In my first attempt to understand Twitter, it went totally over my head. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel it suited me, it was simply I didn’t know how / why I should use it. For my second attempt some months later (admittedly driven by a need to understand it for work purposes and from a technological platform angle) it became second nature.

One of the things that fascinated a non-technie like me was the ability to update my nano-blog via mobile (first by text message, then later by native mobile app / mobile web) which was something I couldn’t do at that time through my blog. This appealed greatly to someone like me who had a lot of idle ‘bloggable’ time spent on the bus each day, but not much idle time available at home. So from a practicality point-of-view, it was very useful. But also, being able to type something into a mobile phone and later see it online was, and still is, awesome.

Secondly, another barrier to blogging is that blog posts, in my mind, have become long, thought-out pieces that require research, a good introduction, a sound argument and a solid conclusion. Way too much work for idle minds like mine. Good blogs are now about a particular subject, and have an editorial direction. They have become useful resources. Otherwise they become a blog about my life and my dog, which is soooo Web 1.0. So Twitter’s 140 character-limit was perfect. I could have done that via Facebook status updates but then again, Facebook status updates go to your Facebook friends – an established audience – which affected the things I’d want to write there. There’s no point writing about IA for instance, if you’re the ‘only IA in the village’ so to speak. Nah. On Twitter I can write what I like, and if you choose to follow me, well, that’s your choice then.

Thirdly, I can choose to follow (and learn from) some really interesting, insightful people. And if I wanted to, I could have a dialogue with them.

And fnally, I can choose to receive as much info as I want. So, unlike using instant messenger or chat, it’s not something that interrupts me and requires my attention instantly. It’s something that happens in the background that I can jump into when I like, as often as I like.

So Twitter’s not for everyone but it happens to serve my needs perfectly!

In the last few days I’ve began using Flickr and Blogger more intensively and found them very impressive platforms. They’ve either improved leaps and bounds since my usage of them slowed, or I didn’t pay enough attention to them before. Althoug the Flickr platform involves alot more learning in terms of navigation, features and functionality the learning is spurred on by great interactions (dragging and dropping images into sets and creating collections), quick image uploads, as well as really inspiring images from the Flickr community. Blogger, on the other hand, is providing the usual robust platform but with really great template customisation facilities – both native to blogger and via various experts. Being able to make a blog template look as far away from a ‘template’ is brilliant. Another great point is the speed and reliability of their post-by-email functionality which means I can blog via my phone (i.e. now). Really looking forward to exploring both sites more.

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.

My utter despair at not being able to end my O2 contract early (how ridiculous … I mean, I only wanted to shave 6 months off it …) in order to get my hands on an iPhone has made me even more determined to connect up my little nokia to as many things as I can. And I’ve done it! Another reason is because my wife’s new job entails ridiculously long hours meaning I’m now spending a number of hours sat in a car in a dark alley in Battersea … there’s only so much of Magic FM any sane person can take in one hit.

So, I can now blog and upload photos through my mobile … I can email through my mobile … and I can twitter via SMS. I feel so web 2.0! I’ve even got a version of Google Maps on it. Doesn’t really work but who cares … now, with my nokia, I can see (roughly) where I was 5 minutes ago. However, last time I checked, I was apparently sitting in the middle of the River Thames. Oh well.

It’s amazing and scary at the same time. This picture is my sister’s street. I’ve never been anywhere near her house, street, city or state but suddenly – with a couple of clicks – I feel like I know the place well.

With Google Map’s ‘Street View’ you can now get 360 degree views of most main streets in major cities in US, France, Japan, Australia. I can walk down the street and turn down other streets. It really is amazing. I spent an hour last night just ‘walking around’ downtown Tokyo, New York and Australia (found a really beautiful town). It’s quite an experience. The images are sharp, you can move around. It’s kind of like a film I watched a few weeks ago called ‘Jumper’ where the guy could traverse space and time. By thinking of a destination he’d be there in a blink. For now, this is the closest we’ll get. But man, it’s good.