5 replies to this topic

[joshclark]

Hi all,

A big hearty iPhone welcome to the "Tapworthy iPhone Design and User Experience" class. Really looking forward to getting to know all of you, sharing some mobile know-how with you, and hearing your ideas, too.

I hope to have some good exchanges during the weekly live presentation, but this forum will be the place where we can continue the conversation throughout the week. Feel free to post follow-up questions, share ideas, and even get feedback on your mobile designs.

Definitely don't hesitate to address questions to me — I'll do my best to keep up — but everyone's encouraged to weigh in with answers here. We've got a good-sized class with lots of sharp minds, and I hope we can all learn a little something from each other about the very dynamic and fast-moving topic of mobile design.

Let's get this fandango started.
Josh

[Skiier]

Great start to the course, thanks Josh.

Do you have any idea how large the corporate app market is, where apps are developed and deployed primarily for in-house use and wouldn't be in the App Store?

Thanks - Rob Morgan

[joshclark]

Great question! Especially great, since I don't know the answer myself, but I'd like to. Let me dig around (and put the question out on Twitter) and see what I can dig up. More soon!

[InAFlash]

Indeed, today's intro was great and already I can tell this course will be as fun & enlightening as your book. Following onto the Corp. apps theme - I find the biggest conundrum is what mobile devices do my (Corp.) customer's customers have? If one is tasked with their first ever mobile offering (apps OR web site) - how can one justify the first wave (i.e.budget) for iPhone apps? Beyond specific device/platform intel, it would be v. helpful to know interaction model (multiple-touch vs. 5-way nav) how do you research these questions?

[joshclark]

Great to hear that we're off to a good start! Thanks for all the kind words.

And thanks, too, for the questions! Going forward, let's start new topics and questions in a new topic in the forum. (You can start a new topic by clicking the "New Topic" button at the top right of most forum pages.)

Meantime, you asked...

I find the biggest conundrum is what mobile devices do my (Corp.) customer's customers have?

It's a great question, and it can take some legwork to find out what devices a customer base typically has and, even more important, how they use them.

One quick measure is to check the company's web logs for mobile browsers. That will at least tell you what browsers people are using to visit a company's website. Remember, though, that iPhone users tend to browse the web more actively than Android users, and both browse more than BlackBerry etc. So those behaviors will skew your web log numbers in favor of iPhone/Android, and away from BlackBerry for example. Still, it's a start.

After that, the answer is simply to ask them. Now we're getting into the territory of traditional market research. Very brief surveys—think three questions—about what phone people use can be extremely effective. Get these surveys out by whatever means the company has available: email newsletter, online link, direct mail.

Hope that helps!
Josh

[Alix C]

Hi Josh,
Where I can submit my design for critique. I just taking up this course. Not sure if you are still available for critque.

Thanks,
Alix