SMARTPHONE MAP for SAMSUNG
Phones have become over complicated and many users are afraid of getting lost in menus – so they don’t explore and learn all the things they can do.
We were shocked at the number of people who had spent hundreds of pounds on a smartphone but didn’t know what they could do with it – they were too frightened to explore.
We also realised that in order to make people spend time learning something new they need to be able to clearly understand the benefits in learning that new thing.
If you didn’t know what MMS meant – would you bother to learn it? What if it was called “Share photos with friends”?
We thought learning how to use a new phone can be so alien to some people, it’s a little like visiting a new city. We also wanted to use existing mental models and familiar processes to our advantage, so we started looking at maps.
By creating a tangible and visual record of the contents of a phone, people can easily see “how much” their phone can do. They can then gauge “how much” they understand out of the map.
We organized the information to flow from central points which relate exactly to the menu system on the phone. This means that user have one level of translation less to decipher when following the map.
The graphics used were similar to an Underground metro map, and provided simple descriptions of each function, to give context and clearly show the benefits of learning that function
“I didn’t know I had a radio in this!”
We had excellent results when we tried this out with people – they would touch the map and engage with it far more than the on screen menu. They were actually exploring and finding out new things.
We added a second layer of functionality by allowing the user to hover the device over the relevant area of the map to instantly jump to that function. Using the on-board camera, the phone would know where it is positioned in relation to the map, and be able to open the relevant function or offer an in depth description.
For more information please follow the related link below to read about the main research project, Out of the Box.