This post might not make great reading. It’s more or less a ‘note dump’ from the talk.

I found most parts interesting. It focused on the present and future of mobile applications, the design and development process and also the usability intricacies of designing for mobile.

As I was particularly busy at work that day, I missed the opening part and only managed to catch the last two talks. Luckily, the last one was usability focused.

The earlier talk focused on the design and development process and detailed the benefits of designers and developers talking to each other, working closely together, and not’hand over’ documentation. In other words, the earlier you get things ‘working’ and tested (even by ‘guerillas’) then the quicker it is to spot technical and usability issues. I think this also depends on your ability to draw on whiteboards, ‘think’ and decision-make on whiteboards.

Points of note:

• A lot of users prefer to use mobile web apps on their desktops. Being designed for the more constrictive medium of mobile, these apps tend to be more streamlined, only contain the most most important features and contain less / no advertising.
• In terms of the diversity of handsets (as opposed to the handful of web browsers), you must know your target audience and pick the leading 5 phones for them. This should cover around 70% of your users. The settings for the leading 5 phones should also account for the numerous ‘brother & sister’ handsets derived from them.
• Be wary of the numerous possible errors / situations users can run into while using the app. Things like losing network connections, incoming calls, contact list errors, etc.
• Different usage patterns. Users generally use mobile apps for shorter periods of around 30 seconds but its a more personal relationship.
• Bear in mind, some mobile phones have a maximum file size for apps.
• Allow users to enter their location (as opposed to GPS) as that is often more accurate.

3 types of apps used by mobile web users:

• Mobile native: this is the app you download to your phone. As far as I can distinguish, it’s run independently of any phone browser. Problems include a less current set of data. For instance, the Facebook version shown pulled in out-dated ’status updates’.
• Mobile web: this appears to be using the web to access mobile versions of sites. These are ‘more straightforward but a little sloppy’.
• Desktop adapted: this is using the browser to access the full (desktop version) website. Often only allows users to see navigation, which is often located before the content.