Technology is changing us (for the good I think)

In the last ~ten years I have changed my mobile phone a number of times, from Nokia 5110 to Palm Treo to Blackberry Curve to Android Droid X and finally settling down with an iPhone. Its amazing how technology has evolved from large mobile phones to small tiny Nokia phones and back to massivesmartphones phones.

Designing for mobile is different and not just with regards to the shape and size. Because mobile devices are lighter and more portable (in some cases), we find it more convenient to use them. And because we use them so often, we feel a unique, emotional connection to them.

One more thing I realized in the past few week is my transition from being a true Microsoft user to an everything Apple user in the past five or so years. I realize I have every single Apple product and everything is connected to the cloud. I am not talking about the wonderful (pun intended) ecosystem that Apple provides, but my motivation to move everything to Apple. And this does not end with just hardware; of course the transition to Mac OS X was smooth, I missed MS Office (IE was replaced with Chrome a while back). But in the past year, I have seen myself transitioned to iWork and when I think about this transition, I questioned myself why? Why did I move away from a software that I used for almost a decade.

“Clunky!”

It struck me when I heard this from my customers complaining about a system that they have used for years. It baffled me that the same users who have used this system for so many years are now finding this system clunky. Why?

Tracing back to my own transition, I realized how simple Gtalk, Gmail and Chrome browser were to start with. After getting my hands on my first tablet in 2010, I slowly transitioned to Apple mail and it didn’t take me a while to move to iWork when I used their 30 day trial version. The fact that I was not looking at too many things in my face made me feel better. Just like my iPhone (in my case) I could concentrate on a task that I was currently doing rather than find something in that massive ribbon on the top with icons that I found it difficult to understand at times.

We have different attitude, behavior and priorities while using our gadgets. They come with us on the bus, walking down the street or watching TV. Users expect more contextual based actions then an al-a-carte menu system where they are expected to find an action they want to take. Because mobile devices have changed user expectations, it is extremely important to consider them is user studies since their influence is much larger then we can think of.