Slides from the presentations I gave in Edinburgh & Dundee on 21&22 Feb

1. What and why every
developer needs to
know about mobile

2. Thinking mobile
…and beyond

4. !=

7. “in dreams begin
responsibilities”
– Delmore Schwartz

8. “Our thinking is guided
by what we know”
– Tomi T Ahonen

9. !=

10. “there is no prevailing
wisdom in mobile”
– W3C

11. !=

13. context

19. “mobilize, don’t
minimize”
– Barbara Ballard

20. WHO?
WHERE
?
WHEN?
WHY?
WHAT?
HOW?

21. “First, understand the
user’s world, then
figure out how your
design fits in”

22. context can
point to
intent

23. “I found myself writing
differently because I
understood that the medium
that was going to be used to
acquire, consume and share
... was different.”
– Seth Godin

24. context

25. input

33. Standard controls,
used in standard
ways, are intuitive

34. MINIMIZE
USER INPUT
•Selection not entry •Auto complete
•Smart defaults •Auto correct
•Small lists •No duplication
•Infer •Access keys
•Lookup •No need for help

35. “should be written to
deal with every
conceivable error”
– RFC 1122

37. "Sent from my mobile
phone - please excuse
typos and brevity"

39. “conservative in what
you do, liberal in what
you accept”
– RFC 793

40. Avoid complex controls

41. ********

42. The “hot zone”

43. GESTURES

44. GESTURES
• Standardised
• Simple – not taught
• Not easily confused
• Distinct
• Not the only way of doing something
• Single finger is best

45. input

46. output

49. How to cope?
1. LCD
2. Targeting
3. Breakdown

50. LESS SPACE
• Remove redundancy ruthlessly
• Keep it simple
• Be clear and concise
• Abbreviate
• White space is important but
don’t waste space
• HIG/design guidelines
• Be flexible

54. 1 hand 2 hands
casual engaged

55. MINIMIZE
OUTPUT

56. “Omit [needless]
words”
– Strunk & White

57. “Je n'ai fait celle-ci
plus longue que parce
que je n'ai pas eu le
loisir de la faire plus
courte”
– Blaise Pascal, 1657

58. “I have only made this
[letter] longer,
because I have not
had the time to make
it shorter”
– Blaise Pascal, 1657

59. EMBRACE
CONSTRAINTS

60. “It has always been an
axiom of mine that
the little things are
infinitely the most
important”
– Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

61. Beware the “uncanny valley”

62. looking
good?

64. “If my bottom is
vibrating there better
be a very good
reason for it”
– Rands

65. Other outputs
External services
Sensors/peripherals
Email
Printing
Secondary displays

66. output

67. response

69. PERCEPTION

70. DO LESS
WITH LESS

71. DO IT
ELSEWHERE

73. “Performance is a
feature”
– Jeff Atwood

74. response

75. connectivity

77. 1. NONE
2. SLOW
3. DROP

79. connectivity

80. resources

86. resources

87. response
connectivity
output
resource
input s
context

88. “there is no prevailing
wisdom in mobile”
– W3C

89. EXPECTATIONS
SOPHISTICATION

90. Just because you build it...

91. It’s business

92. NOW GO!
AND MAKE COOL STUFF

93. http://mrlacey.com/