Twitter competition to define mobile user experience

On 18th March we held a 1 day competition on Twitter (@marekpawlowski and #mex09), challenging industry pioneers to come up with the best definition of ‘mobile user experience’. The prize was a delegate pass, valued at GBP 1499, for the 5th annual MEX Mobile User Experience conference on 19th – 20th May. The event sells out in advance every year with a long waiting list, so it was a great opportunity for an individual developer or small company to get their hands on a ticket and join the industry’s most creative thinkers at MEX.

Here are the entries we received:

@haysom_runner: fast, simple, relevant, necessary and safe!

@Klaasdahaas: The combination of user actions noticed, and noticed quality of goal accomplishment defines the Mobile User Experience

@barbaraballard: Mobile user experience: How people interact with a brand using the data devices in their pockets

@millarm: design to keep cost low and meet legacy revenue and marketing buzzwords of operators – people an afterthought

@mattdavies: Mobile user experience: Encompasses every interaction and emotion a person has with their mobile device in their daily lives.

@synaesthete: Mobile User Experience=the practice of designing handheld devices to help people get connected with each other, entertained &informed

@Klaasdahaas: Mobile user experience is the extent of freedom a user feels to connect to the world

@Klaasdahaas: Mobile user experience = the sum of the emotions felt during the interaction plus the change in mood caused by the interaction.

After careful consideration, we decided @mattdavies was the most complete definition of mobile user experience:

“Mobile user experience: Encompasses every interaction and emotion a person has with their mobile device in their daily lives.”

Congratulations Matt, we’ll look forward to seeing you at MEX on 19th – 20th May in London.

Thanks to everyone who took part and re-tweeted the competition.

We don’t have any more free passes to give away (MEX attendance is limited to 100 mobile user experience pioneers and sells out every year – buy one here), but please feel free to send in any additional ideas for the definition of mobile user experience if you want to join in the discussion.

Follow @marekpawlowski and use tag #mex09 on Twitter if you want to keep with the latest MEX news and a few more surprises.

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.

View Comments

  • Generally a good definition won, except that it does not account for mobile experiences beyond the device. What is iPhone without iTunes, the AppStore, Genius, The Apple Store, genius, etc. Thinking of the device as a nexus problematic and part of what keeps getting us into the mess. Services and how they interoperate is what is most important. The rest if marketing fluff.

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