I'm not sure I am.
eMarketer estimates there will be over 2 billion smartphone users by 2016. If developers aren't focusing on device neutrality when creating apps for those devices then users are going to go elsewhere. An effective mobile experience delivers content smoothly and synchronises across devices seamlessly.
On a typical day, I check content across a variety of platforms: desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile phone and increasingly, a smartwatch. What I expect from each of those platforms is the same ease of use, legibility, interaction and smooth functionality. And yet, many of my most commonly used apps deliver anything but:
I have a persistent DM in my Twitter account which pops up every single time I turn my tablet on. I dismissed the message weeks ago when using my laptop, it never appears there or on any of my other devices. But in the notification bar of my tablet it glares defiantly at me.
I check my Facebook notifications on my mobile phone and automatically my laptop, desktop and tablet interfaces keep up. But if I read my notifications on any of those devices first, my mobile does not. Old messages are flagged as new on my phone's screen. Even more annoyingly, those same notifications now appear in the main Facebook client as well as in the standalone (or at least not-particularly-well integrated) FB Groups, Pages and Messaging apps.
I keep up to date with industry news via an RSS feeder, but no matter how many times I tell it I've read all the content it bundled for me before my morning commute, it insists I have to read it all again when I arrive at my desk.
We should be able to move from one device to another and the iterations of the same software that we use across those devices ought to be able to keep up with our activity. Isn't that the whole point? To get the information we need in a convenient, up to date way, irrespective of where we access it from?
In its white paper "Creating a Compelling User Experience", IBM highlights three fundamental tenets that should underlie all system interactions:
- First impression – the instinctive reaction to the design; its aesthetics, touch and general feel
- Usage of the functional solution; the ease of understanding, conducting and completing the application corresponding to its intended purpose
- Enduring impact; the users continuing feelings and perceptions of the solution.
Seems obvious, right? How it looks, how it works and how it makes you feel. But if I look at many of the apps on my desktop, I tempted to believe that the coders have approached the problem from the point of view of "We've got to get this thing mobilised, what's the easiest way to do it".
If apps aren't built with the user experience at their heart, then users are simply going to look elsewhere.
