Presenting Choices in Mobile UX
I was on going through some TED presentations and happened upon one by Sheena Iyengar. Ms. Iyengar talked about How to Make Choosing Easier. Her research showed that when people are presented with too many choices, they freeze. Reducing choice actually improved engagement and increased revenue. She recommended these four steps to prevent choice overload: Cut Reduce the number of choices. As developers of products, we always try to give consumers the most choice. But it is possible to get too... (more...)
Five Steps to an Enterprise Mobile App
Most enterprises are looking to join the mobile craze, but most don’t know where to start. Worse yet, some leap without really looking. As with any project, in technology or the real world, one must build upon a good foundation in order to create a successful end product. Last week, I wrote a blog post at my company’s web site that talks about the 5 steps an enterprise should take before embarking on a project to create an enterprise app. The steps boil down to an acronym: ADIDS. Jump... (more...)
Engagement Goals Differ for Mobile
In an effort to go mobile, many enterprises simply moible-enable their web site. That is, they tweak their web site so that it can be viewed on a mobile devices. More sophisticated companies might even detect the device and change the appearance of their site to take advantage of the different screen sizes. However, just mobilizing a web site is missing an important opportunity. Consumers that engage companies through mobile devices don’t have the same objectives as when they engage through... (more...)
Android Not So Fragmented
A common complaint among mobile developers (iOS and Android alike) is that the Android platform is too fragmented. Too many screen sizes and resolutions make it difficult to develop for and impossible to test all the variations. While it’s true that there is a plethora of Android devices available, Android developers need only concentrate on a small subset of them. Research from Localytics shows that 83% of handsets in use consisted of one of four screen sizes (table 1). In addition, 76%... (more...)
I/O 2012 Sold Out in Less Than 30 Minutes
For the first time in years, I work for a company that has resources to send me to a developer’s conference. My conference of choice was Google I/O. I had read that I/O 2011 sold out in 59 minutes, so late last year, I scoured the Net for information on when registration would open for I/O 2012. I found that registration would be sometime in February. Life got busy and before I knew it, it was near the end of February. I was sure there was no point to see if I/O 2012 was still avaialble,... (more...)
10 Takeaways from Mobile March Twin Cities
I had the opportunity to attend Mobile March Twin Cities last weekend. The conference brings together developers and business people to allow them to network and chat about mobile trends. They had three tracks: technical, business, and general. I stayed mostly in the business track, but also attended one of the general sessions. Most of the talks were very informative and I came away with some great new information. Here’s what I learned: Foster Interactions Without Feeling Intrusive Guy... (more...)
Not the iPad 3
For months the rumor mills have been buzzing with the date of the release of the “iPad 3″. Finally, a few weeks ago, the date of March 7 was confirmed. A few days ago, word got out that it would be called the “iPad HD”. To everyone’s surprise, in today’s event, Tim Cook simply called it “the new iPad”. The 3rd generation iPad (as Cook called it once during the hour long presentation) touts a retina display, quad-core graphics, 5 megapixel camera... (more...)
Review : Contega iPad Case by Pad & Quill
I recently purchased a Contega iPad case for the iPad 2 that my day job generously allows me to carry. I instantly fell in love with this case when I first saw a story on the founders in the local newspaper. This case lives up to its billing. It’s well-made, elegant, and the iPad fits in it perfectly. In fact, it almost fits too tightly. It takes some doing to get the iPad out once it’s in. Just like a smart cover, the Contega has two stand positions. It can lay flat-ish like a keyboard... (more...)
The Loss of a Visionary
Few people can claim to have changed the world. Even less have made an impact on the way we live. Only one has done both. And more than once. In my post, The Visionary of a Generation, I recapped how Steve Jobs changed our lives up to that point. As I mentioned in that post, I couldn’t wait to see what his next great vision was. Less than a year later, he introduced the iPad. Once again, Jobs changed the way we viewed technology. But more than that, he changed the way common people and... (more...)
Android 101 : Solving the SDK Manager “Access is Denied” Message
As much as I’m a fan of Android, it is not without its frustrations. The first example of this was in learning how to move from one Activity to another. Recently, I’ve been getting an “Access is Denied” message when trying to upgrade packages within the Android SDK Manager. At first I thought it was a problem with a specific computer. Only one user existed on the laptop, so I was sure I was logged in as an Administrator and had administrator privileges. I couldn’t... (more...)
