After lengthy review by the panel of independent judges (see below), we are delighted to release the short-lists for 2008 MEX Mobile User Experience Awards. The winners will be officially announced at a special evening reception in London on 27th May, the opening night of the 4th annual MEX conference.

Congratulations to all those who made the short-list and thanks to everyone who participated. Your creativity and attention to user-centred design principles has provided a fantastic showcase for mobile user experience innovation.

Commercial category

- Taptu

- Zeemote

- Mobyko

- Vuzix

Freelance category

- Flat Music Player

- Cloudaware

- BSR Blind Phone

Professional category

- My Link Wireless Accessory

- Couple IT

- MoDist

Student category

- Context aware

- Pixie TV

- MyView

MEX Mobile User Experience Innovator of the Year

- Taptu

- BSR Blind Phone

- MyView

The process

The judges were universally impressed by the quality and breadth of entries received, making the judging process a difficult and exhaustive task. The judges focused on the following 5 principles when making their decision:

1) The central challenge of the Design Competition was: “Design an interface, idea or product to delight customers and enhance the mobile user experience.”

2) Specifically, we asked contestants to show us how their product met the needs of their target user. We wanted to encourage people to design for individuals rather than broad, inaccurate market segments. The judges considered how detailed the contestants had been in their description of the user and how well suited their design was to that user’s needs.

3) The Competition was also designed to encourage new innovation. The judges looked at each entry and asked whether it represented a cutting edge mobile user experience?

4) The public vote count and public comments were also considered.

5) Overall, the judges were looking for ientries which balanced a clear understanding of users as individuals with a flair for solving user experience issues through innovative design.

The judges

Both will be responding to point #6 on the MEX Manifesto, entitled, ‘Search requires a radically different approach in the mobile environment’.

True to the spirit of the MEX conference, each speaker will put customer behaviour at the centre of their presentation, explaining how their particular approach to mobile search is based on user needs.

Also in the MEX spirit, we’ll be allowing each speaker a 20 minute time period to present their ideas and then giving the conference attendees a full 20 minutes to question them on their approach.

Both Scott and Steve have taken the time to sit down with me ahead of the conference and do video interviews to give you an insight into their opinions.

I spoke with Steve most recently and you can see our interview on YouTube below.

Steve Ives, CEO, Taptu

A couple of months ago I published my interview with Scott Jenson. If you haven’t already seen it, you can check it out on YouTube below.

Scott Jenson, Manager of Mobile UI, Google

I hope you’ll join us at the MEX conference in London on 27th - 28th May 2008 to take part in the debate. Delegate places are priced at GBP 1499 and you can register on-line at www.pmn.co.uk/mex/register08.shtml.

To give you an idea of my views on this topic, here is the full MEX Manifesto statement on this issue and some stats and questions to get you thinking:

We believe…
Search requires a radically different approach in the mobile environment. To find the answers they are looking for in the time they have available, mobile users need access to the widest range of search techniques, yet these must be provided within a highly constrained interface.

The background
A group of friends at a restaurant seeking the answer to a particular question. A commuter walking along a busy street trying to find the time of the next train home. A teenager in his bedroom searching for a video clip. An executive looking for a relevant email as he goes into a meeting. Is there a single mobile interface which can support such diverse search requirements?

Searching for digital information with a desktop computer has been built around keyword input and a summarised results page. Google, Ask, Yahoo and Microsoft Live are variations on a very similar theme. The giants of web-based search are seeking ways to expand their pay-per-click advertising franchises to a larger audience with little consideration for the vastly different behavioural characteristics of mobile users.

However, there are a growing number of innovative start-ups building search engines optimised for mobile. Techniques include asynchronous, message-based services employing a combination of human operators and advanced databases. There are browser-based tools which return search queries as neatly packaged pages with the layout optimised for their context. Some companies are even creating whole new hardware interaction layers to add a third dimensional element to the mobile search experience.

To get you thinking

• Is mobile search an application or an entirely new interface methodology?
• How can we embed appropriate search techniques within core mobile applications, enabling users to jump easily from a name in their address book to a list of all the communications they’ve had with that individual?
• What are the hardware and software innovations which can enrich search on mobile devices? How will new sensors, support for 3D graphics and location awareness be applied?

• $4.8bn: Revenues from mobile search services will rise to $4.8bn worldwide by 2013. | (Source: Juniper Research)
• 40%: Just under half of mobile search revenues will be generated by ‘local’ search enquiries, making it the single most popular type of search. | (Source: Juniper Research)
• 59%: Nearly 6 in 10 iPhone users use mobile search services from their handset, driven by easy access to the web and the superior browsing experience provided by the large screen. This compares with 37% of smartphone users and 6.1% across the whole mobile market. | (Source: M:Metrics)
• 6.1%: Just over 6% of mobile users access web search services from their handset. | (Source: M:Metrics)

• Exploring the natural approach to mobile search
• Google: this isn’t about Android
• The natural choice for search, advertising and everything else
• MEX video interview with Scott Jenson of Google
• Latency kills the mobile experience

The solution is an easily implementable application that could run natively or through the phone browser. The solution would use available technology to measure distance at all times and chunk it up into trips. When requested by the user, the distanced is recorded separately for use in logging. The application could run on a GPS navigation system, or ideally - any mobile phone. The main control is a simple ON / OFF to activate the logging function.

In the simple function use case, the user clicks the button associated with ON when they enter the car for a business trip. The app makes note of the date,time, and location. When the user arrives at the destination, they click the button associated with OFF. Now that this single business trip is complete, the app makes note of the end location and computes the distance between the start and end. This distance is entered in the system for this user, saved for use later.

The distance information could be found in several ways:
1. By the GPS in any GPS-equipped phone or navigation system
2. By noting the nearest cell phone tower in the network, for an estimation of the start and end points (within a small but acceptable window of error). This is available for any non-GPS-equipped phone.
3. By prompting the user for the ZIP code of the start and end location, at the respective time
4. By prompting the user for total distance driven at the end of the trip.

In the advanced form, the app could also account for a common problem with log books and one that is also possible with the simple app: Forgetting to turn on the app, thereby losing the starting location information. The advanced mode gives the user an option to click a button associated with RETRACK CURRENT TRIP. The app would then look back to the last time that the cell phone (or other device) was stationary for 1 hour. It would then capture that point as the start location and put the app in the simple mode, waiting for the user to click OFF/END TRIP.

Features
• Provides them with a private space within the device
• Allows them the option to password-protect the area
• Provides them with personalized widgets to store and manage
- Text messages
- Photos, audio and video
- Contact numbers
• Provides unique multimedia ‘presentation modes’ designed to relive their memories during private time or share them with friends

MEX brings together participants from across the value chain, including operators, handset manufacturers, network equipment suppliers, OS vendors, developers and digital media brands. The founding principle of the conference was to have everyone required to make progress on user experience issues sitting around the same table - it is an event where we actually make change happen through collaboration. I hope you’ll join us by registering for the conference.

Talk to any mobile developer and you hear the same story: fragmentation is their biggest headache. They are beset by complexity on all sides. On the one hand, they face the challenge of producing a hundred SKUs to ensure one application works across all those different handset specifications. At the same time, they must forge separate commercial agreements to get ‘on deck’ with all the operators in a particular country.

Developers are pouring man hours into these administrative issues when they could be creating new innovations to drive the market for mobile services. They are also finding it prohibitively expensive to enter new markets, or even getting their company launched in the first place. The one-man-band creative designing and developing an application in his home office is an endangered species.

It’s no wonder developers have little time to focus on user experience issues when it can take months to get an application certified on a particular operating system or network.

Of course, the real losers in this process are the end customers. When the average mobile customer sees an advertisement for a mobile service or watches a friend demo a cool new application, they have no certaintity they will be able to enjoy the same experience on their own handset. Any number of technical hurdles could prevent them from accessing the service themselves - perhaps they don’t have the correct Flash runtime installed, maybe the handset runs a non-standard version of Java or perhaps their operator has locked them out of installing third party applications altogether?

For an industry pinning its long-term hopes on the growth of mobile data services, it sometimes seems like we couldn’t be doing more to shoot ourselves in the foot.

However, there are signs of change.

Adobe today announced it’s Open Screen project, partnering with a consortium of chipset manufacturers, handset vendors, network operators and software companies to bring Flash and AIR support to a much wider range of devices. This includes mobile handsets, desktop PCs and other appliances, raising the possibility that developers may one day be able to use the same tools to create applications across all of the devices which comprise the average consumer’s digital universe.

Open Screen supporters at launch are: ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG, Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Verizon Wireless.

Flash was widely heralded as a breakthrough innovation when it was first introduced to the mobile business several years ago, but in many ways has failed to live up to expectations.

The ability to use vector-based graphics to scale application UIs across a wide range of different screen formats without manual re-coding was seen as a vital development. The prospect of a standardised runtime environment without the fragmentation issues of Java was also highly attractive.

Despite claiming to have shipped some 500m licenses for the mobile version of Flash, the actual results have been relatively unimpressive. Japanese operators have made extensive use of the technology. Samsung and LG also employ Flash to underpin several of their handset UIs. Nokia is incorporating it into its Series 40 and Series 60 handsets too, but Flash continues to play a very small role in forming the overall user experience for customers around the world.

The Open Screen project seeks to address some of the factors which have limited its success. Adobe will drop the license fee it has previously charged manufacturers for incorporating the mobile Flash client. It will also work towards creating an integrated version of the Flash player and AIR platform, enabling developers to use the same tools to create applications across numerous platforms.

Adobe will publish the previously unavailable specifications for FlashCast and the AMF protocol, making it easier for developers to take advantage of over-the-air (OTA) update features. This will include allowing the Adobe runtime itself to be updated OTA, just like Flash player on the desktop.

The result should be expanded deployment of Flash and AIR, reduced cost to the eco-system and a better development environment. For consumers, this will translate into the ability to view existing, web-based Flash content on their mobile handsets, a wider range of interactive third party applications and more certaintity that the services they see demoed in magazines and TV will actually work on their mobile.

“Users clearly want full functionality, the same look and feel, and a similar instantaneous user experience as they have on their PCs,” commented Dr. Sehat Sutardja, president and chief executive officer at chipset manufacturer Marvell. “We are very excited Adobe is making this happen through the Open Screen Project by unifying the software requirements across all platforms. Marvell is contributing to the success of this effort by providing PC class computing horsepower through our advanced application processor technology that is used in many of our mobile and consumer devices.”

Rikko Sakaguchi, Head of Portfolio and Propositions, at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, said: “A broad range of our handsets are Flash-enabled based on our belief that an engaging and integrated mobile application and Web experience is essential to our users. Adobe’s Open Screen Project will help to further expand the use of Flash technology across the full family of Sony Ericsson mobile devices to energise communication. Flash technology and Adobe AIR are natural fits to Sony Ericsson’s strategy of building on the best of the Open Web Standards and will help provide new mobile experiences to millions of users around the world.”

Interestingly, Sony Ericsson also made a separate announcement about Flash yesterday. It is working with Adobe on something called Project Capuchin. This will see Sony Ericsson handsets supporting a hybrid Java ME/Flash platform, essentially allowing developers to wrap Flash elements within a Java application download.

While this may deliver some benefits to developers who want to incorporate enhanced UIs in their mobile Java applets, it is also another sign of the fragmentation which afflicts the industry.

Simon Judge, a freelance mobile developer and expert on mobile development environments, explains: “At first sight this seems a great bridging technology for developers. The standard JAVA ME UI isn’t that graphically rich. Consequently, most mainstream applications such as mobile Gmail have created their own UI on top of the JAVA ME canvas. This is non-trival for most developers to implement for themselves, so using Flash Lite is one solution to this
problem.”

However, Simon - who also co-authored our last three MEX conference reports - concludes: “The problem is it’s currently a ‘Sony Ericsson only’ technology, which means that your application will only work on their phones. This will make Project Capuchin much less attractive to developers. Handset manufacturers need to start co-operating on new cross platform technologies rather than locking developers into what are effectively proprietary technologies.”

Many developers seek to avoid these headaches altogether by focusing their efforts on less advanced platforms, like XHTML mobile web-sites or even basic SMS alerts. However, sometimes even these ‘lowest common denominator’ options are fraught with problems.

Vodafone UK recently found itself at the centre of a storm of developer protests after it introduced Novarra’s web gateway to its network. The technology was designed to dynamically re-purpose desktop-style web-sites into a format suitable for mobile devices, thereby enhancing the user experience. However, one of the ‘features’ of the gateway was hiding the invisible ‘user agent’ string which helps third party developers to identify the type of device accessing their mobile web services.

Hundreds of developers who’d optimised their services to provide a tailored experience for different devices suddenly found their applications broken overnight. Customers used to seeing a perfectly formated page in their mobile browser were now presented with a mess of automatically re-purposed content which bore no resemblence to the creators original design.

Developer mailing lists erupted in protest and now an uneasy dialogue has been established with operators and transcoding software vendors to try to prevent such issues occuring in the future.

We’ll be addressing the issue of fragmentation and its limiting effect on innovation at the MEX conference in London on 27th - 28th May. It is one of our 10 Manifesto issues for 2008.

MEX brings together participants from across the value chain, including operators, handset manufacturers, network equipment suppliers, OS vendors, developers and digital media brands. The founding principle of the conference was to have everyone required to make progress on user experience issues sitting around the same table - it is an event where we actually make change happen through collaboration.

Carl Taylor, Director of Applications, Services & Global Technology Strategy at Hutchison Whampoa Europe (parent company of the Three networks), will deliver a keynote presentation in response to this Manifesto issue. His presentation will inspire a series of breakout groups where 100 of the brightest minds in the mobile business work together to examine the issue from a number of different angles. We’ll then bring together a conference-wide debate to create a collaborative response to the Manifesto statement. You can read the full session description here.

I hope you’ll join us for the conference and contribute your views. We have a small number of delegate places remaining at MEX 2008 (all of our previous events sold out in advance), so please register today if you’d like to take part at http://www.pmn.co.uk/mex/register08.shtml. Places are priced at GBP 1499 (+ VAT @ 17.5% if applicable).

The value added to the service is that users can sort the results of the search by the most called contacts (user habit), commented (user feedback), voted (user preference) … as well as by date and by name.

From Wittycall users will be able to perform the call, send a SMS/text message or go to an Internet address by clicking on the contact detail.

A free open global phone directory made of user created phone contacts, a new open directory where phone contacts are published, promoted, rated and commented by the users.

Wittycall lets users to share and recommend their favourite services located on a concrete place or country (restaurants, hotels, taxi services, professional services…) with the rest of users, and the most important thing, it lets users to perform a search for a phone number and retrieve an important extra information based on users habits, feedbacks, preferences and experiences.