SXSW 2012 Mobile App Wireframes

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself playing around with the official South-By-South-West (SXSW) mobile app, SXSW Go, on my Android device. Great memories came back to me as I viewed my schedule of events and recalled the unwarranted amounts of inspiration, fun and education I got out of SXSW 2011.

However, in playing around with the app, I noticed some opportunities where the User Experience (UX) could've been enhanced. As a result, I conducted some fundamental user research (looking to the app reviews on the Android Market and probing my mates who went to SXSW 2011 with me) and whipped up some high-fidelity conceptual wireframes for the SXSW 2012 app.

Before we begin, I'd like to thank @c0uP, @pkattera, @reece_wagner & @jasehutch for their time in the process, either contributing ideas and insight or reviewing the concepts. I'm extremely appreciative to have these guys involved.

The wireframes below is just a preview of some of the thought that has been put into re-engineering the User Experience for the SXSW 2012 app. Only two user journeys have been explored:

1. Schedule - The entire SXSW schedule (including the film, interactive and music festivals as well as the tradeshows)
2. My SXSW - The user's customised shortlist of events they wish to attend

Significant thought has also been put into Places, Social and the Tradeshow, but that's for another discussion.

I'd love to hear your feedback and see what you think!

1. Splashscreen

2. Dashboard Navigation

Note: The SXSW 2011 app did not feature dashboard navigation.

3. Schedule Interface

4. My SXSW Interface

5. My SXSW - Talk Info

This screen is accessed when a user drills down into a specific talk from their My SXSW screen, which contains their customised/favourited list of talks.

So what'd you think? 

Mobile Monday Sydney Roundup

Here's a quick brain dump of the insights from tonight's Mobile Monday Sydney. We had 3 fantastic speakers who provided unique perspectives on the mobile landscape. If you know someone who couldn't make it, spread the post!

The session opened with Ken Wong, head of User Experience at Fairfax Digital, who gave a top quality presentation on "Lessons I learnt from building i-stuff". Following him was Manuela Davidson, mobile producer at ABC, who provided an insight into the mobile initiatives at ABC. Closing off the session were Virgin Blue's Warren Hamilton, a product specialist, and Kirsten Romanin, a marketing specialist, who touched on the mobile travel landscape and the latest Virgin Blue Mobile App, called 'Check Mate'.

Favourite Quotes

The difference between a good and a great app is the lessons you learn from your customers. (Ken Wong)

Mobile is not a platform. It is a lifestyle. (Manuela Davidson)

Ken Wong (Fairfax Digital)

Ken's presentation approached the mobile space from a strong user experience perspective. He provided us with 3 critical lessons:

1. Let your users surprise you

• Listen to your users. Learn how & where they use your apps.
• The difference between a good and a great app is the lessons you learn from your customers.
• Where can you start learning about your customers? Observe them 'in the wild'. Contact your customer service team. Mine your web analytics.

2. Start thinking about the 'bounce'

• Traditional UX is state based - you move from one state to another
• Mobile UX is different. You need to look between the states.
• To improve mobile UX, consider transitions such as fading, zooming in/out. These interactions may seem so simple, but they completely change a user's interaction with the interface (and thus the system).

3. Laziness is good

Ken provides 2 approaches to 'laziness':

• A lazy practitioner is a good thing
  • Identify high traffic features (e.g. login or search). Design & build this feature properly the first time and then copy & deploy it across multiple services. I call this: high quality, modular design.
  • Advantages: Better use of time elsewhere & consistent design and experience across differing mobile offerings.
• Consider the 'lazy' UX
  • Primarily focused on the iPad's interaction model - most users use the iPad when they are 'lazily' lounged in a couch.
  • Key takeaway: consider the contextual environment when designing the user interface. You want the user interface, and thus the user experience, to harmonise with the user's environment.

Manuela Davidson (ABC)

Manuela provided a deep insight into the motivations, initiatives and statistics around mobile at ABC.

Some of the interesting points she raised included:

• ABC's motivation for moving into the mobile space: "[in the future] mobile will fall easily within a public broadcaster's obligation".
• Mobile is not a platform. It is a lifestyle.
• Mobile traffic to the m.abc.net.au website: Apple (45%), RIM (28%), Nokia (7%), Android (4%), Other (16%).
• As we move towards the tablet-era, the digital strategy to cater for these mobile devices will depend on content that is more interesting and inviting, as well as increased video consumption.

Future opportunities, challenges and considerations Manuela identified:

• Users (customers ?) having a larger appetite for audio and video content
• Increased customer expectation on video quality (HD, BluRay, 3DTV)
• Data usage challenges the distribution chains (servers, bandwidth)
• Rich media considerations (consume live/on-demand/offline content)
• Relevant-based apps (location-based, social awareness, personalisation)
• Future delivery considerations (telco bandwidth- 4G network, rise of User Generated Content (UGC), increased quality of data, increased uptake of social media, gaming)

Warren Hamilton & Kirsten Romanin (Virgin Blue)

Warren & Kirsten's presentation walked us through the thought process involved in producing the Check Mate Mobile App from competitior analysis to multi-channel marketing.

Warren provided us with some interesting mobile travel related statistics and facts:

• 51% of AsiaPac travellers use mobile devices to check in or perform other activities (change seating, check up on flight cancellation)
• BA.com has ~ 20,000 mobile users per day
• Lufthansa issues ~120,000 mobile boarding passes per month; ~ 2 million mobile page views per month
• Virgin Blue's mobile offering extends to their ~ 2 million Velocity Members
• Biggest threat to airlines are the concierge services in the travel industry, as they contain more customer data (providing improved granular customer market isolation and analysis capability)
• Co-branding with these concierge services is strategically strengthening - Virgin Blue has co-branded with WorldMate in the USA.
• Air NZ is considered as the most advanced carrier to utilise mobile technology in the local AsiaPac market

Kirsten revealed their marketing strategy behind their Check Mate Mobile App launch:

• Primary target market: 35-50yr old business men
• 4 pillars of the marketing strategy: awareness, education, promotion, partnership
• Given the target market, Virgin Blue's strategy was to align with a corporate brand and leverage the strength of that brand in the corporate market. This brand was BlackBerry (ever wondered why there isn't a Virgin Blue iPhone app?)
• Marketing techniques learnt in the alcohol industry were translated to the mobile airline space - the technique of 'sampling' was used to develop a wallet-size pamphlet which could be easily distributed. It basically provided potential customers with a sample of the Check Mate mobile offering. More importantly, it served to initiate one-on-one conversations with potential customers.
• Multi-channel marketing strategy spanned across: television, print, internet, kiosks in the waiting lounges. Overall, this ensured that constant customer engagement with the concept of the mobile app (prior to launch) and with the actual app (post launch).

Before I wrap up, I owe  a HT to @hannahlaw for her tweet about tonight's event. If she hadn't tweeted it, I wouldn't have been able to share these insights. So Hannah, a big thankyou!

Once again, if you know someone who couldn't make the event, spread the post. There's some fantastic content that's not to be missed!

@MobiCity - Social Media Goodness

Last week, @MobiCity keenly took on a social media challenge proposed by a mate of mine, @jwswj, which in my opinion, has paid off for them.

On 10 May 2010, @jwswj, tweeted:

@MobiCity I think you should give @jymmysim a @HTC Desire for 1/2 price - What do you think? We'll promise to tweet positively about you!

Shortly after, @MobiCity responded with a poll - "500 YES votes and @jymmysim will get a HTC Desire for 1/2 price". The social media campaign was on.

How has this campaign paid off for MobiCity?

1. MobiCity is a brand that listens By responding so quickly over Twitter, MobiCity brands itself as a company that listens to it's audience (not it's customers - but it's audience). This is an important distinction, as MobiCity sets brands itself as a community participant within the mobile industry, as opposed to an out-right sell-sell-sell retailer.
2. MobiCity became noisy over Twitter Here's a graph of noise surrounding @MobiCity over the month of May. Notice the dramatic spike in noise on 10 May. The noise also seems to be denser (but only slightly) after the campaign's launch, compared to the period before the campaign.

   There is no proof that this increased online buzz has converted to increased  sales. But what it has achieved is increased the online promoter score - i.e. an estimate of the online chatter likely to lead to a recommendation.

3. Increased Brand Awareness A work mate of mine, @chesterm8,  didn't know of MobiCity before this campaign. And neither did 20 or more of us across our Sydney and Melbourne offices. Now we all do. More importantly, now we all have a positive sentiment towards the MobiCity brand.
4. Cheap marketing & advertising MobiCity paid approx AUD $350  for this campaign - and all they had to do was set up a poll, and monitor their Twitter stream. In no way could they have gotten the same amount of exposure or air time over the radio waves or over television.MobiCity effectively shifted their marketing effort onto the consumer (me), and in return, gained massive exposure over Twitter & Yammer as well as a new Facebook Group (thanks @jessnichols).

Next steps...

Just a couple of takeaway ideas which @MobiCity could consider for future social media goodness:

1. Blog about the campaign
2. Measure pre & post campaign noise
3. Consolidate your channels & drive traffic back home Rather than managing two channels - a polling channel and a Facebook fan page channel, can you integrate both of them together? Perhaps run a poll via your Facebook Fan Page?
4. Correlate campaign noise against customer inquires about specific products and product sales
5. Diversify the product reviews on the blog - create a YouTube channel and post video-recorded product reviews

A big thankyou to...

This is my running list of people who have helped me out. I'm super appreciative of all of the votes and the RT's. I don't think I've left anyone out, but let me know if it have :)

Thankyou...

@jwswj, @dkeeghan, @c0uP, @robertsparis, @justintunbridge, @naomieve, @jessnichols, @marawlings, @thushanee, @andrewlitvak, @jamescutts, @timmackay, @MikiRei, @hsterin, @k8linton, @Kylie_Martin, @zander1979, @gkshortee, @cerrykean, @jamiepride, @leondoyle, @amandamli, @jGalliers, @markpollard, @rosshill, @haribilalic, @jyesmith, @deepdesignuk, @chesterm8, @tomsaunders, @jamhos, @haichenw, @mattieryan, @akiellor, @KittyHybrid, @thatpatrickguy, @StephChevassus, @seanboange, @inspiredworlds, @cyanogen, @artrlee, @akafatty, @dunsy, @yghalia @netshroud,@lfeuerstein,  @wittering, @ozdj, @rbyrnes