ptg Download from www.wowebook.com ptg Designing the iPhone User Experience Download from www.wowebook.com ptg This page intentionally left blank Download from www.wowebook.com ptg Designing the iPhone User Experience A User-Centered Approach to Sketching and Prototyping iPhone Apps SUZANNE GINSBURG Upper Saddle River, NJ • Boston • Indianapolis • San Francisco New York • Toronto • Montreal • London • Munich • Paris • Madrid Capetown • Sydney • Tokyo • Singapore • Mexico City Download from www.wowebook.com ptg Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters or in all capitals. e author and publisher have taken care in the preparation of this book, but make no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the information or programs contained herein. e publisher oers excellent discounts on this book when ordered in quantity for bulk purchases or special sales, which may include electronic versions and/or custom covers and content particular to your business, training goals, marketing focus, and branding interests. For more information, please contact: U.S. Corporate and Government Sales (800) 382-3419 corpsales@pearsontechgroup.com For sales outside the United States, please contact: International Sales international@pearson.com Visit us on the Web: informit.com/aw Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ginsburg, Suzanne. Designing the iPhone user experience : a user-centered approach to sketching and prototyping iPhone apps / Suzanne Ginsburg. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-321-69943-5 (pbk.) 1. iPhone (Smartphone)—Programing. 2. Application soware—Development. I. Title. QA76.8.I64G56 2010 005.1—dc22 2010021718 Copyright © 2011 Suzanne Ginsburg All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. is publication is protected by copy- right, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. For information regarding permissions, write to: Pearson Education, Inc. Rights and Contracts Department 501 Boylston Street, Suite 900 Boston, MA 02116 Fax: (617) 671-3447 ISBN-13: 978-0-321-69943-5 ISBN-10: 0-321-69943-2 Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at Courier in Kendallvi lle, Indiana. First printing, August 2010 Editor-in-Chief Karen Gettman Senior Acquisitions Editor Chuck Toporek Managing Editor John Fuller Full-Service Production Manager Julie B. Nahil Copy Editor Barbara Wood Indexer WordWise Publishing Services Proofreader Christine Clark Technica l Reviewers Marion Buchenau, Nancy Frishberg, Patrick Jean, Christian Rohrer, Mirjana Spasojevic, Mike Shields, Brian Arnold, Dan Grover, and August Trometer Editorial Assistant Romny French Interior Design and Composition Bumpy Design Cover Designer Chuti Prasertsith Download from www.wowebook.com ptg To Mom and Dad, who have always been inquisitive, supportive, and encouraging. Download from www.wowebook.com ptg This page intentionally left blank Download from www.wowebook.com ptg CONTENTS vii Contents Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv We’d Like to Hear from You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvii Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxix About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxi PART ONE: iPhone Application and Device Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 1: iPhone Application Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Utility Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Minimal Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Simple Layouts and Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Standard User Interface Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Utility App Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Productivity Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Hierarchical Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Accelerators and Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Productivity App Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Immersive Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Focus on the Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Customized User Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Immersive App Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter 2: iPhone Device Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Reviewing the iPhone and iPod Touch’s Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Multi-Touch Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Supported Gestures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Custom Gestures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Light, Proximity, and Motion Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Ambient Light Sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Proximity Sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Motion Sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Location and Compass Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Location Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Compass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Download from www.wowebook.com ptg viii CONTENTS Bluetooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Still and Video Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Image Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Image Enhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Image Recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Microphone and Speaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 PART TWO: Defining Your iPhone App . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Chapter 3: Introduction to User Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Common User Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 What Will I Learn? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 How Is Up-front User Research Dierent from Usability Research? . . . . . . 42 How Much Is is Going to Cost Me? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Two Week s Is St il l To o Long; W hat Are My Alternat ives? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Shadowing and User Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Shadowing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Field Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Interviews with Subject Matter Experts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Phone Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Street Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Focus Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Documenting User Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Still Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Diary Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Choosing a Research Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 No Clear App Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Rough App Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Existing App . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Planning Your Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Purpose and Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Study Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 User Proles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Questions for Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Report Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Download from www.wowebook.com ptg CONTENTS ix Recruiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Screener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Number of Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Facilitating Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Ask Open-Ended Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Look for Concrete Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Probe What’s Not ere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Capture Relevant Artifacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Wrap-up and Debrief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Related Research Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Chapter 4: Analyzing User Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Share the Wealth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Analyze Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Handwritten Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Transcripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Verbat im Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Document Implications and Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 Report Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Methodology and Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Tea m Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Participant Proles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Presenting the Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Create Design Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Personas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 User Journeys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Revise the Product Denition Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Case Study 1: Windspire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Case Study 2: Aardvark Mobile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Chapter 5: Evaluating the Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Benets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 What to Avoid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Needs Alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Inspiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Apps to Include . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Download from www.wowebook.com [...]... of iPhone app development: the coding, the marketing, the customer support All of the elements must come together Designing the iPhone User Experience will help you tackle the user experience part of the iPhone challenge Three key themes will be reinforced throughout the book: know thy user, the design life cycle, and attention to detail Know Thy User Millions of people depend on iPhone apps to get them... terminology User experience design and user- centered design are most synonymous with the book’s overarching goals: • User experience design According to Donald Norman, User experience design [abbreviated to UX or UE] deals with all aspects of the user s interaction with the product: how it’s perceived, learned, and used.”2 In the case of the iPhone, these “aspects” can include everything from the interaction... aspects of the user experience: the user interface, visual design, branding, accessibility, and localization Case studies are included throughout the book to illustrate how other companies approach user experience design • Part One: iPhone Application and Device Overview” The chapters in this part provide the grounding and foundation you’ll need for the rest of the book You’ll learn about the iPhone Human... possible without the support of many talented individuals The first person who paved the way was Raven Zachary, the president of Small Society We met when he was presenting on an iPhone panel at the Web 2.0 Summit in the fall of 2008 Raven encouraged me to start my iPhone user experience blog, iPhone UX Reviews (www.iphoneuxreviews), which led me to Tim Burks, the founder of the Silicon Valley iPhone Developer... chapter reviews accessibility on the iPhone, with specific attention to VoiceOver compatibility Additionally, the chapter explains how to localize the user experience of your app, covering both built-in and custom solutions The book wraps up with a look to the future of the iPhone and how its evolution may impact the user experience Case Studies Parts Two through Four contain iPhone app case studies, which... since they are familiar to users iPhone designers should also learn about the hardware that defines the iPhone user experience Having this knowledge may inspire creative app solutions, for example, augmented reality apps combine the compass, GPS, and camera The chapters you’ll find in Part One are the following: • Chapter 1, iPhone Application Overview,” discusses the HIG, with an emphasis on the three... (Chapter 4) The Windspire app helps users determine whether they have enough wind for a turbine and how much money they could save with one In the early design phase, the company conducted field research to understand the needs of potential customers • Case Study 2: Aardvark Mobile (Chapter 4) The Aardvark iPhone app lets users ask friends and friends of friends for advice while on the go The company... and more! These individuals will appreciate the “guerrilla” user research methods outlined in the book They will also enjoy reading the case studies, which show how companies big and small approach user- centered design As their companies grow, entrepreneurs can use this book to help build their own user experience team of iPhone designers and researchers • Developers Developers who are new to user- centered... “An Agile Approach to iPhone Development,” caught the attention of Chuck Toporek, who is now my editor at Addison-Wesley Chuck recognized the need for a book on the iPhone user experience At the time there were plenty of iPhone programming books but not one on iPhone app design Although Chuck and I saw eye to eye on the book’s vision, I was uncertain about writing an entire book on the subject But Chuck,... consider the ever-growing field of Twitter clients There are hundreds of variations in the App Store, but only a handful stand out from the pack (such as Tweetie and Twitterific) For most apps, it boils down to one thing: the user experience The same is true for countless other categories within the App Store; well-designed apps are more likely to attract and retain users Of course there are other critical . development: the coding, the marketing, the customer support. All of the elements must come together. Designing the iPhone User Experience will help you tackle the. help you tackle the user experience part of the iPhone challenge. ree key themes will be reinforced throughout the book: know thy user, the design life