Handheld Devices Functionality Testing — Why That Matters

Mobile phone and PDA usability testing is critical on your business. Actually mobile and handheld user friendliness testing could be even more important than computer-based usability testing. The main reasons for this are:

— The number of persons accessing the world wide web from portable and handheld devices is normally increasing in a massive level – in 2008 upon it’s own there’ll become an estimated 49.50 million PDAs sold all over the world.

— People generally have a lot less experience of employing their mobile to travel online than they do of using their computer system. This means that computer-based users may be assumed to get a higher level of existing expertise than mobile and handheld users.

– The platform through which users gain access to your site is certainly far less foreseen when using mobile phones. Computer-based prospects generally simply differ from one another in their web browser and operating-system (i. at the. most people will make use of a screen, mouse and keyboard), whereas the various types of mobile phones and PDAs differ can drastically.

Which in turn mobile phones and PDAs should you consider?

Mobile phone devices and PDAs can differ from one another dramatically, and this should radically alter how people experience and use websites. Some of the ways in which handheld products can differ involve:

– Screen size (small vs . large)

– Display screen layout (portrait vs . landscape)

— Input unit (stylus, www.seethatwonder.com numeric keypad, dial-wheel, QWERTY keypad)

Because the cellphone / PDA that somebody is applying will have these kinds of a serious effect on their very own experience of your internet site, you should try to check with as many mobile phones and PDAs as is possible.

Of course , screening with every cellphone and PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANT is not possible. Here are some ways to help reduce the number of devices you’ll need to test out with:

— Your cellular site visitors may possibly belong to a specialized audience. Certain audiences usually prefer particular types of phones (e. g. handsets with big screens that will support over the internet access versus small-screen designs that aren’t).
– You will find ‘phone families’ that offer a very similar user encounter (and is not going to need to be tested individually).
– You may only want to test together with the most popular mobile phones in Europe and also the most well-liked models that are to be used to get your site (you can look at your site stats to find out this kind of information).

Who do you need to test with?

The people you would like to conduct the mobile phone simplicity testing classes with can, of course , be based upon your particular organization and its readership. Some things to keep in mind include:

– How much experience they should include of employing their mobile phones to get into services. This can be particularly crucial as the market intended for accessing on the net services through mobile phones keeps growing and the percent of ‘complete novices’ (i. e. persons using the technology for the first time) will be far higher than for the purpose of computer users of the website.
– Which cellular phone or PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANT they have. We might usually suggest that people work with their own mobile phone in a treatment, so the test out can focus on your website without on the way the handheld device functions.

Where should mobile phone usability evaluating sessions be conducted?

Cell phones and PDAs are used in the real world thus usability assessment of handheld devices ought to therefore not simply take place in a usability laboratory.

Where, when ever and how a mobile phone can be used is critical into a person’s connection with the site they are simply accessing. Many of the following instances could influence this experience and therefore things to consider of the web site’s usability:

– Lighting
– Background noises
– Distractions
– Concurrent tasks (i. e. nearly anything the person is doing at the same time)
– Physical movement

As such, there was recommend, whenever possible, that virtually any mobile phone and PDA functionality testing is definitely conducted at a lab and also in the ‘outside world’.

How you system and operate mobile phone functionality sessions depends on your organization and its target audience, but the many popular methods of mobile wonderful testing include:

– Lab-based (using a camera to record the session)
– Diary-studies (asking people to continue a journal of how they have used the mobile phone and any problems they encounter)
– Paper prototypes (running usability tests on a paper-based version belonging to the site, using mobile phone screen-sized pieces of paper)