Product Description

Offering an overview of usability, testing, and information architecture for EPOC, WAP, PDAs, handhelds, and handsets, this how-to guide dives into the details about medium-specific issues and design strategies.
* Discusses designing for the current wireless platforms: cellular phones and PDAs
* Covers both stand alone as well as Web-based application design
* Contains a case study of a usability test

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #404710 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 271 pages

Book Info
A practical, hands-on guide to designing interfaces for handheld, electronic computing and communication devices, including e-mail pagers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and mobile telephone handsets. Softcover.

From the Back Cover
Handheld devices cannot be designed simply as copies of their desktop counterparts; they have smaller displays, trickier input mechanisms, less memory, reduced storage capacity, and less powerful operating systems. Understanding the specific challenges of technology on the move is the first step towards designing great products for handheld devices.

Handheld Usability is a practical, hands-on guide to designing interfaces for handheld, electronic computing and communication devices, including e-mail pagers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and mobile telephone handsets.

This book will give you the skills you need to:

* Understand the types of handheld devices and their differences

* Design user interfaces for handheld devices

* Design user interfaces for the wireless Web (WAP)

* Prototype user interfaces for handheld devices ?

* Conduct usability tests on prototypes and live, handheld product applications
Don't reinvent the wheel!

The lack of standardization in interface design doesn't mean that you have to start from scratch every time. This 'plain English' guide will help you to plan your own usability tests as part of the design and development process, and let you learn from insights on design gained from real life experience.

With so many handheld devices to choose from, usability can be a very powerful distinguishing factor. Well designed products mean happy users, and satisfied customers become loyal customers. With the help of Handheld Usability you can give the customer what they want, and get it right first time.

About the Author
SCOTT WEISS, Principal of Usable Products Company, is an Information Architect. Scott's design work can be seen on more than 90% of computer desktops worldwide, including elements of both Macintosh and Windows 95. He chairs the New York City chapter of ACM's SIG CHI, the Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction. He also chairs the New York New Media Association's Design Special Interest Group, and has taught for the Digital Design MFA program at Parsons' New School.

Usable Products Company (www.usableproducts.com) is an ease of use agency that conducts usability studies and designs information architecture for desktop and handheld web sites, software, and hardware products.

Customer Reviews

Was helpful for my final year dissertation
This was the only book specific to handheld/mobile devices that discussed usability testing.

It is divided into short, concise sections that are easy to read and understand. The sections form a good basis on how to approach designing and testing a system. It has some very good pointers. The only thing was that it was too short!

The book was very, very helpful but it wasn't long enough and doesn't provide working examples. It just tells you the points that you should be considering when you are building a usable system. It doesn't go too in depth on any of the sections either.

Essential
Zipf's law states that common words are very common, and that uncommon words are combinations of uncommon words. For example if you start typing the letters 'th' then you are probably trying to write the word 'the' rather than 'theologian'. Applying this simple insight to mobile phones gave us predictive text entry, where a small dictionary allows the phone to guess the word that the user is most likely trying to enter. For example if you press the keys '82' while entering a text message on a modern phone, the phone will predict 'the' as your word. This invention allows QWERTY-snobs like me to approach the speeds of Finnish teenagers in tapping text messages on a mobile phone.

Such innovation is just amusingly clever on a PC, but on the small screens of handheld devices, it is essential. A good user interface converts a small device from a limiting gadget to a useful tool. European consumers' 'wapathetic' response to WAP-enable phones was due to over hyping by the telecommunications industry, but also poor usability of the devices.
So a textbook on the topic is certainly appropriate.

Handheld usability defines handheld devices as highly portable machines that can operate with no cables and can be operated within one's hand. In addition, they must either allow the addition of applications or support internet connectivity. So the book's focus includes handheld computers (such as Palm-powered machines and Pocket PCs) and mobile phones (with WAP, i-mode or email connectivity) but excludes devices such as music players.

Naturally the discussion includes details of devices that are obsolete. Such is usually the case with any discussion of the details in information technology. But the principles are timeless and the practices will remain practical.
Perhaps the most useful chapter is the one on prototyping. Weiss' advice is that this should be done with a pen and several pieces of paper. For example the designer would draw the first screen on the paper. The user would then say what he or she expects to see on interacting with each element of the "screen". During this feedback, the designer would draw the next screen, and again ask the user what he or she expects. This technique is of course cheap but I was surprised by its effectiveness. No doubt Weiss' clients also found it useful.

If your team is designing applications for handheld devices, consider hiring Weiss. If you cannot afford that, buy his book. You cannot afford not to.

Review appeared in British Medical Informatics Today, Issue 41

Too bad
Don't buy this book.
I cannot find any usabiltiy testing technique in this book. Just explain what PDA and Palms are and all thing we already knew. Alsom appendix is too long.
I don't want to know Palm history. Why author explain detail about each funtion of Palm or PDA?
Save your money!