Challis Hodge’s UXblog

“Consumers have a message for companies trying to figure out why the wireless Web market has failed to take off in this country: It’s the screen, stupid.”

We at HannaHodge have a message for the wireless web market. Wake up and stop implementing technology just because you can. People’s lives continue to get more complex and they simply won’t adopt digital products and services just because you build them. You have to understand your customers at the local cultural level. Just because it worked in Japan or Finland doesn’t mean the same product or service will work in the US.

Future business success depends on understanding your customers’ wants and needs and delivering solutions that meet them. Investors and shareholders will not continue to tolerate throwing technology at the wall to see if it sticks. Invest in significant user research to compliment market and secondary research. Understand the problem, the context and solve it using the appropriate technology. Then, and only then, do you need to worry about getting the screen right! Read the article here.

Which Fonts Do Children Prefer to Read Online?
Interesting study on the online font preferences of children. The sample size was relatively small, 12 participants. Interestingly they didn’t test Verdana which seems to be commonly used online. View the study at Usability News. You can also check out “Determining the Best Online Font for Older Adults” in the same issue.

The Nielsen Norman Group study of jouranlists using corporate web sites is a great way to get the word out about usability. It doesn’t hurt NNg’s pr engine either!

Environmentalists often encourage participation in their cause by saying that you shouldn’t feel the need to heal the planet all at once, all by yourself; if every person picked up just one piece of trash every day, think about what a clean, beautiful world we’d live in. The Internet needs that same spirit: If every Website fixed just one frustrating usability problem each day, think what a beautiful World Wide Web we’d live in.

“Partner-Friendly design means streamlining your content so it can be incorporated seamlessly by other, well-known sites. But the challenge to the designer is creating a useable interface and information architecture for generating, aggregating, filtering, syndicating, communizing, monetizing, and otherwise manipulating content for varied uses and users.”

Web design certainly isn’t dead. Designers are creative problem solvers and good designers go beyond form to function. Read the article here.

Wireless Web’s Main Problem is ”Wapathy”
“Like Bullwinkle the Moose, forever sticking a massive mitt into his top hat, the wireless companies repeatedly convinced themselves they were about to produce a rabbit.In this case, the rabbit is demand for the wireless Web — connections to the Internet by phone, pager and personal digital assistant (PDA). The companies have touted their new features, confident that a huge market should exist. But they’ve been disappointed.”

Sooner or later investors and shareholders will tire of throwing technology driven products and services against the wall to see if any stick. This approach becomes increasingly risky as technologies emerge more rapidly, people’s lives become more complex, and competition comes emerges from every direction. The solution is simple:

Understand people’s wants and needs in the context of their complex lives and create products and services that meet these needs!
Read the full story.

Online Learning Tests Wireless Waters
In a move to promote online learning at reduced costs, educational services provider Sylvan Learning Systems Inc. last week launched a company with Aether Systems Inc. to enable E-learning services via wireless devices. The new company, MindSurf, will focus on providing wireless online learning for schools, but the technology it develops is expected to have business applications as well. Read more.

Wireless E-Learning
Benefits of Wireless E-Learning
� Remote access: employees can tap into a knowledgebase from almost anywhere.
� Increased productivity: workers can engage in e-learning at any time.
� Field learning: employees can learn on the job, wherever and whenever the information is most useful.
� Field input: as soon as they learn something new, workers can add to the knowledgebase right from the field.
More here

AOL Time Warner Licenses Nokia WAP
�WAP is the most widely adopted wireless standard in the world among carriers and handset manufacturers and it makes sense for us to work to support that standard,� said Dennis Patrick, president of AOL Wireless. Well, WAP may be dead but it sure has one heck of an after life. Release here.

Overcoming Obstacles to User-Centered Design
The title from a 1995 talk given by Richard Anderson, still as relevant as it was in 1995. Also check out his Usability Engineering / User-Centered Design Workshop.