Part 1 of my notes from a BayCHI talk given by Brennan Browne, a UX researcher at AnswerLab.
Trend 1 - Trading computer time for tablet time
- Why? It’s more fun, easy, convenient.
- Computer: in the home office vs. Tablet: comes everywhere
- Tablets are portable, not necessarily mobile - possibly because need wifi (not all are 3G enabled)
- Over past 6 months, see trend of more people using tablet at work - more employers are handing them out, there are more biz-related apps available
- People are afraid of taking iPad outside of home, Starbucks, work, or other places where they feel safe (i.e. not public transit) because they fear theft
- Choice of device to use isn’t based on where user is– it’s about what user wants to do.
- Phone: quickly checking something
- Tablet: immersive - plan to sit down with for a longer period of time
- Computer: for tasks that require more management/multitasking/typing
- People prefer typing on everything (i.e. phone, computer) except a tablet
- Did see people using bluetooth keyboards primarily if they’re trying to replace their computer with an iPad (although would still often have to turn back to a computer for other reasons)
- Whichever device is most convenient at the time will often be the one they choose to use. For example, they might pull their phone out of their pocket while on the couch, rather than getting up to grab a computer from another room.
Trend 2: The tablet and shared experiences
- Tablet is commonly shared amongst family members
- In the past 3 months more common to have multiple iPads within a house– “I got tired to sharing it so I got everyone in my house one”– much like what happened when computers were growing in popularity
- Shared nature can lead to some problems because no built in multiuser support in iPad & very limited in Android. Puts the responsibility for multi-account support on the app developer
- Facebook tries to support this (to view this, sign out of the FB iPad app and see ability to create other accounts)
Trend 3: Apps vs Web
- Many users are content to use the web on iPad - they expect to be able to access the full version of the website and to have the same level of functionality that they would have from the computer
- Example of a bad app: Target (users felt they were being forced to leave the app to view product details on the website which broke their experience - “what’s the point of even using the app?”)
- Example of a good app: Zappos (users get full functionality of the website, plus ability to interact with pictures, better shopping cart experience, etc.)
- Best Practice: give lightweight help to users during their first use experience, then make help content available (but not in their face) going forward
- Best Practice: use universal app instead of having a separate iPhone/iPad app if possible or users might not realize that you have a different version of the app in the App Store
- Best Practice: website interrupts that alert you that an app is available is fine unless it impedes the web experience (ex: people were frustrated by Yelp which asks them to download the app each time they visit the website). Using a banner or sending an email may be even more preferable.
- People generally update their apps within a month
- See lots of people syncing their iPads to computer, but it’s not as common as syncing their smartphone
- Did observe some users saving websites to their home screens, but these were generally more tech-savvy users or those who didn’t care for apps
- Saw a mix of people who did/didn’t want push notifications. Best Practice: don’t ask users whether they want to accept push notifications until they’ve spent some time within the app and have an idea of how/why notifications might be useful to them
Overall Design Recommendations
1. Design for a “small laptop”, not a “big phone”
- Create fast, intuitive, full featured experiences that are fun to use and better than the web
2. Full web
- People expect a full website when browsing on the iPad browser, so ensure your site is optimized to deliver a great experience.
- Ex: use HTML5 to customize the keyboard when typing in a datafield
3. Content over context
- Location-specific experiences that are king on smartphones may not be as important on tablets because they aren’t necessarily being brought everywhere
- Instead, focus on rich content and superb UI (especially taking advantage of video & photo)
4. Shared device
- Consider social nature of the device when design log in components, how data is stored, and anything involving transactions/ecommerce
- Ex: Amazon app allows users to view recommendations/watch list without signing in, but user is prompted for password when making a purchase
5. Security fears
- People have no clue about security on a tablet. In all of their testing, they’ve never seen someone who’s set up a passcode on the iPad. The people who are the most tech savvy are the least afraid of security risks… but non-savvy users are more afraid about persistent log in and entering credit card info and will sometimes go back to a computer when they’re required to input credit card credentials
- Tip: reassure users that the privacy/security of your app/website on the iPad are the same as what they’ll find on the computer
In part 2 of this post, I’ll summarize Brennan’s recommendations regarding smartphone/tablet usability testing.