The survey found that while 81% of users see value in NFC, the user experience of tapping NFC tags is not intuitive and easy as promised. Users reported issues like not knowing where to tap, taps failing on the first attempt, and gestures not feeling natural. Finding the tap point on items was challenging for 26% of respondents. The survey validated requirements for improving the user experience, including indicating tap points more clearly and providing feedback during long taps. Addressing these issues will require collaboration across the NFC ecosystem.

1. NFC USER SURVEY -
TO REALIZE THE POTENTIAL OF THE
NFC TECHNOLOGY
NFC OPEN FORUM June 22 2021
José Mangione - STMicroelectronics
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2. It started with a provocative stance to trigger
the real questions …
● Where is the antenna ?
● What range can I expect ?
● How do I interact with NFC tag content ?
● …
USER EXPERIENCE IMPROVEMENT: THE FOUNDATIONS
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15 years after the creation
of the NFC Forum, this is
how tag reading user
experience looks like…
2019
2020
User eXperience topic endorsed by NFC Forum BoD as per the 2020 Goals
-> Enable NFC technology to deliver a consistently positive user experience

3. ● NFC Forum started in 2020 a New Work Item
▪ Requirements have been collected to achieve a predictable, consistent and
performing user experience ensuring easy successful tap with consistent behavior.
● Spanning over all vertical markets from Retail & Payment, Transport,
Automotive, IoT.
● Focus on enabling the NFC technology market potential in consumer
applications beyond payment and transport
● Ensure non tech savvy consumers can use the technology (intuitive and easy)
ENABLING NFC TECHNOLOGY TO DELIVER A
CONSISTENTLY POSITIVE USER EXPERIENCE
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4. SYSTEM LEVEL REQUIREMENTS
COVERING ALL ASPECTS OF USER EXPERIENCE
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NFC Brand and Mark Certification
Smooth operating range
Tap easy natural gesture
Intuitive software Responsiveness
* User Survey
to enrich, confirm
the requirements
and set priorities
* Application
document: Cross-
platform NFC Tag
UX (April 2021)
* Inputs for NFC
Brand &
Wayfinding

5. GOALS OF THE SURVEY
● Provide a greater understanding of consumer adoption and experiences with Near-
Field Communication (NFC)/contactless technology on non payment/non transport
and focus on Consumer use cases
● Validate the UX Improvement Requirements Specification rev 1.0.
● Examples of what we expect to find out from the survey on what users experience
today include:
▪ The impression of End Users on that experience
▪ The difficulties End Users have if any
▪ The number of End User interactions to achieve a given use case.
▪ The most common conditions for achieving an NFC interaction
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6. SURVEY IN A NUTSHELL
● An Online survey, developed within NFC Forum, in 6 languages
● A set of 23+ questions , with a filter to ensure respondents have used NFC for other User
Cases than Payment & Transport
● The survey had 1762 total respondents across the following Countries
• China - 223
• France – 293
• Germany – 272
• Japan - 240
• South Korea – 255
• UK – 262
• USA – 216
● 1400 respondents have filled out completely the Survey
● First results are shared here. Further analysis ongoing. Final Report expected by Q321
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7. USE CASES OTHER THAN PAYMENT OR TRANSPORT
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● 79% of Consumer/Mobile phones users worldwide claim use of NFC technology for
other applications than Payment/Transport

8. OVERALL USEFULNESS WITH NFC
● 81% users see value with NFC
● Good starting point, but not sufficient
● NFC Forum needs to work on the 19%
of unsatisfied users and improve their
UX
▪ Expectation is that it will move some of
45% that probably would recommend NFC
into to ‘yes, I would recommend NFC’
● Must understand reasons & fix the
issues
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36%
45%
15%
4%
Would you recommend this or those
usage(s) of NFC to a friend?
Yes, I found it very useful
Probably, it was quite
useful;
Probably not, it wasn’t that
useful;
No, there were too many
issues;

9. KEY USER EXPERIENCE ISSUES
● End Users report a variety of issues.
▪ Too long to hold the smartphone/device
in front of the item
▪ No reliable way to locate the tap point
on their smartphone/device
▪ Tapping distance not acceptable
▪ No Information, or lack of quality in the
information provided
▪ 1st attempt failed
▪ The steps being required during the
tapping are too many/not bringing
enough value
▪ Tapping gesture is not natural
▪ Tap point not indicated on the item
▪ No indication the item is NFC enabled
▪ Action did not complete
● NFC Promise to be intuitive and
easy is not reached yet in real life
● This gap MUST be resolved
● Step 1: NFC Forum will sort out what
can be addressed by itself and when
collaboration is required with its
ecosystem and partners
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1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Issue #
% Respondents reporting the Issue
8 10
10
Too
close
Too
far
Too
long
but
with
progress
indicator
Too
long

10. ZOOM IN ON GESTURE
▪ 22% of End Users have
difficulties with Tapping
Gesture
▪ For those, 4 types of
difficulties are expressed:
• Struggling at finding the
right position of the device
on the item. (39%)
• Struggling with finding the
tap point on the item (26%)
• Changing the way of
holding the smartphone
(21%)
• Having to touch the item
with the smartphone (14%)
10
21%
39%
14%
26%
What are the causes when answering
‘Gesture is not natural’
I had to change the way I held
the device in my hand;
I had to try different positions
of my device on the item I was
tapping;
I had to be in contact with the
item;
finding tap point was
challenging;

11. ZOOM IN ON ITEM’S TAP POINT
● A symbol on the item is
the main indication
● Guidance is given in
multiple other ways
● 26% of respondents have
difficulties in finding the
item tap point
● The Wayfinding mark will
improve the ease of
finding the tap point
11
Item’s tap point indication (%)

12. CONCLUSION
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● NFC is widespread in End User’s life.
● NFC Promise for an intuitive and easy tap is not achieved yet
● The issues reported by End Users span over NFC Forum technology & usage
by the NFC Forum ecosystem
● Enhancing the User eXperience will require collaboration from the whole
ecosystem (beyond NFC Forum)