Web design and development by Front, a strategy, design and technology studio in Belfast, Northern Ireland

This three hour workshop covered a lot of familiar ground: researching and documenting users’ needs, then mapping those needs to functionality and the prioritisation/placement in the interface. It was really nice to see that some of the core skills we use when designing for larger displays (on the desktop) still apply when designing for mobile. Having said that, Kim highlighted a lot of key things to take into account when designing for the mobile experience, and offered some great insight from her own work.

1. There are far, far more mobile phones in the world than there are televisions, cars. If you aren’t designing for mobile, or thinking about it, you will soon need to!
2. Mobilise your design, don’t minimise it. Altering the pixel size of your designs, cramming the same user experience into a mobile screen just won’t work.
3. Offer a snack, don’t force a meal - a taster of the full experience, prioritised for the mobile context is more satisfying.
4. The context of mobile is…everywhere, anywhere. Tailor your mobile experience for short, shallow navigation tasks and functions, because people are likely to be in the middle of other tasks.
5. Prototype, prototype, prototype - iterate through designs quickly, and if you can, test them in the wild with real people. Usability testing in the lab removes the user from the mobile context.
6. Think about the offline experience. If I get a call and have to leave your app/site, have you autosaved my data? Will I have to log in again? You won’t really get a second chance if you damage the trust of your users.

It was an absolute privilege to learn from Kim for a few hours. Once her slides go up on the web I’ll post a link here.