Razorfish + Mobile
Mobile Clients : Adidas, AOL, Audi, Axe, Best Buy, Carnival Cruiseline, Citi,
Dow Jones, eBay, Godiva, JC Penney, Nike, Ralph Lauren, Visa, XM Radio
and others
Platforms: Mobile web, iPhone OS, Android
Photo by DJ-Nike on Flickr

prologue

For the past several years our clients in Europe
and Asia have been embracing mobile….

Europe - Adidas

Europe - AXE

Asia - Nike

But in the U.S. there wasn’t much demand for
mobile, until….

Photo by Vedia on Flickr

All of a sudden, clients are interested in mobile
(particularly iPhone) and are beginning to ask us a
lot of (the same) questions…

… so here are 5 principles to address the
questions that clients are asking us.

5 principles
For mobile UX

Principle no. 1 – Get your hands dirty

Principle no. 1 – Get your hands dirty
 Invest in innovation
 Build skills, learn by doing
 Ideally give money, or time
 Freedom to fail
 Share knowledge, archive experiments

Principle no. 2 – Choose your platform carefully

Principle no. 2 – Choose your platform carefully
 Know the target audience: what phones, OS, carriers customers are using
 Device agnostic or native application (or hybrid)?
 iPhone is probably the best bang for the buck (stability, exposure in iTunes)

Sometimes mobile web makes more sense…

Principle no. 3 – Embrace “mo-jile”
Photo source: w3.org

Principle no. 3 – Embrace “mo-jile”
 Agile development seems particularly suited for mobile.
 Cross-functional disciplines (creative, ux, tech)
 Control of feature set
 Rapid development process
 Test early and often
 Hybrid process – “mo-jile”?
-

A hybrid agile approach for mobile ux
Agile Build Phase
SOW > Visioning Phase >
Sprint 1 > Sprint 2 > Sprint 3 > Sprint 4 >
• High-Level • Product Brief • Visual comps
Functionality
• Prioritized Features
/Functions • Wireframes
• Contract
• High-level App • Task flow diagrams
Architecture & Roadmap
• Code production
• Prototype (key
functionality) • Supporting
infrastructure Set-Up
• Business rules
• Rapid User Testing
• Visual styleguide
• Release

Core team snapshot
Developer
FA
PM
• Supports Management of • Ensures alignment with • Building the prototype
the Backlog business objectives and into a real site
throughout process
• Explains functionality • Bug fix of the real site
between the prototype • Keeps project on track
and the real site (timing and budget) • Launch Support
• Attends both the Tech and
UX scrums
Designer
Content and Copy
Experience
• Partnering with UX to • Creates a draft of stories • Validates that evolution of
for the planning meeting the prototype can be
fulfill the early
development of comps, supported from a content
wireframes and copy • Creates work flow through feed perspective.
decks that enable prototype
prototype development
• Leads Consumer Testing

Principle no. 4 – Sweat the details
v v v

Principle no. 4 – Sweat the details
 Don’t throw out the standard experience deliverables just yet
 Application architecture diagram, wireframes, task flows, feature matrix
 Gestural methods, sound, microphone, camera, accelerometer
 UX suddenly got a lot more complicated
-

Principle no. 4 – Sweat the details

Principle no. 4 – Sweat the details

Principle no. 5 – Be Unique

Principle no. 5 – Be Unique
 Difficult to stand out from the crowd
 Take risks
 Push the envelope technologically
 Focus only on core features (strengths)
-

Principle no. 5 – Be Unique

Principle no. 5 – Be Unique

Principle no. 5 – Be Unique

Principle no. 5 – Be Unique

Principle no. 5 – Be Unique

Principle no. 5 – Be Unique

5 principles recap
1. Get your hands dirty
2. Choose your platform carefully
3. Embrace “mo-jile”
4. Sweat the details
5. Be unique
Rinse + repeat

epilogue

The iPhone has set a new benchmark for user
experience
Photo by duncandavidson on Flickr

But is it just the tip of the iceberg?
Photo source: Slashgear.com

Augmented reality was available first on Android…
Photo Source: Mobilizy.com

Advanced telecommunications services on iPhone
have been problematic…
Photo source: Techcrunch.com

PCs and Phones continue to converge

New devices and platforms bring enormous
possibilities coupled with potentially huge
usability headaches.

Welcome to the golden age of mobile usability…

e: kyle.outlaw@razorfish.com
t: @koutlaw