Mobile Interaction Design

Citation

Barker, P. (2006), "Mobile Interaction Design", The Electronic Library, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 420-421. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470610671277

Like it, or like it not, computer‐based technologies are playing an increasingly important role in our lives. In order to design and build useful, motivating and easy‐to‐use applications, it is imperative that we understand “people” and how they interact with one another. It is also necessary to pay considerable attention to how they interact with and use technology. Interaction analysis is that area of observational science that deals with these issues. Importantly, it concerns itself with the study of people and how they interact with various types of artefact – such as books, newspapers, cars and electronic devices such as calculators, microwave cookers, hand‐held computers, washing machines, digital cameras and mobile phones.

Nowadays, mobile phones are being used for a variety of information handling activities. For example, camera phones can be used to collect and archive image data, video clips and sound artefacts such as music and narrations. Of course, increasingly, people are using their mobile phones to access web‐based information and material that is held in digital libraries. Unfortunately, bearing in mind the limitations of mobile devices (primarily their small screens and limited keypads), designing suitable applications to achieve these “information handling” goals on mobile devices can be problematic. However, interaction analysis coupled with appropriate interaction design may well go a significant way down the road to solving some of the problems we currently face in this area.

The 11 chapters that make up this book are organised into three basic sections. In the first of these (Chapters 1‐3), the authors provide an introduction to the various themes and topics that are covered later in the book. Essentially, the first three chapters cover such topics as the nature of mobile devices, the types of functionality that they can provide and the kinds of human‐computer interface that they employ. Usability issues and “technology acceptance” considerations are also outlined in this part of the book. Some of the “rights and wrongs” associated with moving desktop‐computer applications across to mobile devices are also considered.

The second part of the book (Chapters 4‐7) deals with the problems of developing effective (and affective) mobile applications. This section of the book presents a range of tools and techniques that can be used to identify users' needs and then design applications to fulfil these needs. Some of the important topics covered include: observing people (and what they do); designing mobile applications; and building prototypes of these and then evaluating them through the design and execution of relevant evaluation experiments. The final part of the book (Chapters 8‐11) presents a “design gallery”. This section brings together the material presented in previous parts of the book and shows how the ideas and techniques can be put into practice. The various chapters in this section deal with mobile information access (browsing and searching textual material) and handling rich media (such as photos, audio and video). The last chapter looks at future mobile applications – particularly in the developing world, where conventional computer‐based technologies have had relatively little penetration.

Overall, this is quite an interesting and useful book. It provides a valuable overview of interaction design principles and techniques, which are then reinforced with numerous practical examples taken from the domain of mobile devices, and the authors' own research experiences. Each chapter of the book concludes with a chapter summary, a collection of workshop questions and a set of tips for designers. The book is well illustrated and contains a useful reference section. There is also an accompanying website (see www.wiley.com/go/mobile).