March 03, 2006
February 27th -"A user-centred approach to creating new mobile phone services "
Matt’s talk brought out one of the largest crowds we’ve seen at the CUG. For many, the attraction was the opportunity to gain some insight into the special usability issues around mobile devices. 
Matt Davies is a Product Manager & User Experience Designer at QUALCOMM, a worldwide technology leader in mobile telecoms. He has extensive experience in user experience design and user testing including two years working with the Cognitive Psychology department at Sussex University and a range of consulting engagements with Flow Interactive.
The presentation covered three main areas:
Qualcomm’s iterative user-centred approach to mobile application design
Matt discussed the iterative design process they apply, emphasizing the importance of testing and continuous refinement. Starting with the identification of the target users, their environment and their goals, the team defines representative personas and scenarios in which the developing model can be tested. Qualcomm owns a device-based prototyping system which allows them to model applications on a device quickly. Despite this, their UE design teams make extensive use of paper prototyping. This allows processes to be mapped and changed on the fly by anyone who can use a pen. Only after the design is reasonably well proven on paper is it transferred to a mobile platform for device-based testing in the user experience lab.
Device-based testing continues with refinements to the interface until the design goals are achieved and the resulting user interface can be coded for real-world application.
A recent Qualcomm study to determine attitudes and acceptability of promotional activities on mobile phones
Having explained the layout and facilities of Qualcomm’s User Experience Lab, Matt explained the challenge they were addressing, the constraints they faced and the approach they planned to take. With only 15 days to set up, test, analyze and report, the team still managed to collect enough information to support an informed product decision.
We were then shown a four-minute extract from the many hours of videotaped user test sessions. The extract clearly supported the decision to drop the push promotion idea until users could be given more control of the process.
A walkthrough of a new, flexible homescreen design
Finally, Matt showed us images and explained the concept behind a new interface design for mobile phones. The design concept effectively expands the space available on the user’s home screen and affords the ability to customize the interface by selecting the functions that will appear by default in the expansion space.
Apparently, when this was tested with users they wanted the facility on their phones. By the end of Matt’s talk, many of the audience felt the same. Perhaps this concept will make it to production.
March 14, 2005
Design Council "Touching the State" - a good read
Whilst at the Design Museum at the weekend I picked up a copy of "Touching the State" a document about what it means to be a citizen in the 21st Century.
I was thrilled to discover this well presented work apparently commissioned by the government to explore why the general public are disengaged from the political process and the State. The project explores: jury service, the new citizenship ceremony, and voting.
From a 'User Experience Design' perspective this is a great resource, and it's on the web too in its final form but also in much more detail. This is a great example on a number of levels. It shows how User Research may be carried out in a very thorough and practical way but also how this data can then be presented in a very communicative and powerful fashion.
People involved in design processes, like Cooper's Goal-Directed Design, often spend time writing up Personas as representive users of the products they are designing for. This report describes real people, so the emphasis is very slightly different, but the art used to communicate what these people are like is the same.
This is an excellent read, highly recommended.