Mobile Usability Update (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox) - 0 views
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There's no need to declare this "the year of mobile." If anything, last year was the year of mobile in terms of the growth in both mobile usage and the availability of mobile sites and apps. Now, however, it's time to redesign your mobile site, because your existing version is probably far below users' growing expectations for user experience quality.
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In addition to user testing, we also conducted 2 rounds of diary studies to discover how people use mobile devices in their everyday life. One diary study was in the U.S.; the other included participants from Australia, The Netherlands, Romania, Singapore, the U.K., and the U.S. In total, 27 people participated in the diary studies, providing us data about 172 person-days of mobile activities. Again, participants had a wide range of jobs, from bookkeeper to football coach.
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It's interesting to consider the difference between mouse-driven desktop design and gesture-driven touchscreen design here. Desktop websites have a strong guideline to avoid horizontal scrolling. But for touch-screens, horizontal swipes are often fine. Indeed, mobile-device users typically expect to horizontally swipe their way through a carousel.