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“It’s the User Experience, Stupid”
Well, we’re back from Barcelona, and what a wonderful trip it was. The panel discussion in which I participated was standing room only, attended by over 300 people. What a pity that the report upon which most blogs are relying was so determined to find us panelists confounded. Ah, well.
We were five panelists, representing different segments of the mobile industry: Lucia Predolin of Buongiorno (content provider), Mike Yonker of Texas Instruments (chipset manufacturer), Anup Murarka of Adobe Systems (interface environment), Marc Steen of TNO (ethnographic and user research), and moi. Bruno Bensaid of MobileMonday Shanghai ably moderated (venture capital).
Despite coming from very different directions, we all agreed that User Experience is going to be the prime driver of the mobile industry going forward. That alone should highlight the importance of all things usability. Each of us offered insight and direction for improving User Experience at the level of our influence, which (to me) painted a powerful picture of how much room there really is for truly great interface to be designed. I hope that others enjoyed the session and learned as much from it as I did.
Attending the Mobile World Congress (the conference formerly known as 3GSM) was great. The Fira de Barcelona convention site is fabulously beautiful, especially when the fountains are playing. The halls are very large, but less overwhelming somehow than those at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The atmosphere is both relaxed and very businesslike. Seeing the newest models of cell phones, smartphones, software, hardware, UMPCs and all was admittedly a geek’s delight, but also a wonderful opportunity to compare, contrast and consider the possibilities, UX and otherwise.
MWC is the perfect place to people watch, especially if your interest is in how people interact with their mobile devices. Notable were the use of many more styluses than is typical in the United States or Israel, and also the body language revealing data use (as opposed to voice calls) above the average.
Then, of course, there’s the sheer exhaustion:
