Comments on Location and Presence in Mobile Data Services

Oliver Schwarz — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:52:04 GMT

There is one fact in your article which I would like to stress: Mobile devices are not the competition of PCs. This idea has to settle in the heads of developers, decision maker, technology strategists.

Mobile devices are going to make communicational processes easier accessible, if fitted to the “use case” of being “mobile”.

There is (and for a long time there will not be) any possibility or need to bring full-grown applications onto the mobile screen.

But if you manage to tear down your applications into small considerable chunks for people connecting to it via mobile, it’ll work perfectly.

Jonathan — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:52:04 GMT

re: “i have yet to come across a mobile phone which is easy to operate.”

I agree that most mobile apps and services are hard to use and not very useful.

The good features of mobile phones are so transparent that we don’t think of them as features at all. Most phones have an auto-synching clock, so the time is always correct. All phones have caller ID. Dialing a phone number and pressing send always places a voice call. These core functions are so simple that almost anyone can figure them out.

Any useful service that can create such a transparent interface will have some success.

I wonder what other services we could create that have the simple interface and universal appeal of caller ID…

jan — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:52:04 GMT

hi,
after reading your interesting article the term “cognitive friction” inevitably came to my mind.alan cooper labels cognitive friction approximately like: compared to the simplicity of a given task, it is quite difficult to achieve your goal.

i have yet to come across a mobile phone which is easy to operate. i wouldn’t say i am using more than 30-40% of what my mobile is able to do. it is already allmost impossible to finde a mobile without a build in camera or bluetooth protocol (at least in germany).

so i think one should first start to facilitate all the tasks mobiles can do already before building new features and apps on that loose ground.

cheers,
jan