number of PAID members?

A/B testing

‣ Expensive (time consuming)

‣ Requires good statistic tracking

‣ Requires large(ish) sample size

Usability testing

‣ Cheapest and most useful testing

‣ Find out where users get lost

‣ Sanity check yourself

This all sounds good, but what does real testing look like?

who has an app to test?

Do it now

‣ Test early

‣ Test often

‣ Find biggest problem

‣ Find simplest solution

‣ Repeat

Best PracticesTips from the masters

AccessibilityLaws and business

The Laws

Under Section 508 (29 U.S.C. ‘794 d),

[government] agencies must give disabled

employees and members of the public

access to information that is comparable to

access available to others.

The Laws

ADA Title III governing public

accommodations for private entities

prohibits discrimination, requires access to

services and facilities, and requires effective

communication.

The Laws

Twenty-First Century Communications and

Video Accessibility Act of 2010

Title I - Communication

‣ Advanced Communication Services

(VOIP, text, email, IM, Video

communication, etc.)

‣ Web browsers on mobile devices

‣ (Hearing aid happens at system level)

Title II - Video

‣ Mostly about TV

‣ TV => Internet must maintain captions

‣ Emergency Information (i.e. 911)

The Numbers

‣ 0.3% of the US is blind

‣ 0.3% of the US are functionally deaf

‣ 2.3% of the US are hard of hearing

‣ Many Android Users on Gingerbread

How important is it?

Lots of wiggle room

Small audience

(Potentially) significant work

HIPPOs

My Rule of Thumb

Would you use your app hands-free

while driving?

AnalyticsWhat is measured improves

Your drop-off by time?

Your weak points?

Write it down

If you don’t have analytics, get them!

If you have them, look at them!

If you look at them, change your behavior!

Screen SizesThe “F” word again

breakpoints

always rethink tablets

responsive

Users = BloodhoundsThe scent of information

What’s the 3-Click Rule?

it’s a myth

The 3 usability sins

1. dead-ends

2. backtracks

1. dead-ends

2. backtracks

3. thinking

Navigation & MenusGiving them the scent of information

Main Menu = Good

Consistent Navigation

labels Android

Fitt’s LawThe first rule of computer usability

Fitt’s law

distance

button size

corners = infinitely large

touch changes it

no abstraction (mouse)

same distance to everything

corners are HARDER to hit

Tiff’s law

poke position

thumbs

poke position

Distance and location don’t matter!

thumbs

arch of thumbs = easy

all others = hard

horizontal vs. vertical

82% of top

Apple apps

lock the

orientation

horizontal vs. vertical

if lots of typing - responsive

if one-handed - vertical (or responsive)

otherwise just pick one and ship it

The first 2 minutesDon’t loose people before you hook them

people are lazy and you don’t want unhappy

users.

Key TakeAwayIf you do one thing, do usability testing

usability testing

test early

test often

find your biggest problem

do the least work possible

do it again

18 mobile sites

1,000 #Fails

147 recommendations

m-commerce

gravityswith.com/andevcon

There will be a Quiz

scannable home page

Declutter

Give Context

Avoid Dropdowns

Long Pages

Clear Buttons

Careful w/AutoCorrect

Big Data Entry Fields

Show a damn calendar

What did you learn?

Does everyone have 3 ideas?

Ask me questions

http://gravityswitch.com/andevconjason@gravityswitch.com

@jasonNmark

Visual Design - up next!

eBooks (Thursday 8:30)