<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" version="2.0"><channel><title>Latest entries from usability.wbt2.com</title><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/</link><description></description><copyright>Copyright 2008 usability.wbt2.com</copyright><generator></generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:18:00 GMT</lastBuildDate><image><title>Latest entries from usability.wbt2.com</title><url>http://res.sys-con.com/portlet/163/featured-blog-graphic-145.gif</url><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/</link></image><ttl>360</ttl><docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss</docs><item><title>Closing down - please see me at my main site</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/closing_down__please_see_me_at_my_main_site.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/closing_down__please_see_me_at_my_main_site.htm</link><pubDate>Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:16:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=closing%5Fdown%5F%5Fplease%5Fsee%5Fme%5Fat%5Fmy%5Fmain%5Fsite</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[I am no longer updating this site; all content is available at my main site, Little Springs Design.]]></description></item><item><title>Fitts Law and softkey optimization</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/fitts_law_and_softkey_optimization.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/fitts_law_and_softkey_optimization.htm</link><pubDate>Mon, 07 Aug 2006 23:37:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=fitts%5Flaw%5Fand%5Fsoftkey%5Foptimization</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Fitt's Law applied to mobile devices has different implications for mobile UI design than it does for desktop design. Let's focus in on the dominant user interface type, the scroll-and-select device.  Let's further assume a one-handed device - no QWE]]></description></item><item><title>Brian Fling&apos;s &quot;Designing for Mobile&quot;</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/brian_flings_designing_for_mobile.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/brian_flings_designing_for_mobile.htm</link><pubDate>Fri, 04 Aug 2006 19:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=brian%5Fflings%5Fdesigning%5Ffor%5Fmobile</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[I just looked at Brian Fling's Designing for Mobile presentation, which is intended to help folks get started in the mobile space.  It's a good read, it organizes many things nicely. 

This spoke to me quite a bit, as I am now wrapping up work on m]]></description></item><item><title>User interface styles</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/user_interface_styles.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/user_interface_styles.htm</link><pubDate>Sat, 29 Jul 2006 20:54:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=user%5Finterface%5Fstyles</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Too many designers and developers treat all devices with scroll-and-select input and softkeys as the same, and design one application to work on all such devices. Unfortunately, that can result in users being unable to use the application, and abando]]></description></item><item><title>Verizon billing system doesn&apos;t - and then blames the customer</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/verizon_billing_system_doesnt__and_then_blames_the_customer.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/verizon_billing_system_doesnt__and_then_blames_the_customer.htm</link><pubDate>Tue, 25 Jul 2006 15:20:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=verizon%5Fbilling%5Fsystem%5Fdoesnt%5F%5Fand%5Fthen%5Fblames%5Fthe%5Fcustomer</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[In March, I got Verizon service and a phone.  I could not use the phone for its intended purpose, namely downloading applications for testing.  I returned the phone two days after the grace period expired.

I waited and waited for a bill.  I could]]></description></item><item><title>Unrecognizable garbled music or mechanical sound?</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/unrecognizable_garbled_music_or_mechanical_sound.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/unrecognizable_garbled_music_or_mechanical_sound.htm</link><pubDate>Fri, 21 Jul 2006 23:14:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=unrecognizable%5Fgarbled%5Fmusic%5For%5Fmechanical%5Fsound</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[I just called a colleague, who had subscribed to a "ring back tone" so that instead of hearing rings, I heard music.  This was my first experience with this.

Yuck.

It was disconcerting, but I suspect if the technology were more popular, I'd get]]></description></item><item><title>Mobile presence management for the rest of us</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/mobile_presence_management_for_the_rest_of_us.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/mobile_presence_management_for_the_rest_of_us.htm</link><pubDate>Tue, 18 Jul 2006 18:51:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=mobile%5Fpresence%5Fmanagement%5Ffor%5Fthe%5Frest%5Fof%5Fus</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Corporate users have had it available for a while: presence management for verbal communications.

Now Jaiku is providing it for the rest of us, as long as we have a Nokia Series 60. I can't test it out as neither I nor the majority of my friends h]]></description></item><item><title>Personal Communications Device</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/personal_communications_device.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/personal_communications_device.htm</link><pubDate>Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:44:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=personal%5Fcommunications%5Fdevice</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[It's generally useful to have an agreed-upon definition for what an industry does. So, what is the wireless industry? What is a mobile? Does it have to be a phone?  What about a Blackberry or Sidekick?  

Lets start with the devices. A Blackberry i]]></description><category>mobile</category></item><item><title>How to reduce use of your mobile application</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/how_to_reduce_use_of_your_mobile_application.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/how_to_reduce_use_of_your_mobile_application.htm</link><pubDate>Tue, 11 Jul 2006 15:56:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=how%5Fto%5Freduce%5Fuse%5Fof%5Fyour%5Fmobile%5Fapplication</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Mobile applications, and especially mobile games, are frequently used in short bursts. These bursts could be due to short attention span, short task, incoming call or message, the train arriving, or any number of other things. Thus the user will freq]]></description></item><item><title>Hide and Seek</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/hide_and_seek.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/hide_and_seek.htm</link><pubDate>Sat, 08 Jul 2006 14:53:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=hide%5Fand%5Fseek</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[One of the many perks of my location in Kansas is my proximity to Sprint. Just about any application or mobile technology provider targeting the US market will stop by Sprint sooner or later, and I get to have private talks with many of them.  The mo]]></description></item><item><title>Design implications of The Carry Principle: small screen</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/design_implications_of_the_carry_principle_small_screen.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/design_implications_of_the_carry_principle_small_screen.htm</link><pubDate>Fri, 07 Jul 2006 15:57:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=design%5Fimplications%5Fof%5Fthe%5Fcarry%5Fprinciple%5Fsmall%5Fscreen</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Mobile phones are very portable. They fit in pockets and purses, and many users are never without their phone. This fact has numerous implications for the design of the device, which I summarized in my earlier post on The Carry Principle.

It also]]></description></item><item><title>Mobile widgets: toy now, tool later</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/mobile_widgets_toy_now_tool_later.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/mobile_widgets_toy_now_tool_later.htm</link><pubDate>Tue, 04 Jul 2006 18:48:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=mobile%5Fwidgets%5Ftoy%5Fnow%5Ftool%5Flater</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Nokia-funded Widsets has been oft mentioned in the blog world in the past few weeks.  In my opinion, this is an alpha release - but when you plan to make a community-driven widget library, that's probably a good plan.

The product, in short, is sup]]></description></item><item><title>Designing J2ME MIDP Navigation</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/designing_j2me_midp_navigation.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/designing_j2me_midp_navigation.htm</link><pubDate>Sat, 24 Jun 2006 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=designing%5Fj2me%5Fmidp%5Fnavigation</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[J2ME designers have three basic choices in creating their applications:

	Use high-level user interface widgets.  These are pretty ugly, but usable.
	Use the low-level user interface widgets, like Canvas. This immediately generates a slew of cross]]></description></item><item><title>Making mobile payments work</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/making_mobile_payments_work.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/making_mobile_payments_work.htm</link><pubDate>Tue, 23 May 2006 15:14:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=making%5Fmobile%5Fpayments%5Fwork</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Most of us are aware of DoCoMo's mobile wallet, and there has long been keen interest in using the mobile phone as a wallet.  Companies beyond DoCoMo are doing it:  a Swiss bank, PostFinance, is using a SMS bar code solution, which should work as lon]]></description></item><item><title>Types of information appliances</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/types_of_information_appliances.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/types_of_information_appliances.htm</link><pubDate>Thu, 18 May 2006 14:18:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=types%5Fof%5Finformation%5Fappliances</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[I was recently asked about the information appliances (specialized devices) in the device taxonomy.  I'm not certain that this classification would be more than an intellectual exercise, as the nature of an information appliance is to fit a precise n]]></description></item><item><title>Mobile Cash Control</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/mobile_cash_control.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/mobile_cash_control.htm</link><pubDate>Fri, 12 May 2006 20:30:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=mobile%5Fcash%5Fcontrol</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Paypal does it, why can't the banks?  (answers: slow, regulated, lack of vision)

Send an SMS each time money is added to or removed from my bank account.  Include the balance.  There are people who will pay for the priviledge.]]></description></item><item><title>Sometimes the best user interface is no user interface</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/sometimes_the_best_user_interface_is_no_user_interface.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/sometimes_the_best_user_interface_is_no_user_interface.htm</link><pubDate>Fri, 05 May 2006 01:17:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=sometimes%5Fthe%5Fbest%5Fuser%5Finterface%5Fis%5Fno%5Fuser%5Finterface</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[We were recently discussing the best possible user experience for phones found in airplanes, both commercial and executive jets.  Our first round of observations were standard device usability observations - the devices should work more like cellular]]></description></item><item><title>Extending party games to mobile</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/extending_party_games_to_mobile.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/extending_party_games_to_mobile.htm</link><pubDate>Sun, 30 Apr 2006 20:10:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=extending%5Fparty%5Fgames%5Fto%5Fmobile</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Mobile phones are used to keep in touch with friends and family.  Why, then, do mobile phone games, when social, so often ignore family to instead have players interact with strangers?  

Imagine a game intended to capitalize on, and extend, the co]]></description><category>mobile</category><category>shopping</category><category>party</category><category>community</category></item><item><title>Comparison shopping with mobile phones</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/comparison_shopping_with_mobile_phones.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/comparison_shopping_with_mobile_phones.htm</link><pubDate>Tue, 25 Apr 2006 20:39:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=comparison%5Fshopping%5Fwith%5Fmobile%5Fphones</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Mobile phones are potentially great for in-person comparison shopping.  At Best Buy and want to know whether this product is any good or can be found elsewhere for less?  Just pull out your phone, launch the browser, ... navigate to a shopping site .]]></description></item><item><title>User Experience Process</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/user_experience_process.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/user_experience_process.htm</link><pubDate>Fri, 21 Apr 2006 13:27:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=user%5Fexperience%5Fprocess</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[When should usability and user experience be designed into a product?

Day 1.   You can't "add usability" to a product.  You have to design it in from the beginning.

Okay, if you are building a platform you can do a bit of proof of concept work]]></description></item><item><title>nextBLAST RSS reader</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/nextblast_rss_reader.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/nextblast_rss_reader.htm</link><pubDate>Wed, 12 Apr 2006 02:43:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=nextblast%5Frss%5Freader</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[I recently met with the guys from nextBLAST, who seem to have a good notion about reforming mobile data usage through useful products and features, but have missed usability entirely.]]></description><category>rss</category><category>mobile</category><category>usability</category><category>review</category></item><item><title>Fellow Travelers and Market Evolution</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/fellow_travelers_and_market_evolution.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/fellow_travelers_and_market_evolution.htm</link><pubDate>Fri, 07 Apr 2006 15:41:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=fellow%5Ftravelers%5Fand%5Fmarket%5Fevolution</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[I recently discovered Micheal Mace's web log, Mobile Opportunity.  His is a well-reasoned set of entries on the business and marketing of mobile devices and services - a reasonable publication from a former Palm executive.  

For example, Mace disc]]></description></item><item><title>Usability vs. Accessibility</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/usability_vs_accessibility.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/usability_vs_accessibility.htm</link><pubDate>Fri, 31 Mar 2006 18:37:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=usability%5Fvs%5Faccessibility</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Usability refers to "ease of use".  It is quantifiable on a number of scales.  I frequently use "usability" to mean "quality of user experience", but that is a lazy shorthand.

Accessibility refers to the ability of different people to be able to u]]></description></item><item><title>Free Picture Mail from Sprint!</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/free_picture_mail_from_sprint.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/free_picture_mail_from_sprint.htm</link><pubDate>Thu, 30 Mar 2006 19:46:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=free%5Fpicture%5Fmail%5Ffrom%5Fsprint</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[Sprint customer service insists that I do not have Picture Mail on my account.  Perhaps this is true, but I have Picture Mail on my phone!

If you want Picture Mail on your Sprint EVDO phone, but don't want to pay for it, try this:

1.  Get Power]]></description></item><item><title>US Carriers</title><guid isPermaLink="true">http://usability.wbt2.com/us_carriers.htm</guid><link>http://usability.wbt2.com/us_carriers.htm</link><pubDate>Thu, 30 Mar 2006 03:11:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>http://usability.wbt2.com/console/comments/popup/?f=us%5Fcarriers</comments><dc:creator>Barbara Ballard</dc:creator><description><![CDATA[I recently had the need to change out my Sprint phone as well as acquire and activate a RAZR.  Boy was this process educational.

The Sprint change-out went okay, except that the new Sprint store in town is actually a "Sprint Express" store, and th]]></description></item></channel></rss>