In a competitive mobile phone market, handset makers and network operators constantly struggle to find additional competitive edge and differentiating elements to persuade consumers to select their brand instead of a competitor's.
Of course, many factors influence the end customer purchase decision. It can be price, features, brand name, perceived ease-of-use and robustness, marketing exposure, ratings and recommendations, industrial design of the physical device etc.
Needless to say, a vital part of a device's success is also related to the user interface (UI), which will directly influence the purchase decisions and satisfaction during use, and indirectly influence pricing and media exposure in, for instance, network operator campaigns.
This article covers key components and approaches when building successful mobile device UIs, today and in the years ahead. Even though the focus is mainly mobile phones, most of the underlying mechanisms remain the same for any embedded system with a display and GUI (i.e. automotive, consumer electronics etc.), although at different maturity levels.
Strategic asset
When talking about user interfaces for mobiles, it is impossible not to mention the iPhone. With the introduction of this iconic device, the perception of what a UI in a mobile phone should look like was brought to a whole new level in terms of graphical richness, responsiveness and innovative input mechanisms.
More importantly, UI strategies were suddenly on every executive agenda, and the need for a solid and differentiated UI is no longer questioned. Despite this, very few manufacturers have managed to deliver phones with the same level of compelling UI experiences.
Why has this proven to be very difficult, and what are the missing pieces needed to reach an iPhone UI experience and even go beyond?
Before answering this question, we need to get back to what a UI and user experience (UX) refer to. In many contexts, UX is used as a synonym to UI. There are, however, fundamental differences between the two expressions.
A UI of a device normally refers to any graphical, auditory, sensory or textual information the applications use to communicate with the end user, in combination with the control sequences the end user in turn employs to control the device (e.g. keyboard input, selections with finger or stylus on a touchscreen, voice commands, gestures etc.).
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| Figure 1: Shown is the user experience ecosystem |
UX, on the other hand, is a term used to describe a complex ecosystem (Figure 1 above) with many stakeholders and actors. UX spans across all aspects of the interactions between a user and a product or service, including experiences of purchasing, unpacking, setting up the product, quality of any collateral material, network coverage, customer support, available applications and services etc.
In other words, it covers the whole range of services and components, while the UI is one essential part, since this is what users face everyday when interacting with the mobile device.
It is clear that the success of the iPhone is due to the entire user experience and not just the user interface. Nevertheless, the UI obviously plays a vital role and essentially two key components are involved—excellent underlying technology (software and hardware), as well as an extremely focused vision and design process executed with perfection.
Thus, for any UI to be successful, the vision and the work process (i.e. the concept design and the visual design/direction) must be there, and the technology must facilitate the implementation of such a vision.
The UI vision is the undisputed law as a fundamental part of the device story telling and brand positioning. Everything else is subordinate. Get these parts right, and it is guaranteed you will be able to create an iconic device (at least in terms of UI). Ok, that makes sense. But what is then required by the technology? What components need to be there, and how does it work?
