Categories: MEX NotesOpinions, ideas and new thinkingPathway #2: Multi-screens from a single device

MEX Notes: Only a Few Can Multitask – NYTimes.com

  • Only a Few Can Multitask – NYTimes.com – We started exploring the effect of simultaneous multi-platform interactions on user experience back in 2009 and it has remained a consistent theme for MEX ever since. The growth in the number of digital interfaces users are exposed to at any one time means design must anticipate a continuous state of partial attention among users. A Twitter exchange with Howard Rheingold pointed me to this New York Times piece on a Univetsity of Utah study exploring how users coped with driving and using a mobile phone. Only 2.5% (so-called supertaskers) were able to do both simultaneously without any impact in performance. Everyone else suffered a performance impairment of 20 – 30%. Something to consider when designing a mobile app which may be used by a customer who is also interacting with a laptop, TV and tablet at the same time.
Marek Pawlowski

Marek Pawlowski is the founder of MEX. Since 1995, he has focused the MEX business on helping digital industries to develop better, more profitable products through improved understanding of user behaviour with mobile devices and wireless networks. MEX is best known for its events, research and consulting, which balance commercial, technical and user insights to define the future of mobile user experience.

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Marek Pawlowski
15 years ago

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