How people really use the iPhone
October, 2008 Bill Westerman, Principal
Who is Create with Context?
We are a strategic design and research firm focused on web, mobile, desktop, and consumer electronics applications We help companies with complex, strategic innovation projects: reinventing existing digital products, inventing entirely new digital products, and bridging the gap between physical products and the digital world
Consumer and business-to-business behaviors Ecommerce and social commerce Social media and communities Internationalization and multi-cultural experiences Multiplatform products (such as consumer electronics+web+ecommerce)
Clients range from the Fortune 500 to technology startups Founded 2005, with headquarters in Santa Clara, California
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What well talk about today: Our research How people really use the iPhone Purchasing applications Eight rules of thumb
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Our research
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Research goals
Understand how people interact with the iPhone platform What works, what doesnt work, and why? Are there mismatches between expectations and platform? Where are there usability and/or usefulness issues? Where does the iPhone UI excel, and where doesnt it? Observe how the mass market - not the experts - uses the iPhone
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Research approach and structure
Combination of in-lab and expert heuristic evaluation Interviewed blend participants at our Santa Clara research lab People who currently own iPhones People who have hands-on knoweldge of the iPhone, but do not own one People who had never touched an iPhone Research focus on older, non-trendy demographic Ages ranging from 30-55 Based on previous research, this target market has disposable income and purchases technology for self-consumption Participant session structure Funnel approach, beginning with broad interview Followed by specific tasks and workflows
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How people really use the iPhone
Copyright 2008 Create with Context, Inc. All rights reserved.
How people really use the iPhone
As iPhone developers, its tempting to believe that everyone knows how to use all of the iPhone applications and interactions In our research, however, we found that take-up of interactions - even when these were consistent across applications - was often quite slow And even expert users were not aware of the ins-and-outs of every interaction for example, our expert participants didnt know the two-finger single tap to zoom out on Google Maps
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Browsing the New York Times website
Placement of text box mirrors the desktop browser, suggesting that URLs go here
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Browsing the New York Times website
None of the novice users understood the use of the (X) button
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Browsing the New York Times website
And some novices thought it was the Go button like in early IE
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Browsing the New York Times website
Users quickly figured out that they could swipe to scroll, in part due to clipped lines
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Browsing the New York Times website
The magnifying glass took me out of the (New York Times) and into Google.
However, when they needed to zoom, users became confused Theres a book here. Does that mean you can read?
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Browsing the New York Times website
Definitely not what was expected
I keep thinking the plus sign is to make it larger
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Browsing the New York Times website
But this wasnt what they expected to see
Some felt this icon would zoom them out to the entire page
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Setting an alarm
All users quickly found the Alarm button
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Setting an alarm
In this instance, the (+) was easy to find
The spinning dials were relatively intuitive for all users However, some novices began their swipes outside of the widget
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Setting an alarm
And then deleting is visually highlighted, but not editing
When asked to change an alarm, many users tapped on the time, instead of Edit
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Creating a calendar entry
Most users first hit the right arrow to get to November
Although several tried to swipe horizontally
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Creating a calendar entry
When they could have pressed the (+) right at the beginning And then they selected the first of the month
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Finding the current location on the map
100% of participants found the crosshairs
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Searching for a Starbucks
Users guessed that the highlighted shop was the closest, but were not sure
When Address Book entries appeared, some felt they had entered the wrong mode
I guess it's this one, but Im not sure if that's why one of them has a pop-up balloon
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Searching for a Starbucks
One participant felt that the blue arrow itself pointed to the location of the Starbucks
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Seeing a satellite image
Novices zoomed in by tapping; experts by unpinching
Users chose this button out of trial and error, not visual affordance
One user exited Maps twice trying to get back to Map view, because forgot about this icon
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Finding a video on YouTube
However, many hit the blue arrow, rather than the video itself
All participants quickly gravitated to Search
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Finding a video on YouTube
When landing on this page, participants tapped the video thumbnail
All participants were comfortable with the display auto-rotating
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Playing Air Hockey
Real-world affordances make it possible to play immediately, with no instructions needed
Direct, 1:1 manipulation brought a smile to every participants face
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Koi Pond
Direct, immediate feedback to exploratory manipulation worked well to engage users
However, (i) button disappears, leaving users to wonder how to configure application
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Koi Pond
Most users picked up on direct, real-time display of changes to settings
Most tapped the water to close the drawer, but one pushed it to the bottom to close
However, one said I was expecting more instant feedback
Lack of strong highlighting caused confusion as to which options were selected
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Playing Labyrinth
Level selection was difficult as users had to click on this icon rather than the text
Theres no real way to see how to choose the level pack.
Real-world, direct manipulation was easy for all users to pick up
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Purchasing applications
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Purchasing applications
We also investigated participant attitudes and behaviors surrounding the purchase of applications through the on-phone iPhone App Store Attitudes towards ratings and reviews closely mirrored those seen in research we have performed for desktop browser-based ecommerce Participants provided insights into whats considered - at first glance - a good or trustworthy application
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Find and purchase a To Do application
Clipped icon and stars helped users see that the list was scrollable
All participants quickly gravitated to Search
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Icon design
Initial perception of application quality is largely influenced by icon design
Nice and crisp [icon] does have a big impact on my actually going to look at what that is. If it was a poorlydesigned icon, I'd go right past.
Bright red feels like it's saying error, don't take this one. I also like vibrant colors a hi-res icon
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Application names
For some users, catchy names get their attention
But when looking to launch an app, simple names were found more quickly
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Star ratings
Star ratings can influence purchases, but are taken with a grain of salt
Ill still give it the benefit of the doubt [if it has a bad review].
If a friend of mine liked it, I would try it [even though it had negative reviews.]
The reviews I will go in and check them out, I wont get swayed by the stars
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Star ratings
The reviews I will go in and check them out, I wont get swayed by the stars
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Application pricing
$4.99 is reasonable Seems reasonable Would be a good price, although Id be more willing to pay that for something like Quicken than for a memo pad. Its not bad I'll do research to see if I should buy it. That seems pretty inexpensive. If it was something I wanted badly enough to go looking for it, I wouldn't be hesitant to [buy it].
$4.99
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Application pricing
I'd wonder what it was, does it really have that much value to me? Anything sub-$5 may not be a money-making enterprise, or has malware. I usually look at the apps that are Free or cost around $0.99 because I've gotten to used to the iTunes store (for music). Very good, very easy to buy. $0.99 means its been around a long time, theres a promotion going on, or its not a complex app. Not a huge difference (from $4.99)
$0.99
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Application pricing
Seems reasonable to me for a World Clock widget with timezones, I'd pay that. Not a lot of money would not be expensive, considering Im doing it from an iPhone that costs hundreds of dollars.
$14.99
There's so much that's free $14.99 seems like an awful lot to pay. That's how much we used to pay for kids' software on the PC. I'd do extensive research, but I'd buy it. If [turnby-turn GPS] was $50, I'd buy it right away. If you can get a PS3 XBOX game for $30-40, then $15-20 seems expensive for this platform.
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Application pricing
"Free trials, I love those." If it's $4.99 and they don't have a trial version, I'd say forget it. I would not blindly pay for it, even if it did get a good review.
Free demo
I want a demo. I liked [Blue Skies Light] enough to buy the full version. I'd like to get the real app with a timeout. Light versus full creates confusion - are you getting all the features in the light version? If it worked out for me, I'd purchase whatever it was once the free one expired.
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Application safety
In many research studies we have done, users are especially wary of installing applications from third parties Concerned about viruses Worried about recurring surcharges and SMS spam Dont entirely trust the application provider (download website) These concerns were repeated among novice users [Worried about] breaking it temporarily, because I depend so much on my phone I would think twice about apps Im downloading. If apps are not well-known to me, I wouldnt do it. I've done things in the past years that have spammed my whole list of friends, things like that. Theres a security concern when you download anything.
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Application safety
Although advanced users largely trusted that Apple had vetted things in the App Store, they still felt that a bad app could access or damage iPhone data Apple has made [installing applications] so painfully straightforward, [that] I'm not actually quite sure what's going on. I'd like warning to know when the app is touching phone data. If there's just one review and it's a location-based thing, I'll wait. But if it has 300 reviews then I'll pretty much take their word for it.
if it has 300 reviews then I'll pretty much take their word for it.
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Eight rules of thumb
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1. Take advantage of learned behaviors
Users (especially novices) were most successful when they could transfer a specific behavior from one application to the next Make sure to follow both the recommended UI guidelines as well as any undocumented (but de-facto) cues in the built-in applications
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1. Take advantage of learned behaviors
Search boxes at the top of the screen Search boxes at the top of the screen
Search boxes at the top of the screen
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1. Take advantage of learned behaviors
Major areas of functionality across the bottom
Major areas of functionality across the bottom
Major areas of functionality across the bottom
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2. Avoid interaction inconsistencies
While the UI guidelines are fairly consistent regarding how the various interactions work, there areas of conceptual inconsistencies For instance, most things in the interface can be directly manipulated by tapping; however, for others users need to first tap the Edit button
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2. Avoid interaction inconsistencies
Blue arrow to see details
Blue arrow to see details Gray arrow to see details?
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2. Avoid interaction inconsistencies
(+) to create a new calendar entry
(+) to create a new world clock
Create a new bookmark different icon, different location?
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2. Avoid interaction inconsistencies
Upper-left: Continue this activity, go down a level
Upper-left: Go back from here, pop up a level
Upper-left: Cancel this activity, pop up a level
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2. Avoid interaction inconsistencies
Tap Edit first, then interact with the item? Directly tap to take action (editing) Directly tap to take action (get directions)
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3. Provide clear conceptual link across widgets
Some did not readily understand link between buttons and search field
URL manipulation is in two locations
And page manipulation is in two locations
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4. Put space between action widgets
One novice hit (+) instead of (>)
And became very confused when they landed in Add Event Danger! Delete and Go side-by-side
I want it to take me [to December] when I press on [the arrow]
Put action buttons far way from data entry buttons, especially if action is substantial
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5. Plan for accidental overswiping
Several users accidentally hit Top 25 when trying to scroll vertically
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6. Dont rely exclusively on multi-touch
Some users found pinching and unpinching to be cumbersome
I assume whatever I touch is going to take me to somewhere else on the phone.
I get the model, but my manual dexterity (wont let me do it)
Provide multiple methods to achieve the same action
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7. Provide visual feedback for taps
I want it to go there when I press it
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7. Provide visual feedback for taps
Grow Add Event pane from the upper-right Wrap entire pane off of the left, bringing new one on from the right
Sweeping motion to the left to indicate erasure
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8. Provide interaction affordances
All novice participants figured out they could drag to scroll horizontally Images show through header to indicate vertical scrolling is possible
(Interestingly, one said I buy music now without knowing what the cover art is)
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Eight rules of thumb for iPhone app development
1 Take advantage of learned behaviors Oh, this works just like the calendar 2 Avoid interaction inconsistencies This is weird, cancel is usually over there 3 Provide clear conceptual link across widgets This button must be related to that box, theyre next to each other 4 Put space between action widgets Oh man, I didnt mean to send that SMS! 5 Plan for accidental overswiping I keep accidentally changing to a different screen 6 Don't rely exclusively on multi-touch Its hard to do this while Im holding something in the other hand 7 Provide visual feedback for taps Did I hit that button? Im not sure. 8 Provide interaction affordances Its obvious that youre supposed to swipe left-and-right.
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Thank you!
Bill Westerman [email protected]
