28th
Jacob Neilson says mobile usability sucks.
Also useful is the finding that we are search-focused on mobiles; despite the poor input modalities.
From the article:
Mobile users face four main usability hurdles: Small screens. For something to be mobile, it must be easy to carry and thus relatively small. Small screens mean fewer visible options at any given time, requiring users to rely on their short-term memory to build an understanding of an online information space. This makes almost all interactions harder. It’s also difficult to find room for multiple windows or other interface solutions that support advanced behaviors, such as comparative product research. Awkward input, especially for typing. It’s hard to operate GUI widgets without a mouse: menus, buttons, hypertext links, and scrolling all take longer time and are more error-prone, whether they’re touch-activated or manipulated with a teensy trackball. Text entry is particularly slow and littered with typos, even on devices with dedicated mini-keyboards. Download delays. Getting the next screen takes forever — often longer than it would on dial-up, even with a supposedly faster 3G service. Mis-designed sites. Because websites are typically optimized for desktop usability, they don’t follow the guidelines necessary for usable mobile access.
