The Five Questions

Back in 2002 I wrote an article called The Five Questions Every User Asks On Every Page, and it was based on a lecture I used to give my multimedia and web design students.
The basic idea was to understand user-experience from the "users" point-of-view, and not from the designer's point-of-view.
In other words, put yourself in the chair of your user, and understand why they've come to the site, and what their expectations are.
So I started thinking, how do these questions apply to mobile UX design, and is there any overlap? Are the things we look for when we're designing web sites some of the same things we look for when building the interface for mobile applications, like the iPhone? Well let's find out.
First though...
The Five Questions Every User Asks On Every Page 1.
Whose site am I on? This is all about branding.
It's not just the business that wants their brand recognized, user's want to know whose site their on too.
It gives users a sense of place.
2.
What is the value on this page? Some web sites can be long and tedious, and users will always ask themselves, "Ok, im here, I'm on this page on your site, now what? And you need to have an answer for that on every single page.
It gives users a sense of purpose.
3.
Where am I on the site? Nobody likes to get lost, but sadly too many sites still don't gives users a clear indication of where they are.
You always want users to quickly know where they are within your site.
It gives users a sense of location.
4.
Where do I go to get what I want? You should always build into the UI easy ways for users to have their expectations met.
So it's important to understand what those expectations are before you design any UI.
It gives users a sense of value.
5.
How do I get back? It doesn't matter how well you design your UI, people will always want to start over from the beginning.
You always want to design in a way to do that.
It gives users a sense of comfort.
Ok, so how do these five questions relate to creating a mobile UI? 1.
Whose app am I using? Branding is just as important on a mobile application as it is on a web site.
You'll often see a mobile application with a "splash" or loading screen, and that screen will display the logo of the company that made the application.
And within the application itself, you'll often see a separate logo that's specific to that app.
Both of these opportunities to create brand awareness are important to the user.
We try to incorporate the app logo into headers, or loading screens within the app, but sometimes we just don't have the screen space to do that - another reason the initial loading screen branding is valuable.
2.
What value is there with this app? This is an interesting one when it comes to a mobile application.
Many mobile applications have a very short shelf life.
It's just the nature of the environment that's been created for us.
Users can get bored quickly, and with so many applications to choose from, especially on the iPhone, apps are loaded and dumped alarmingly fast.
So it's important to quickly establish the value of the application.
You don't have the luxury of time.
3.
Where am I? Perhaps not as important for many mobile applications, especially games or one or two screen utilities.
For larger multi-screen applications though, it's still important to give users that sense of location.
Header titles, and highlighted tabs, are one way that Apple has built that into their UI.
Follow the expected conventions until it's time to break those conventions.
4.
How can I find what I want, or complete the tasks that are important to me? With the iPhone especially, Apple has created a standardized UI methodology that's designed to give users familiar and expected interface elements that allow them to navigation through applications.
Follow the expected conventions until it's time to break those conventions.
5.
How do I get back?For many mobile applications we want to give users a way to go back to the beginning of the application and start over.
It's maybe even more important with the limited screen real estate of mobile to design in a way for users to get back to the beginning and start over.
If it's a game, you obviously need a way to start over.
If it's a utility, then you need a way to begin new tasks.
It looks like there is a bit of overlap between designing a good interface for a web site and designing one for a mobile application.
It all comes down to the fact that "Good Design Is On Purpose!"