The iPhone will always be part of a much bigger picture. How well you address human and environmental factors will greatly determine the success of your product. All too often, iPhone developers create products in isolation from their customers. In order to create really appealing applications, developers must stop focusing only on the mechanisms of the apps. Zoom out: understand the person using the application, as well as the complex environmental factors surrounding that person.

To better understand the context of these design challenges, we’ll highlight several levels of human and environmental factors.

Also consider our related articles:

• iPhone design mistakes: Over-Design
• iPhone App Design Trends
• How to Create Your First iPhone Application

Level 1: You Are Here. To Create An App That Customers Love, Zoom Out

Level 1: The app itself.
This is how many developers view their apps. As a developer, you have a vision of what your product should look like and why customers will turn their attention to it. However, if you observe your product so closely, you may put it in the wrong context and design it for the wrong purposes and for the wrong users. This is why you need to zoom out.

Level 2: A person is using this app.
That person has specific goals and challenges. In the section below we’ll start by exploring some of the most prominent — and most ignored — human factors pertaining to the iPhone. We’ll discuss basic physical ergonomics, visual limitations and common design mistakes.

Level 3: That person is using this app in a specific environment.
Step back and you’ll see that the app is a part of a complex social environment. It plays but a relatively small role in communication between people and helping people accomplish bigger goals. This is where the social components comes into play: networking, community, social-driven websites and applications and many other things create the environment — or the context — in which the application will be used.

Level 4: The environment is part of a greater culture.
Your ability to address the unique needs of different cultures will affect the success of your product. Ignoring them is too expensive, especially if your app sells worldwide. Here it is important to understand that the environment is a part of global networking. You need to be aware of cultural differences, traditions and metaphors in order to create an application that will not only gain popularity in certain local circles, but will also have a global success.

Level 2: Understand The Person’s Needs And Limitations

“Measure twice and cut once”: an effective strategy indeed. For you, the iPhone app developer, this means that you have to step back and answer these questions before you start coding:

• Who will be using your application?
• What are the capabilities of that person?
• What are the limitations of that person?

Answering these questions will broaden your perspective and prepare you to address your customer’s needs. A whole Human Factors profession is dedicated to just that.

Basic Physical Ergonomics

Here are a couple of the most important physical-, cognitive- and ergonomic-related truths about the iPhone.

1. Our fingers are not mouse pointers.
Remember this property of our fingertips: their surface area is not equal to one pixel. In many applications, tappable objects are way too small, making the interface frustrating to use. Here’s one example: in iFitness, different muscle groups are indicated with red pins. Tapping a pin brings up the name of that muscle. And if you tap the name, you get a list of exercises that develop that muscle.

The pins are twice as small as those used in the Google Maps app. Tapping the pin you want is very hard, because the surface of your fingertip covers an area of three or more pins. You end up tapping repeatedly on the area, enabling random pins, wishing you could sharpen your finger. After more than a few tries, you get lucky and hit the right one.

Which of these pins will be activated when you tap on it?

Here are some ways to solve these ergonomic challenges:

1. Make buttons and other tappable objects bigger.
2. If making a button bigger is impossible, then enlarge the clickable area to be bigger then the button itself.
3. Reduce the number of options on each screen, and make the selection process sequential (e.g. Arm Muscles ? Biceps).
4. Implement multi-touch gestures within the interface. For example, selecting a muscle group in iFitness would be made easier by introducing a two-finger zoom feature.

2. We’re not superheroes, unfortunately.
App designers need to take vision limitations into account. Mobile phones tend to be used in places with worse lighting conditions than computers. Think about those people who will be using your app on a bumpy bus or train or walking down a sunny street. Even if the technology is useful and perfectly executed, people will be reluctant to use the app if they find it hard to see what’s going on. Here are a few examples of potentially useful apps that do not account for vision limitations.

TweetDeck

Fish-tycoon

Here are some ways to avoid these mistakes:

1. Choose only the elements that are absolutely necessary. Make them bigger, and get rid of everything else. If needed, create additional screens with fewer options.
2. Remember that pixel dimensions on the iPhone are smaller than those on your computer screen. So, screenshots viewed on your computer’s iPhone emulator look larger than they would on the iPhone itself, even though the resolution is the same.

The author holds an iPhone (163 ppi) in front of Apple Cinema’s 30-inch display (~100 ppi). Your iPhone screen layout may look fine on a computer emulator, but don’t be fooled: it will appear much smaller on the iPhone because of its smaller pixel dimensions.

Level 3: Understand The Challenges Specific To The User’s Environment

Goals and Environment

Your app will usually play a relatively small role in helping the user achieve a bigger goal. The better you understand what goals people have and what they need to achieve them, the better you can design your app to satisfy those needs. Mobile phones are often used in loud, distracting environments. A simple stroll through town brings plenty of noisy distractions (cars, dogs, mail carriers, etc.). Consider the following examples. Which voice memo app would do a better job?

Apple Voice Memos	vs.	iTalk

Although Apple Voice Memos looks nice, iTalk addresses the average user’s goals and environment much better. Think about it: why would someone prefer to record a voice memo over writing a note? The audio format has fewer advantages than simple text. You can’t scan, edit or enhance audio files as easily as you can text. In most scenarios, text is a much more convenient format in which to exchange information.

So, why and, more importantly, when would people use voice memos? When they are not able to type. The most common time is probably while driving.

According to the New York Times‘ summary of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s findings, drivers who text have a 23-times greater risk of a collision than drivers who don’t text. Which application would be easier to use in this case? The one with the big shiny mic and the record button that is small and hard to reach (especially for right-handed people)? Or the one with the red record button half the size of the screen? Certainly the latter.

Confirming for the user that the recorder is activated is important, too. Which interface communicates the device’s status more clearly? Where do you tap when you’re done?

Apple Voice Memos	vs.	iTalk

Based on which design works better overall, iTalk wins. Apple Voice Memo looks great when you’re checking it out on a friend’s phone but performs poorly in a real-world context.

Mobile Phones, Networking and Community

The mobile phone is, without a doubt, a social tool. The greater the number of people involved, the more engaging the experience is. Think about it: if you were the only one with a phone, it wouldn’t be very useful. YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are driven by the understanding that we are social beings — we want to share! Imagine how dramatically designs that foster greater social interaction could change the mobile world.

With the seemingly endless ways to capture and share information, many people feel overwhelmed with information. To help them cope, designers must exploit the iPhone’s platform to make their applications as efficient as possible. Here are some inspiring examples:

Bump

“Bump makes swapping contact information and photos as simple as bumping two phones together. No typing, no searching a list for the right person, no mistakes.” (iTunes Store description)

Mover

“Ever wished you could send something to the iPhone right next to you? Do it with style with Mover.”

Loopt

“Loopt transforms your mobile phone into a social compass to discover and navigate the world around you. Use Loopt to see who’s around, what to do, and where to go.”

How Loopt works (video):

Level 4: The Environment Is Part Of A Greater Culture.

Your ability to address the unique needs of different cultures will affect the success of your product. Ignoring them is too expensive, especially if your app sells worldwide. Design should adapt to regional challenges. Jacob Nielsen, a leading usability expert, gives us an illustration of this:

“In Sweden, the Automatic Teller Machines have very large buttons. I hadn’t noticed this particular design element on previous visits, which have usually been in warmer months. In 1996 I was in Stockholm in February and immediately realized why the ATM buttons are so big: you can press them wearing thick gloves.”

Such insights are gained only by understanding the product in its real-world context. Here is the graphic designer’s point of view:

“… Understanding the object in context moves graphic design from a purely formal arena to a social and political one.”
—Steven Heller and Karen Pomeroy in “Design Literacy,” Allworth Press, New York, 1997.

More wisdom from Nielsen:

“A system must match the user’s cultural characteristics. This goes beyond simply avoiding offensive icons; it must accommodate the way business is conducted and the way people communicate in various countries.”

Apple studied American users and addressed their goals. That’s why the iPhone is so popular in US. But it hasn’t succeeded in Japan. The handset is selling so poorly there that they are giving them away for free.

Conclusion: Excellence Comes From Hard Work

Designing a great app isn’t a simple task. Jacob Nielsen recently asserted that “the mobile user experience is still miserable.” Extracting user insights from testing is a challenge. People have difficulty telling you what they want; they usually only know it when they see it. But developers don’t have to tackle user research alone. Interaction designers are trained to find relevant user groups, talk to customers and read between the lines. They understand how real-world context affects an application’s design.

It takes a lot of leg work, but your efforts to understand user needs will be rewarded. The forefront of mobile technology is an exciting place to be.

Related posts

Please consider our related articles:

• iPhone design mistakes: Over-Design
• iPhone App Design Trends
• How to Create Your First iPhone Application

Special thanks to Larissa Itomlenskis.

(al)

© Alexander Komarov for Smashing Magazine, 2009. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
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iPhone Apps Design Mistakes: Disregard Of Context originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 15, 2009.

Google Internet browser without installation.
Download Portable Google Chrome MultiVersion Online on RapidShare (0.4 MB) (Updated for Vista and 7)
Download Portable Google Chrome 1.0.154.65 on RapidShare (8.3 MB)
(md5: c5623348a26942c871cd2cd3e4d51abb)

In first screen of Chrome MultiVersion Online, enter ver number:
3.0.195.33 for Chrome Stable
4.0.237.0 for Chrome Dev
2.0.172.43 for Chrome Stable

Chromium is the open-source project behind Google Chrome.
Download Portable Chromium Latest Online on RapidShare (0.4 MB) (Updated for Vista and 7)

Chromium Latest Online will download latest build (you can run also as updater to check if you have latest).

SRWare Iron is based on the Chromium-source and offers the same features as Chrome – but without the critical points that the privacy concern.
Download Portable SRWare Iron 3.0.189.18153 Beta on RapidShare (8.5 MB)
(md5: d3f6886a7f76920f93bd5b085b71f95c)
Download Portable SRWare Iron 2.0.178.15300 on RapidShare (8.3 MB)
(md5: c53c028e3f3ee9ff584deb1701d32c31)

Download Plugins on RapidShare (2.9 MB)

Extract Plugins: Flash 10.0.32.18 & Gears 0.5.32.0.

Extract and run ChromePortable or ChromiumPortable or IronPortable.
If you want to add parameters, start in incognito mode, not set cache in temp, not delete cache or allow multiple instances: edit *Portable.ini.
Example: AdditionalParameters=–app=http://portableappz.blogspot.com
Settings of installed Chrome, Chromium & Iron should be preserved.

Results in Acid3 Test :
Chrome, Chromium & Iron: 100 %

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Google Chrome 3.0.195.33 Stable, 4.0.237.0 Dev… Chromium & SRWare Iron Multilingual originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 13, 2009.

Monitor hard drive health without installation.
Download Portable HDInspector on RapidShare (2.6 MB)

Extract and run HDInspectorPortable.
Don’t forget to close in systray when leaving.
Settings of installed HDInspector should be preserved.

Go to Source

Hard Drive Inspector 3.32.259 Professional originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

Utility to fix, speed up, maintain and protect your PC without installation.
Download Portable GlaryUtilities on RapidShare (5.2 MB)
(md5: abcd34c39cacf83f46764040fe0aafec)

Extract and run GlaryUtilitiesPortable.
Language fixed by launcher according Windows localization: Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, PortugueseBR, Russian, SimpChinese, Spanish, TradChinese, Turkish.
If you don’t want write SytemLang=false in GlaryUtilitiesPortable.ini.
Settings of installed GlaryUtilities should be preserved.

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Glary Utilities PRO 2.17.0.776 Multilingual originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 5, 2009.

Take a “snapshot” of anything on your PC screen without installation.
Download Portable Snagit on RapidShare (18.1 MB)
(md5: c16cb159b79f71cde358d151809102c7)
Téléchargez Snagit Portable sur RapidShare (18.3 MB)
(md5: 7637e4f59b418e7b7520fe80644e464f)

Extract and run SnagitPortable.
Don’t forget to close if in systray when leaving.
Output set in Snagit (at the root of portable folder). If you want to fix paths yourself edit SnagitPortable.ini.
Settings of installed Snagit should be preserved.

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Snagit 9.1.3.19 En & Fr originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on October 28, 2009.

Take a “snapshot” of anything on your PC screen without installation.
Download Portable Snagit on RapidShare (18.1 MB)
(md5: c16cb159b79f71cde358d151809102c7)
Téléchargez Snagit Portable sur RapidShare (18.3 MB)
(md5: b47c28e91bc5f60f2e82bf0a62336b39)

Extract and run SnagitPortable.
Don’t forget to close if in systray when leaving.
Output set in Snagit (at the root of portable folder). If you want to fix paths yourself edit SnagitPortable.ini.
Settings of installed Snagit should be preserved.

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Snagit 9.1.3.19 En & 9.1.1.115 Fr originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on October 27, 2009.

Disk Image Management Utility without installation.
Download Portable WinImage on RapidShare (1.4 MB)

Extract and run WinImagePortable.
Language set by launcher according UserDefaultLang English, French, PortugueseBR, SimpChinese, German, Italian (if you don’t want: write UserDefaultLang=false in WinImagePortable.ini).
Can mount CD-ROM and Floppy images in virtual drives with FileDisk, don’t forget to unmount before leaving.
Settings of installed WinImage should be preserved.

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WinImage Pro 8.50 Multilingual originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on October 26, 2009.

Unlock files and folders with right click without installation.
Download Portable Unlocker on RapidShare (0.16 MB)

Extract and run UnlockerPortable.
Language fixed by launcher according User Default Lang : Albanian, Arabic, Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, PortugueseBR, Romanian, Russian, SerbianLatin, SimpChinese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, TradChinese, Turkish, Ukrainian.
Settings of installed Unlocker should be preserved.
Right click on a locked file or folder in explorer.
Don’t forget to quit Unlocker (tray icon) before shutting down Windows (don’t hide tray icon).

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Unlocker 1.8.8 Multilingual originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on October 26, 2009.

Quoted from source below:

I mentioned before that Windows XP does not allow concurrent sessions for its Remote Desktop feature. What this means is that if a user is logged on at the local console, a remote user has to kick him off (and ironically, this can be done even without his permission) before starting work on the box. This is irritating and removes much of the productivity that Remote Desktop brings to Windows. Read on to learn how to remove that limitation in Windows XP SP2

A much touted feature in SP2 (Service Pack 2) since then removed was the ability to do just this, have a user logged on locally while another connects to the terminal remotely. Microsoft however removed the feature in the final build. The reason probably is that the EULA (End User License Agreement) allows only a single user to use a computer at a time. This is (IMHO) a silly reason to curtail Remote Desktop’s functionality, so we’ll have a workaround.

Microsoft did try out the feature in earlier builds of Service Pack 2 and it is this that we’re going to exploit here. We’re going to replace termserv.dll (The Terminal Server) with one from an earlier build (2055).

To get Concurrent Sessions in Remote Desktop working, follow the steps below exactly:

1. Download the termserv.zip file below and extract it somewhere. (You have to be registered to see the file)
2. Reboot into Safe Mode. This is necessary to remove Windows File Protection.
3. Copy the termserv.dll in the zip to %windir%\System32 and %windir%\ServicePackFiles\i386. If the second folder doesn’t exist, don’t copy it there. Delete termserv.dll from the dllcache folder: %windir%\system32\dllcache
4. Merge the contents of Concurrent Sessions SP2.reg file into the registry.
5. Make sure Fast User Switching is turned on. Go Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Change the way users log on or off and turn on Fast User Switching.
6. Open up the Group Policy Editor: Start Menu > Run > ‘gpedit.msc’. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Terminal Services. Enable ‘Limit Number of Connections’ and set the number of connections to 3 (or more). This enables you to have more than one person remotely logged on.
7. Now reboot back into normal Windows and try out whether Concurrent Sessions in Remote Desktop works. It should!

If anything goes wrong, the termserv_sp2.dll is the original file you replaced. Just rename it to termserv.dll, reboot into safe mode and copy it back.

The termserv.dl_ file is provided in the zip is for you slipstreamers out there. Just replace that file with the corresponding file in the Windows installation disks.

Concurrent Remote Desktop Sessions in Windows XP SP2 originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on October 19, 2009.

Uninstaller Plus, StartUp Organizer, Process Killer, Disk Cleaner, File Shredder and File Protector without installation.
Download Portable MagicUtilities on RapidShare (1.5 MB)

Extract and run MagicUtilitiesPortable.
Language set by launcher according UserDefaultLang (if you don’t want: write UserDefaultLang=false in MagicUtilitiesPortable.ini).
Settings of installed MagicUtilities should be preserved.

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Magic Utilities 2009 6.01 En-Fr originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on October 18, 2009.