Misguided design principles held over from the wireline Web are holding back WAP sites, says renowned Internet usability expert Dr. Jakob Nielsen. Publishing the findings from the Nielsen Norman Group's latest research study in an article on TheFeature.com (www.thefeature.com) the leading mobile Internet community, Nielsen says that the results look very similar to those from early Web usability studies.
"It's striking how much our findings from this WAP usability study in late 2000 resemble several Web usability studies we conducted in 1994. It's truly déjà vu," he says. "Hopefully, mobility’s evolution will follow that of the Web: When things got better in subsequent years -- especially around 1997 -- many more users got onto the Web and commercial use exploded."
Nielsen says WAP offerings suffer because they are designed using principles optimized for the Web – in much the same way early Web design was hampered by people designing for it as if it were a brochure. To improve, providers must realize the limitations of the medium and account for them.
The Nielsen Norman Group's report on WAP usability (www.nngroup.com/reports/wap/) was released on November 30 at their User Experience World Tour event in London. A one-day conference featuring four leading usability experts as well as two optional days of in-depth tutorials on usability, Web design, and e-commerce, the World Tour makes European stops in Munich and Stockholm this week before moving on to Asia, Australia, and the United States in the new year. For more information, see www.nngroup.com/worldtour.
About Jakob Nielsen
Dr. Jakob Nielsen is a User Advocate specializing in Web usability and a principal of Nielsen Norman Group (www.nngroup.com). Nielsen's most recent book, "Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity" has about a quarter million copies in print in 11 languages. Nielsen has been called "the guru of Web page usability" (The New York Times), "the smartest person on the Web" (ZDNet), "knows more about what makes Web sites work than anyone else on the planet" (Chicago Tribune), and "the next best thing to a true time machine" (USA Today). He holds 51 United States patents, mainly on ways to make the Internet easier to use.
About TheFeature.com
Nokia's TheFeature.com (www.thefeature.com) is the mobile Internet industry's premier thinking space, where industry professionals, academics, researchers, analysts and the media gather to learn about and discuss issues affecting the industry and share their visions of the mobile future.
About Nokia
Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications. Backed by its experience, innovation, user-friendliness and secure solutions, the company has become the leading supplier of mobile phones and a leading supplier of mobile, fixed and IP networks. By adding mobility to the Internet Nokia creates new opportunities for companies and further enriches the daily lives of people. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on six major exchanges.
The comments and opinions expressed on TheFeature are solely those of its writers and content partners and are not official statements by Nokia or any of its business partners or affiliates.
Further information
Nokia Corporate Communications, Tel. +358 9 1807 459
www.nokia.com
Nielsen Norman Group, info@nngroup.com
www.nngroup.com