Usability Articles Archive

Areas of interest

Usability Articles

Usability articles illustrate concrete perspectives on usability in mobile application creation.

19-Jan-05

Create Stunning Themes For Series 40 And S60 Devices
Globally the supply of Themes and other customization elements has grown into a billion-dollar industry that creates opportunities for developers, resellers, and operators. With the Theme Studio software, Nokia has made it easy to create Themes for Series 40 and S60 devices. This article presents a few basic tips and issues to help you begin designing Themes.

11-Nov-04

Usability Is A Must In Browser-Based Mobile Banking
Mobile banking solutions provide users with a service that enables them to transact their financial business irrespective of time and place. By using their mobile phone browsers, customers can request their account status and make banking transactions wherever they are, whenever they choose. From the financial institution point of view, mobile banking has enormous potential for the future. It offers a convenient method for mobile users to manage their finances while on the move.

18-Aug-04

Optimizing the user experience
This is the third and final porting and usability article in our Tip Of The Month series; it covers user experience optimization. The first and second articles, "Porting The Positive Experience" and "Focus On Features," discussed the basics of porting and the decisions involved in porting application features, respectively.

26-Jul-04

Focus On Features
When porting applications to different platforms, some features may need to be added or dropped. An application that is optimal for one particular device may be too complex or too simple for another platform. Thus, it might not be a good idea to simply implement all the features in all the platforms. When ported downwards to simpler devices, an application often needs to be more focused on its core features in order to be usable. When ported upwards to more complex devices, device capabilities should be fully used by implementing additional features.

08-Jul-04

Porting The Positive Experience
This is the first porting and usability article in our Tip Of The Month series. It covers the basics of porting and usability; in subsequent articles we'll take a closer look at various related topics, including porting different application features, how to optimize the user experience, and how to test several products at once.

18-May-04

Usability Is The Heart Of Development
Sophisticated and smart, most developers and managers know the importance of usability in product development. And almost everyone is familiar with usability testing - generally at the end of the development process, when there is something functional enough to test and evaluate. Sure, there might be the occasional bad aftertaste when months of hard work end in frustration, but in most cases the biggest problems are fixed and the products released on time. Or almost.

15-Apr-04

Culturally Speaking
Language is just one example of the cultural differences software developers face. It might feel like the world is getting smaller by the minute due to growing communication possibilities and information transfers, but cultural differences don't just vanish into the air. To be effective, product design must consider its target nations right from the start.

23-Mar-04

Usability In Mobile Games
When you think of mobile games, you think of fun. But what does fun have to do with usability? Fun is one of the main factors that differentiates game usability from usability in other applications. Mobile games are typically played for brief time periods, so there is no extra time to learn how to navigate inside the game. Playing should be as intuitive as possible and the challenge should be in the game play, not in the interaction with the game user interface.

09-Mar-04

Group Testing
A number of methods are currently available to assist in developing and testing applications. Faced with these choices, how do you choose the right technique for the right circumstance? For example, is focus group research the best method to determine if the UI of an application is attractive, or would usability testing be even better? Would focus group testing show the optimal implementation for task flows, or would usability testing give a better answer?

23-Feb-04

Know The User
Paying attention to users is vital for the success of any product. There is a vast difference between envisioning a usable product and actually producing one - until you do your user research, there is no guarantee of real usability. And making an educated guess about users is a risky foundation for business.

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