New Rules for Mobile Commerce
The difference between a good user experience and a bad user experience is not a list of bullet points. You can't compare two experiences by simply making a list of features. Yes, certain features are often prerequisite, but simply adding features will not turn a bad experience into a good one.
Compare Yahoo Messenger and Skype, for example. At the time that Skype was launched, Yahoo Messenger had every single feature that Skype had, yet Skype found a huge following. If people were desperate for Skype's features, why weren't they already satisified with Yahoo Messenger?
It's about sublety. It's not enough to have the features; the features have to be implemented nicely. Sure, early adopter techies will use a product with good features poorly implemented, because they need the features and have a large tolerance for pain. But mass adoption doesn't happen, until the features are presented in a way that doesn't cause continual (albeit small) feelings of annoyance at every mouse click.
At the time Skype was launched, Yahoo Messenger had voice. To use it though, you first had to establish an IM session. Then you had to start voice. Then you had to activate hands-free operations. Yes, the feature was there, but it took a concerted effort to use it, each and every time you wanted to use it.
Skype users are always two clicks away from a voice conversation. Apparently, two clicks makes the usability cut, whereas the extra steps on Yahoo turned a capable feature into a pointless feature.
Let's apply lessons learned to wireless content. The carriers are trying to increase ARPU (average revenue per user) by pushing wireless data plans. To get users interested, the carriers are adding more content, more bullet points. Unfortunately, they aren't making it easy enough to get to the content. In fact, with each content addition, the "carrier deck" increases in size and makes it more difficult to reach the content!
The new mantra in the wireless is to decrease the number of clicks to find content. A rule of thumb in the wireless industry is that, with each additional click, you lose 30% of the users. If you have 100 users ready to buy something, and it takes 10 clicks to do so, then 3 of them will end up buying.
Here are new rules for designing a user experience on mobile devices:
Compare Yahoo Messenger and Skype, for example. At the time that Skype was launched, Yahoo Messenger had every single feature that Skype had, yet Skype found a huge following. If people were desperate for Skype's features, why weren't they already satisified with Yahoo Messenger?
It's about sublety. It's not enough to have the features; the features have to be implemented nicely. Sure, early adopter techies will use a product with good features poorly implemented, because they need the features and have a large tolerance for pain. But mass adoption doesn't happen, until the features are presented in a way that doesn't cause continual (albeit small) feelings of annoyance at every mouse click.
At the time Skype was launched, Yahoo Messenger had voice. To use it though, you first had to establish an IM session. Then you had to start voice. Then you had to activate hands-free operations. Yes, the feature was there, but it took a concerted effort to use it, each and every time you wanted to use it.
Skype users are always two clicks away from a voice conversation. Apparently, two clicks makes the usability cut, whereas the extra steps on Yahoo turned a capable feature into a pointless feature.
Let's apply lessons learned to wireless content. The carriers are trying to increase ARPU (average revenue per user) by pushing wireless data plans. To get users interested, the carriers are adding more content, more bullet points. Unfortunately, they aren't making it easy enough to get to the content. In fact, with each content addition, the "carrier deck" increases in size and makes it more difficult to reach the content!
The new mantra in the wireless is to decrease the number of clicks to find content. A rule of thumb in the wireless industry is that, with each additional click, you lose 30% of the users. If you have 100 users ready to buy something, and it takes 10 clicks to do so, then 3 of them will end up buying.
Here are new rules for designing a user experience on mobile devices:
- Users know what they want, and they don't want to browse. When a user is ready to buy the new Diddy ring tone, don't have them browse the catalog; they'll simply get distracted and buy nothing.
- Reduce the number of clicks. Dramatically. It usually takes several clicks from the home screen before the user can even start interacting with mobile data. There are 25 buttons on even the most basic cell phone. Why are 20 of them dedicated to making phone calls? If you want to increase ARPU with mobile data, then change the focus of the whole device.
- Make pages longer. Devices are no longer constrained to 1,500 characters per page. Don't make the user read one page then wait for the next one to load. Instead, make the pages long, so that the user can read the first part of the page while the rest is loading.
- Use pictures. The networks are very fast now. Pictures make content much more compelling. Add more pictures, not fewer.
- Forget the distractions. You want to optimize the likelihood of selling a ring tone for $3.00. Why would you even think of distracting the user with any kind of advertisment or cross promotion?
posted by Tim at 11:05 AM
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