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1. Can Social Thinking create a better Mobile User Experience? - 03-01-2011
by admin - mobileYouth® - http://www.mobileyouth.org
Can Social Thinking create a better Mobile User Experience?
by admin - Tuesday, March 01, 2011
http://www.mobileyouth.org/post/can-social-thinking-create-a-better-mobile-user-experience/
The "User Experience" has traditionally been a struggle. 60% of mobile owners reported experiencing "problems"
with mobile access. The growth of smartphones may give us the form factor and environment to create a better
experience but is it really down to technology or does the answer lie in our mindset?
Social Thinking can help. (For an introduction to Social Thinking read "Social Thinking for Mobile" which is also
explained in brief over at Youth Mobile Age). Social Thinking helps us see mobile phones not as technology but as
tools to facilitate social interaction, tools to maximize social currency. When we look at youth we see the evolution
of mobile behavior as one that reflects the changing way this segment can optimize their social currency from the
handset. In the 90s, youth did this through owning a phone (a badge of membership), then it developed into the
brand of phone. Now it's how you use the phone that counts - from Android rooting to BBM.
We've long seen innovation of user experience as the domain of "design thinking", of the genius that spills from the
labs of Cupertino but consider this - by the end of 2012, China and India will emerge as the largest youth
smartphone markets in the world. What happens when you engage 170 million youth who are primed in the
culture of innovation? To understand how we can engage this "department of great ideas" we need to shift from
"design" to "social" thinking.
What does Social Thinking teach us about "User Experience"?
* There is no "user" or "consumer". We need to get out of the mode of thought that sees people as "users" of
products. They are people with social needs. They aren't "end users" who figure at the end of our calculations but
rather at the beginning. What are their social pain points? How can those 170 million youth in China and India help
reveal clues as to how this experience should be evolved given their limited resources?
We can solve the issue of "User Experience" one of two ways:
1) Top Down: Invest in focus groups, design thinking and internal innovation to develop a "genius" advantage - i.e.
the first phone to use sliding form factor or the App Store.
2) Bottom Up: Invest in youthsourcing - build a dialogue with young people and let them deliver the answers. They
are the ones who have more experience, we have the expertise to convert that experience into innovation.
When Blackberry gave us BBM, hardly anybody used it. Give it to youth and the technology blossomed. Now BBM
has become a pivot point in youth social interaction (and a source of social currency), product developers and
marketing managers have ample opportunity to build a dialogue with youth to enhance the experience. If we were
to adopt approach (1), we'd still be sitting in the labs twiddling our thumbs.
Interested in Handset User Experience for Youth?
* Check out the available youth handset data from the mobileYouth report
Image credits & copyright: Flickr nyoin
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