The Perpetual Suction of Mobile

I still find it very discouraging that mobile isn't useful for very much.   While the fanboys are still proclaiming it's the answer to everything, most people use it for practically nothing: updating their Facebook status, playing games, checking the weather, and other largely frivolous purposes.   And while companies are eager to do business in the channel, they do so in such a clumsy manner that the experience frustrates most users into switching to another channel or using mobile in a non-mobile manner.  

I don't see that changing any time soon - in fact, recent first-hand experience suggests that it is getting worse: companies are imitating one another's bad ideas, and they are considering the work-around that users employ as standard behavior that is to be expected, accommodated, and encouraged.   This threatens to scuttle their mobile offerings into a bog of perpetual suction: the fact that users struggle to use something that sucks justifies making it suck even more.

The root of the problem is that developers consider "mobile" to pertain to the device.   If the user interface can be viewed on a three-by-five inch screen, than the application can (technically) be used on a mobile device, and therefore it is a mobile application.

However, "mobile" pertains to the user's behavior, not the device ... "mobile" as in "moving around" as in "not sitting still in front of a computer."   People use mobile applications while they are walking around in an environment that is full of distractions - and in many cases the mobile device is a way to fill a few moments of downtime while they are waiting for something else to happen (the dentist to call their name, the light to turn red, getting to the register behind a line of people, etc.)  

If an application can be used in that situation - to perform a simple task in under thirty seconds with very little attention - then it is truly a mobile application, and is truly useful to the user.   If you look at the most popular mobile applications, it becomes clear that they are popular because they all accommodate exactly this behavior.

The problem is that studies show that people also use mobile in still and quiet environments: they stop moving, sit down in a distraction-free environment, and engage with their devices in a deeply-focused manner, the same way they would do when using a personal computer to access the internet.  The fact that this behavior exists justifies designing mobile experiences that are intended to require long periods of time, full focus, and a distraction-free environment.

But this is mixing up cause and effect.   The reason that people use mobile in a non-mobile is because they have to do so - because mobile applications are very badly designed.  They attempt to perform a task while mobile, recognize that it is impossible to do, and delay doing the task until they can withdraw to a quiet environment to devote more time and focus.    That is to say, they are working around a poorly conceived and poorly designed user experience.

And because people are working around the poor design, there is now the sense that this is their natural method of using mobile devices.   And there it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle of suck:

1. Because "mobile" applications are badly designed and are not usable while mobile, people delay using them until they can sit quietly and give these badly designed applications full focus for a long period of time.
2. Because people delay using "mobile" applications until they can sit quietly and give these badly designed applications full focus for a long period of time, sitting quietly and giving full focus is considered normal behavior for using mobile devices.
3. Because sitting quietly and giving full focus is considered normal behavior for using mobile devices, future applications will be designed for stationary rather than mobile interaction
4. Because future mobile applications will be designed for stationary rather than mobile interaction, they will be badly designed and will not be able be used while mobile
5. Because mobile applications will be badly designed and will not be usable while mobile ... return to step one.

There are likely many other reasons for bad design of applications on the mobile platform, but these are likely familiar because they are the reason for bad design of any application or service in any platform - but this cycle of suck seems to be specific to the mobile platform, and it seems to be very difficult to break.

So What's the Solution?

I dislike leaving off a meditation that merely explores a problem and proposes no solution - but the solution in this instance should be self-evident: to design for the mobile user, not just the mobile platform.   Designers who wish to attempt this will face a number of very challenging obstacles:

Your partners in the business are attentive to the bottom line and don't want to spend any more money than necessary to capture additional revenue.  Building a separate mobile application to accommodate the behavior of mobile users is very costly.  The problem is that they begin with the assumption, supported by the IT department (whom I'll get to next), that developing a mobile application is easy: just slap a small-screen interface on your existing Internet application and shovel it onto the mobile platform.   Bad design is very easy and very cheap, but it will not get the results-as-promised.

Your partners in the IT department are attentive to the concerns of the information technology systems: they don't want their servers clogged with redundant code that does essentially the same thing, and are enamored by the concept of responsive design, which enables them to write one application that will magically adjust to smaller screen sizes.   But again, mobile isn't about the screen size of the device, but the behavior the user - and unless the application magically adjusts to the environment and behavior of a mobile user, it will require the user to stop being mobile in order to use it, and it will be a very bad experience.

Even your usability analysts are going to be against you in this effort.  The current usability test, and the usability lab, is designed to model the home office environment, which is totally different to the environment in which people use mobile devices.   So long as test subjects are made to sit quietly in a room and engage with a device that is bolted to a table, usability results will encourage design in the wrong direction - to build applications that are not used while the user is mobile.

And in the end, reality itself is going to be against you.   The reality to which I refer is that design can facilitate a task, but cannot change its nature.   If a task is complex, such as balancing an investment portfolio, evaluating multiple products to decide which to purchase, etc. then that task requires the user to stop and focus in order to do it well - and the design of the interface will not be able to reduce the ease of the task without reducing its effectiveness.   Simply stated, there are some tasks that do not lend themselves to being done on the mobile platform, and there's really nothing for it.

In the end, it's the tragedy of the commons - while most companies are behaving badly, no company sees the need to behave well.  They're going along with the crowd, doing what everyone else is doing, and considering "industry standard" to be good enough for their own customers.   There will be a few innovators who get it, who understand that mobile and the internet are two different things, who design mobile applications for the mobile user, and who be rewarded with a considerable first-mover advantage for taking the time, effort, and expense to get it right.

But going by history, it won't happen soon.  It took about ten to fifteen years for most firms to recognize that just shoveling your printed sales catalogs onto the Internet and giving the public access to the same data-entry screens as your inbound phone reps did not result in having a good Web site.  And it's obvious that a number of firms are still lagging in that regard. And it may take just as much time for firms to understand that just shoehorning your Web site onto a small screen will not result in having a good mobile experience - and possibly even longer as this perpetual cycle of suck feeds itself and gains momentum.

In the meantime, keep fighting the good fight and accept what little progress you can make - but set your expectations low, because you're bound to be let down.