Micah Boswell: Designing for the Emerging Experience

We live in very exciting times!  We’re seeing a such an incredible revolution in technology, especially in regards to how technology adapts to our day-to-day.  But with every new device or gadget comes a series of design challenges.  How can we maximize the experience in a way that makes sense for that device, and with that target market?  I’ve recently been working on a series of exciting mobile applications for an informal project proposal at Broadlane, and what I’ve learned has been both an affirmation of timeless methods for understanding the business goals, and a testament to the growing disparate nature of devices and their respective experiences.

Always Define Your Fundamentals:  The Experience Principles, and Your Core Audience

There are fundamental truths within the experience realm that don’t change over time.  Use of negative space to accentuate elements, use of the Golden Triangle to balance out content and graphics, and so on.  As well, the absolute need to understand and test with one’s target market has never been more important.  Touch and Swipe navigation has been wildly successful, especially as compared to the universal remote.  It’s still a rare occasion that I meet a focus group participant that understands how to fully use a remote for control of both TV options and Movie-Access options.

Getting to Brass Tacks

But with so many new devices now emerging into the market, the urgency is even more important – how do we appropriately translate Experience principles and guidelines to disparate screen sizes (Virgin Atlantic Seat TV Consoles to the Galaxy Tab), disparate methods of accessing device options (Blu Ray 52 inch Smart TV remote to the Touch and Swipe ease of the iPhone) and disparate audiences (Two emerging and disparate audiences for the Tablet are toddlers and the Aging.)  As experience ‘explorers’, there are two things we can do.  We can watch the big boys do it, or we can carve our own path with the full understanding that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the ‘error’ part of ‘trial and error’.  Many organizations are watching Apple, Sony and Microsoft for the best way to manage the experience on an emerging device, while others are sticking to reliable testing methods to track the success (and failure) of experiences.  Regardless of the path one takes, there should never be a wholesale abandonment of the testing process.  Even when one fully emulates Apple’s Touch and Swipe Gesturing, it’s still critical to test its effectiveness with your experience using time-tested methods such as ‘User Acceptance Testing’, both ‘Heuristic and Non-Heuristic Lab Testing’, and ‘Contextual Interviews’.  There are many other kinds of tests and reviews that can help validate or invalidate assumptions as to the implementation of the experience.

A New Challenge.  The Mobile Device

I love designing for mobile devices.  However, It’s been an interesting learning experience to plan and design a consistent experience when working with both the iPhone and the Android.  The iPhone and iPad approach are very consistent and approachable because software and hardware anticipate each other, because both were made by the same manufacturer.  In Android’s case, your challenge is to step back and make sure you understand the what ‘lowest common denominator’ means, as you’ll have disparate hardware platforms with disparate capacities for screen resolution, battery life and memory.  Android experience design is broken down into densities.  Low, medium and high.  The best place to understand this is at Android’s dev site here.  Just be aware – if you create low density graphics and your app is launched on a high density screen, you will be sorely disappointed.  As well, remember to design with the font called ‘Droid’.  I know I’ve gone into some detail regarding Android, and not the iPhone or the iPad – the learning curve for designing for Android is just very fresh on my mind.

The Emerging Experience Isn’t Ultimately About the Technology

The Emerging Experience Isn’t About the Technology  it’s about the user.  Yes, yes, I’m stating the obvious, and everyone knows that.  But trust me, it’s easy to forget this when you’re diving deep into the technical specifications of a particular device.  The critical ‘zen’ mindset to keep in mind is that those tech specs are a means to an end.  Then end is the user, and her/his tasks.