HyenaLab’s Mobile app design

pointers.
“Quick, quality and economical UX solutions”

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Contents
Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................... 3
Human Computer Interaction ....................................................................................................................... 3
HCI – Convergence of HCI towards Mobile devices .................................................................................. 3
User Expectations form the Mobile Devices ............................................................................................. 3
Factors promoting Mobile devices services popularity ................................................................................ 4
HCI is evolving ............................................................................................................................................... 5
User Experience on Handheld devices.......................................................................................................... 5
Overview ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
Interaction Design.......................................................................................................................................... 6
Interaction design areas............................................................................................................................ 6
“CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING - When you lose context you lose everything” .............................................. 6
Interaction design Insights for Handheld devices ..................................................................................... 6
Information Architecture .......................................................................................................................... 8
Some insights for IA design for mobile devices ........................................................................................ 8
Visual Design ........................................................................................................................................... 13
Different types of handheld devices ........................................................................................................... 15
Mobile devices Design guidelines for better User Experience ................................................................... 17
Ideas for Handheld device design ........................................................................................................... 17
User Experience design considerations for senior citizens ................................................................. 20

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Executive Summary

Handheld devices are common today. They have become our constant companion. Mobile device are
always with us i.e. Travelling to office, in office, in park, in malls. What is making them eligible to stay
close? We are looking for similar answers in below sections & Mobile device design for good user
experience to make our lives comfortable.

The time span for which we live with Mobile devices is going to be larger sometimes more as compared
to our loved ones. Close proximity of mobile devices suggests us to design a good user experience with
them. Users are expecting small internet experience on mobile phones. To provide rich internet type of
experience on mobile devices needs UX expertise & common sense. The hand held device interface is an
interaction area overlapped by User activity, environment & culture. The roots of user experience on
handheld devices are deeper than what we think. In this paper, we would try to explore the different
aspects, future, design guidelines for hand held devices.

Human Computer Interaction

HCI – Convergence of HCI towards Mobile devices

Most of us have heard about HCI, for the readers who are new to HCI the question comes to them, What
is HCI?

“Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation
of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding
them."

HCI focuses to improve the interaction between users & the computers to make computers more
receptive towards user needs. The computers are shrinking themselves into mobile devices now days
due to the growth of embedded operating systems. There are many other factors which is making this
convergence at a fast pace. Now the question is should we fear this convergence, as we cannot match
the internet richness on the Mobile devices. I suggest we should welcome the transition with a warm
heart & user UX skills to design usable, user friendly devices that makes the target audiences happier.

User Expectations form the Mobile Devices

Mobile devices are supporting multiple services for users. They help users do many things other than
receiving & making calls from them. As per user survey, 21% of the users want to browse the internet &
13% users are keen to share content on their mobile devices.

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 Source: Mobile Entertainment Platforms and Services, a survey of 2,112 Internet users

Factors promoting Mobile devices services popularity

Technology is helping Mobile devices to evolve at a faster rate. Businesses are keen to provide Industry
specific services for customers to win their loyalty & develop business edge. Below are some of the
factors, which are making the mobile services more prominent.

IT & Software majors like Google, Microsoft, Symbian, Qualcomm, Montavista software, SavaJe,
are actively entering into Embedded Operating system. Microsoft with Embedded Standard
2009, Google with Android, Simian OS, iPhone OS, Palm OS are fueling the Mobile device
services market.
Mobile phone penetration is increasing rapidly, as per Portio Research; a market-research firm
global mobile penetration will reach 75% by 2011.The mobile users will be seeking mobile-
based services.
The convergence of internet and mobile phones creates the mobile internet, which in fact
provides the user with extended possibilities in the mobile communication.
WAP (Wireless application protocol) is growing supporting developers of mobile, interactive
data services for the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication). All contemporary mobile
application rely on WAP.

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HCI is evolving
The means by which Human interacts with computers is evolving very fast. Traditionally users interact
with the below accessories.

Input devices Output devices

Qwerty Keyboard Virtual Environment Interfaces

Mouse Computer monitors

Voice user’s speech Printers

Joysticks

As we are slowly moving from computers to hand held devices we are looking for other alternatives for
interaction with these mean small machines which are capable of tracking your position using GPRS,
sending messages, e-mail & get specialized services like tracking the trains in Germany. You can track
your luggage, car, even your wife by fixing a RFID (Radio frequency identification) tag under her shoes.
Just using your cell phone. Quite impressive, there are immense possibilities hidden in Mobile devices.

Now days technology has given better interaction tools like stylus, touch screen, biometric identification
to make our interactions more sophisticated with handheld devices.

User Experience on Handheld devices

Overview
User experience on handheld devices is a critical thing to decide, as there are different types of hand
held devices available in the market. Utility of mobile devices are varying. The communication radio
made for the defense forces has a different pattern of usage as compared to the mobile phones. These
radios are designed to withstand enormous heat, sound, rains, & tough handling, as they are made for
combat situations. The ordinary cell phone may stop working in a combat situation, as they are not
designed for the same. If this is the general base line then how we are going to measure the User
Experience on these hand held devices? A good question indeed. The answer lies in focusing on three
aspects of User Experience.

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 1. Interaction Design
2. Information Architecture &
3. Visual design

Interaction Design
Interaction design is the science of defining the behaviors of products & applications a user interacts.
Interaction design revolves around software’s, mobile devices & electronic devices. Interaction
designers work on the work flow of new applications, they perform task flow analysis & improves the
interaction with the applications.

Interaction design areas

The aspects of Interaction are important when we go for Mobile devices. Studies suggest mobile devices
are used for a particular context of significant importance surrounded by environmental distractions.
Interaction for handheld devices can be summed in few words.

“CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING - When you lose context you lose everything”

The user accompanies mobile devices everywhere. To parties, travelling, office, movies. Mobile devices
are inseparable from users. On other hand desktops cannot be taken everywhere so easily, techno-
logical advancement like laptops are only taken to meetings & work places or when we travel for a
business trip.

The hand held device is also surrounded in different context like connection type, carrier provider
policies, type of device from feature to functionality. The interface of the device acts as the layer on
which user & his context meets for a purpose. We are at the brink of providing a mini Web experience to
mobile phone users. The opportunity looks dormant, we will engage the customers at any time any
place, and the business value implications are immense.

Interaction design Insights for Handheld devices

Interaction design for hand held devices is a bit different in comparison with computers. Let us explore
the differences.

Processing capacity of the handheld device will have a limited impact on the performance

The mobile phones will use the resources from different servers/applications & display the results
on the phone. Mobile phone can become a remote control for smart environments, and serve
functions including personal identity, wallet, ticket, entrance key, activator and personal display.

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 Hand held devices will make Find ability easier

Mobile phones are inseparable from us now. GPRS, RFID, Location tagging on Google maps will
encourage the users to become aware about the surroundings with ease. Some smaller companies
help you to locate your friends on a map. Find ability will become easier with mobile phones.

Mobile interactions are small steps of the big user goals

Finding the PNR status of the railway ticket through mobile phones, while boarding the waiting list
ticket is a small step helping the user to make his train journey comfortable. Mobile devices will help
the end users in making their life simple by taking simple steps.

Mobile interaction will extend beyond the device

Users can fill a form on the personal computer on the internet & they can see the same information
updated on their cell phones. If the flight is delayed, a SMS comes in their cell phone to inform
them.

Mobile as continuous companions will open new experiences of different intensities

Mobile phone gaming have come a big way from the beginning dots to bricks arrangement, the
games have matured to provide respectable graphics & videos on the cell phones. This particular
area is going to mature & move towards a great user experience in entertainment perspective
through mobile devices. Today iPod’s, MP3 players are one-step ahead for a great user experience.

Silence will be respected by Mobile devices

As continuous companions of users, mobile phones have to respect the privacy & Zen of users. We
cannot design the interaction of the mobile devices that makes them noisy, they should avoid
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 disturbing the user unnecessarily & they needs to keep the user focus when it is very important like
making a money transaction through mobile phones.

Handheld devices ease of use is first bait.

To make a good handheld device it need to be easy in use. The interactions should only take the
steps that are most important, unnecessarily steps, data inputs should be completely removed.

Handheld device interactions are task oriented

Hand held devices are smaller & easily carried. The area of interaction is less for the users. The data
that can be displayed is also smaller. Content and activities must be desired & requested. This makes
the interactions task oriented; we cannot beat around the bush here. The context’s are chosen &
solution is provided to resolve that.

New mobile experiences compete with legacy user models

As mobile services expand, design must take into account customers' reliance on user models that
come from prior technologies. We still use the word "dial" to refer to using phones that no longer
have rotary dials, experiences using personal computers and landline telephones will shape initial
interaction design schemes on handheld devices.

Information Architecture
Information Architecture is the combination of organizing, labeling & navigation schemes within an
information system. Content, Context & users are the main areas of focus when we design the
information architecture of any applications. The content needs to be scaled down to the minimum for
Hand held device IA design. The filtering of content needs to be done, a minimum amount of content
has to be provided to the users. Least number of inputs by key strokes is asked from the users.

Some insights for IA design for mobile devices

Real estate price is too high in handheld devices

The real estate is less in hand held devices. We cannot even think of leaving this idea when moving
to the drawing board.

“Less is more in Hand held devices”

The text “I” in IA of Handheld devices is filtered

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Information is of two basic types important & not important in context to a situation depending on
the scenario & requirement. The “I” in handheld devices needs to be small “I” instead of the Big “I”.
The alphabet “I” is taken as the symbol for INFORMATION here. The stress is use the minimum most
important information to play around handheld devices. Asking the users too many inputs is not a
good practice.

Iconic representation of information

Icons are clever way to say long words, after all a picture is worth thousand words. We all are
surrounded by icons everywhere. See the image below

Handheld devices need intuitive icons that are globally accepted to be effectively used with ease.

Effective Color combinations can increase the IA of Handheld devices

The focus now days are to provide smaller internet experience to users through hand held devices.
The users who are slowly moving towards this trend are well versed with internet technology &
personal computers. Taking advantage of this, in an effective manner design the IA in suitable
colors. Red text message on internet means some error happened either form your end or system
end. Green text message means the good news. Similar type of color combinations needs to be used
in handheld devices. As handheld devices are used in different locations like inside the house, near a
water body, in deserts, in icy mountains etc. The intensity of light, falling on the screen will differ;
this has to be taken care by appropriate use of foreground & background color usage. If the device is
having only two colors like light background & a dark text color then what to do. Here the learning’s
can be taken from earlier non color phones, the way they used to present information focusing on
the important information. I.e. making the not read SMS bold & read SMS normal text size.

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 Increasing the User Experience on Black & White screens

To provide the basic service to the lower societal pyramid of the people, companies made products
that are affordable. A color handset will obviously cost a little more as compared to the non-color
one. In some cases, color screens may not be possible or not required, as the utility does not suggest
so. To give a better User Experience on non-color phones an effective strategy is to have a static
stunning image on the screen as the background. Illuminate it by LED’s on all the sides to make it
glow. Display the black text above the screen just placed on the image. Make sure the background
image is light enough to display the black text easily. To the user it will be like working on a color
screen.

Importance of intuitive Back button

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The users using the hand held devices are coming from an internet background, if not all most of them.
They are aware that clicking on back button will take them to the previous screen on the internet
however; the case is a bit different here. In case of internet, the previous page information is stored in
cache of the computer memory. Hand held device is not designed for such purposes, as there is memory
space constraint. Upfront Demarcation of the home link & the back button in handheld devices should
be used. Clicking on the home will take the user to the main screen & clicking the back button will take
the user to the previous menus.

Information Depth/Breadth balance

The small screens of mobile Internet devices, combined with the increasing complexity of mobile tasks,
create a serious obstacle to usability in the mobile Internet. The complexity of the tasks, the more the
number of steps the complex the task completion on mobile phones becomes. The depth of information
needs to be kept minimum, instead try to organize the information in a breadth wise structure.

Circular Key controls Design

The data available on the hand held devices needs to be modified, written, played etc. To
accomplish this intuitive & easy keys are required. On the main screen, mostly use of icons is done.
The beauty of circular keys is that with one key press you can reach to different section depending
on your choice.

Horizontal layout is dangerous on main page

If the main sections are more & there is a Circular Key available in the hand held device then the
best approach is to go for icons. The above approach is appropriate if the only medium for selection
is key pads not any stylus/touch screens. Use appropriate icons & displays the name of each icon as
the user scrolls through them on top of the screen. In this way, we can represent information easily.
Change the color of the text & some areas as the user scrolls through the icons. The color change
will grab the user attention towards the name of the section & he can select it properly.

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Good to have on main page A bit difficult main page if touch screen/stylus is
not present

Consistency in Handheld device design

Companies usually come up with new models year after year to meet the growing exceptions of the
users & market competition. As the company succeeds to sell more of the devices, it should try to
achieve consistency in the new designs in terms of labeling & navigation. Most of the cases due to
brand loyalty & popularity users upgrade the handheld device from the same manufacture. Consider
the case if the manufacture changes the keypad keys & some here & there modifications in
navigation scheme. Usability test shows the slower rate of task completion in these new handheld
upgrades from the familiar brand users. Maintaining the basic consistency standards will not harm
the company much but gain user trust & confidence in the process of usage.

Lower the rate of screen refresh by horizontal placing of content

It is very important to lower the number of screen refreshes by using intuitive navigation schemes.
If screen refreshes while the user is working on the screen he loses the context, as the screen is
small to visually attach to his mental model in order to remember.

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Visual Design
Visual implications are more as the handheld device screen is first seen by the user eyes & then the
users respond to them. The web pages are now days available on the mobile phones. To make the
web pages accessible on the mobile phones we need to take certain creative steps.

Include Handheld CSS

A web page needs to have three different style sheets incorporated to have a good visual representation
to the users. The three types of the CSS required are

1. Screen CSS ( Display on the computer screens)

2. Print CSS (To get the best print)
3. Hand held CSS (To display the page on hand held devices)

Important things to consider if the page is considered for handheld devices. Omitting the below things
will make the page easily accessible

 images that are not legible below 160x320 resolution

 advertising - especially graphical and flash-based
 JavaScript - most phones don't handle JavaScript well, so it's a good idea to not display those
sections of your site
 Large logos and navigation found at the top of the page

Avoid frames, pop ups & flash

Pop up & flash will make the page heavy on the handheld devices & may not load. Remove them or hide
them.

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 Alt text is not an alternative

Including alternative text for the images will make the page accessible.

Color dependency is not fruitful here

Do not rely on color, some of the hand held devices on which your design will run may be black & white.

External environment screen design

The screen of the handheld device is small so the text displayed will be small. The device will be used in
different environments as sunny, rainy etc the visual display of the content should be in such a way that
it suits & makes the user read the content easily. The glare of the sun should not affect the visibility of
the content. The screen should be able to work well without any distortions in multiple weather
conditions.

Font color

The font colors used are in different variations today. Research suggests that black color on white
background is more readable for display media. Option to change the skin is should be given to the user
in case he is not comfortable with the display color settings.

Font style

The font size used purely depends on the target audiences. If the target audience is young people we
can go for a lower style size, Arial is the text, which is accepted by research to be easily readable by
users without any visual distortions. Large font size is suggested if the device is intended for senior
citizens as their visual & spatial abilities decrease as the age passes.

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Different types of handheld devices
A handheld device is a pocket size-computing device with a key pad/touch to enter the information & a
screen to display the information to the user. Multiple types of devices are available in the market
today. Let us go through them in some detail.

Picture of Device Name Users & Use Features

PDA – Personal Digital Used by business Touch screen, Access

Assistance people & frequent intranet via Wireless
travelers Wide Area
Network(WWAN) &
Can be used as mobile Wi-Fi
phones, web browsers,
portable media devices

Smart phones – it is an Business class & upper Touch screen, built in

advanced phone with pyramid people cameras, internet
e-mail and Internet
capabilities, and/or aCustomized
Applications can be
full keyboard.
made to run on it.
It has an operating Checking e-mails,
system running on it. browsers etc.

EDA – Enterprise Extensive usage for Touch Screen, IrDA,

digital assistance. Also Small to Medium Bluetooth, a Memory
named as Data capture enterprises card slot & one or
mobile devices, Batch more data capture
terminals or handheld devices.
portables Used in warehouse
management,
inventory control &
field services to name
a few.

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Palmtop/handheld PC Business users Use Rom, screen
resolution 480 x 240,
Calendar meeting KEYBOARD,PC card
organizers. slot, IrDA, USB &
wireless connectivity

Graphing calculators Scientists & research Screen, Calculator

teams functions on the
Are type of advanced keyboard
calculators

Capable of plotting
graphs, solving
simultaneous
equations &
performing other
numerous tasks with
variables

Mobile phones Majority of the mobile Screen, keypad,

users speakers

Calling & receiving

Specially made to voice calls, SMS, crude
have minimum images via sms,
features like calls, SMS,
listening to music
some pictures etc

Satellite phones Armed forced Key pad, small screen,

Extensible antenna
Used to communicate
in difficult terrains

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Mobile devices Design guidelines for better User Experience
Mobile phones are becoming continuous companions of ours. We carry them in most of all the places
we travel. Proximity mostly causes problems is a common saying if the rules of privacy & peace not
followed .The focus today is to design handheld devices which do not disturb you unnecessarily & help
to complete user goals.

Market is full of many companies providing the hand held devices, awareness levels of users is high
thanks to the community blogs, consumer report portals, mouth shut etc which is making easier to
share the users product experiences with the help of internet technology. Users are able to rate the
product according to different parameters depending on product category. Prospective product users
make decisions based on this information. After all users are rating the product based on their user
experience with the product. If we raise the bar for user experience then obviously the product will be
good rated, this good rating will invite more users to buy it & act as a catalyst in business growth.

Let us peek into some of the user experience best practices, which I came across my work to follow
through. The thick lines for hand held devices design is different, when the scope is well understood
then only a good handheld device can be designed.

Ideas for Handheld device design

Involve the end users

Handheld devices are user centric, a girly mobile phone, a PDA for an executive, a MP3 player for young
college students, a satellite phone for soldiers etc. It is advisable to involve the end users in the design of
the devices. Understand the user needs, get to know their mental model when they are using the
device, have a look at the social factors that are making him to work on the device. Depending on the
ethnography of the users, their experience expectations may vary largely. It is necessary to adopt an
application development strategy in which the intended target group is 100% involved right from the
beginning.

KISS me often
“Keep it simple & simple” a slight deviation from the standard saying “Keep it simple & stupid” is well
suited in handheld device design. We are not interested to make the hand held devices stupid after all
they are our continuous companions. The type of company a man keeps tells a lot about him. Hide the
complexity of the devices, show it only when the user is making use of it. Sliding phones, flip phones are
made to hide the inherent complexity of the mobile devices.

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 Slide phone to hide the key pad Flexible antenna to fold when not in use

Less is more in hand held devices

Reduce to the maximum when we are going to design content/tasks for the hand held devices.
Minimum number of key inputs in all the cases is advisable as the key board is small. Provide the most
necessary options and functionalities. Instead of quantity, the quality of the presented information is
much more important here.

Personalized & Bookmarked

Users are used to personalized services on the internet; they are even looking the same flavor on mobile
devices. A personalized message makes them more comfortable while performing the tasks.
Giving them the flexibility to personalize the information they will see, bookmarking help the user to
find the preferred services faster.

Local scope
While the user is working on the application, he is interested to solve a particular problem. To solve
those problems he needs certain data & services in one place. Completely avoid changing the screen for
each step. Make the user perform many tasks on one screen. Disable some of the keys to help him type
only numbers etc. Evidently, the option to change the local scope should be readily available to him.

Name is auspicious
Naming of different sections should reflect the type of data & services provided in sync. The name needs
to be suggestive in nature. Conflicting terminology should be avoided in all cases. Popular accepted
naming conventions adopted will make an easy to use device. Consider the below case of conflicting
icons to illustrate the importance of naming. Below both is home however, people who are not much
aware about the houses of colder region people may not recognize the igloo. So I stress the idea Name
is auspicious to navigate the users to complete tasks easily.

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Icon can be used for home section Avoid this icon for home section

Intuitive navigation
There is less interaction as compared to stationary internet, on mobile devices. The navigation used here
needs to be transparent & simple. The user should know from where he is coming, where he is now &
where he can go from there.

Scrolling is better than clicking!

Usability studies on mobile devices shows that the users prefer scrolling through a general list compared
to clicking on a serial list. There should not be more than seven items in a list to give good navigation
choices in a list.

Least text input

Typing a lot of text in the screen for mobile devices is not advisable. User is not comfortable with the
small keypad to input the data. To type in a text has negative consequences concerning the usability and
should be avoided as much as possible.

Consistency
Thought the application use the same color links & identification icons. “Home” link should take the user
to the home page of the application always etc. The messages needs to be consistent, read sections if
shown in normal font should be same thought the application. Following these standards will not harm
the device in return, it will promote device usability. The keys need to be consistent in the design at
least in the type of labels & color used for different sections. A consistent keypad design in the later
versions of the mobiles from same manufacture leads to higher usability when people upgrade their
mobile phones manufactured by the same company.

The keypad designs are not in harmony to use in consecutive new models by a particular company.

Hide the technology

A consumer is not interested which technology is included in order to use the handheld device. Pouring
the technical information to the end user is not at all suggested. Showing a small icon before the
application is Ok however taking the user to a movie what the technology can help the users to do is a
wage idea that should be dropped before it comes to the drawing board. Users focus primarily on
functionality and benefits of the system instead of technology standards.

Fast Task specific development

The task should be completed at a faster rate like checking the train status, passing the message,
sensing the area etc. Mobile devices have become specialized like checking the time-schedule of the
German Railway via WAP-mobile phone, in case one wants to take a later train.
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 Allow frequent tasks through shortcuts

To perform repetitive work in hand held devices it is best to include shot cuts. Remember the volume
increase & decrease keys at the sides of mobile phones. Option to set the setting for short cut keys is
also a good practice.

Informative feedback provision

Provide informative feedback as per the user action on the hand held device. If the user performs some
error then give informative feedback by sound signals or beeps. If color screen is provided then use
intuitive colors to display the feedback.

User Experience design considerations for senior citizens

Senior citizens are also using mobile devices. What is the basic design idea that needs to be taken care?
It is important we design the mobile devices for their use. The below features are very important in
senior citizen mobile phones.

Large keypad with prominent keys

Senior citizen’s hands are less active & not precise when they will punch in the numbers. Their
fingertips are large so the key should be big enough to exactly fit. Elder people visibility also gets a
little dim so a large key pad will help them to dial the numbers comfortably.

Bright Screen

The display of the screen needs to be bright as senior citizens vision deteriorates by age.

Loudspeaker phones

Hearing incompatibility of senior citizens can be handled well by providing loud speakers in the
mobile phones. I got this idea as I see my grandfather facing the same problem & not able to
converse with me on the cell phone easily.

Affordable design

Not all senior citizens are so lucky that their family members will give a mobile phone as a gift to
them. Senior citizens are on a limited income so the mobile phones needs to be affordable enough
for them.

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Mobile phone design is a different aspect in itself as it involves creativity, setting the mental model
for the user’s mindset. The content to include is less, a lot of filtering needs to be done for the same.
The most important content needs to be displayed upfront, users needs to make the minimum input
from the keypads. The context needs not be wiped form the users mind & so on. The above paper
can be good collections of design guidelines to see forth when designing handheld devices.

HyenaLabs
Email: support@hyenalabs.com

Web site: http://www.hyenalabs.com

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