T5: Designing Highly Usable Services for Next Generation Devices and Networks

Half-Day Tutorial, NordiCHI 2002. Aarhus, Denmark - 20 October 2002.

Didier Chincholle, Mikael Eriksson, ERICSSON RESEARCH, Stockholm, Sweden.

Designing effective wireless services is difficult and this is rapidly becoming a major issue for both mobile service providers and device manufacturers when designing for the next generation of devices (GPRS). Due to inherent design limitations, including small display screens and limited data input from multifunctional keypads, wireless service designers have to learn new ways to present information and interact with the user. In this tutorial participants will be provided with an overview of the critical user experience issues that need to be addressed when developing these services for the next generation of devices and networks. It will introduce practical design, implementation and assessment techniques. The key to success in designing services for next generation of devices and networks is to understand what content to develop for subscribers and how to make it as simple and easy to use as possible.

Aims of the tutorial

In this tutorial participants will learn how to develop highly usable user interfaces for next generation of mobile services, including:

• Optimising designs for small devices
• Making services quick to learn, to use and to remember
• Designing services that require as few actions as possible
• Exploiting next generation networks and capabilities
• Developing tailored services that create value to the end-user
• Designing user interfaces that support subscribers while they move and/or they are focused on a other tasks outside the device

Learning objectives

The main elements taught by the tutorial are:

• An understanding of what 'mobile' means when developing wireless services
• An improved ability to make user interface more easy/fun/quick-to-use
• Basic principles for creating useful and usable services specifically for use in a wireless environment (this involves much more than simply making the Internet 'mobile')
• Tips and techniques for designing UI's on communication devices
• Effective use of restricted screen space and minimalist input devices
• Practical design experience through group exercises

Attendees

Participants will include user interface designers, mobile application developers, network operators and service providers, usability specialists, researchers in HCI, and anyone interested in designing wireless services on small devices. The tutorial is intended for people with some experience in either interface design or usability work. But it is also suitable for beginners since its content is not purely technical (no advanced technical expertise required).

About the presenters

Didier Chincholle works as an Interaction Design Specialist for Ericsson Research, focusing primarily on the use of mobile services. He has extensive experience in designing and evaluating user interfaces He is also active at conferences with lectures and written contributions pertaining to both wireless services and UI's design.

Mikael Eriksson works as an Interaction Designer for the Usability and Interaction Lab at Ericsson Research. He is mainly involved on developing and prototyping interaction concepts. He has a pedagogical background and has been teaching computer-based design at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, Sweden.