Mobile UX design

M Khalid Ashraf1 and M Nouman2

Department of Software Engineering
University of Lahore Gujrat Campus, Gujrat
engrkhalid302@gmail.com, numansharfuldin@gmail.com

Abstract
Modern ages bring the many easiness to the life with different type of technologies. One of them
is mobile phone devices which are changing the whole life to the next level. Mobile phone
provide many services to the user. Currently the mobile phone application development
companies had a very high growth and market share. Almost all type application now developed
for mobile phones because is trends and its hardware is available to almost all the people around
the globe. But this advancement come with some challenges as well. On google market there are
almost hundreds of apps similar available for the same process. All the apps available provided
the same work but there representation and development trends and there User experience (UX)
trends change their ratings. Different companies use different type of designing tools for
development but most top rated and mostly used are Skeuomorphism and flat design.
Skeuomorphism developed in early year of development which importance on the designer to
develop the app close to real world entities to provide best user experience and they can easily
understand how to operate the application. Designer that develop the design keep very close
eyes to ensure there product is close to real world. But this process as-well make the product less
attractive and sometime complex application look horrible for digital world. By undergoing this
process in 2015 with the launch of windows 8 Microsoft company lunch new type of design with
class flat design. It was a revolutionary type of advancement and most rated companies shift their
product to flat design because it became the popular trend and people love to see this kind of
apps because it enhance the usability and user experience. Flat design use different kind of color
schemes to determine which type of product is being developed. In Skeuomorphism designs all
design have same color schemes and they did not have any sense of color schemes to make user
engage to the product in all the time. In this review paper I will go throw different research article
which give a brief information about designs techniques that are used in past and present.

Key words: User experience, User-centered, Design-thinking, UX, User evaluation, Design,
Human Computer Interaction, User interface design elements, Usability.
 1. Introduction:

The age computing and digital world change the life of the humans. Now all type of work done
digitally. World look smaller when there is digital work. But one invention changes the whole
scene when the mobile phone first introduced. This revolutionary device changes the whole
accept of the people that how they think and how they do certain amount of work. Now every
person has one or more mobile device in their hands and whole time they keep connected with
other people with these small devices. Life became very happy when all the work that is needed
to be done is done only by the click of button and person don’t even need to move from there
chair. These devices make whole new market which is mobile application development and these
devices enable the users to do all kind of stuffs. In early days mobile operating system are not so
user friendly and there are not available online for the developer. But in 2009 with the lunch of
android operating system everything changes. This technology is free of cost and open source as
well, the developer and non-professional personal who have interest and have knowledge quickly
began to make small applications for their daily use and this habit now make a huge shape of
google app market. In google market now almost millions of apps available for the user. But all
these apps not impress the users because of their poor design and poorly tackle the trends that
are being run around. By the time change our approach for traditional HCI by bringing out aspects
such as beauty fun pleasure and personal growth that satisfy general human need but have little
instrumental value get the lack of definition [1].

Actually, User experience is a multidimensional concept because it can be change by the view of
user. When we compare usability, and enjoy ability it became very handy to scale up the user
experience [1]. Its normally stated by different authors that ‘’the product which have higher
usability it will have higher product quality”. In the recent years Mobile and PDA devices took our
world to next level of computing and became very popular topic in research and design areas. To
make application more user friendly it is very important to make it as per user requirements[2].
it became a very famous area of research to know what are the most object that are required to
make interfaces for digital information processing system to give a user feeling to work in a good
pace. Industry move from desktop system design to mobile and other type of processing
machines which are more accessible for users anytime and everywhere. Digital word is now
becoming another type of ear and eyes which are absorbing information and data in digital form
for further processing and now designer most important goal is to make sure integration with
real and digital world where HCI take place and different kind of interfaces objects and this think
make it very challenging to designer to make most pleasurable User Experience[3].

Advancement in development in Apple and OS mobile application it draws much of attention of

users to use it and extra dependence of designer on Skeuomorphism design. As the lunch of
windows 8 and new design popped us also called Flat design which make great spark in app
development make many designer to debate over which is better way to design different apps[5].
In old method most of the apps are focus to perform there function and color schemes are totally
overlooked which make most of the apps that belong from different fields similar to each other
with the new flat design method color schemes are very carefully design as the nature of app.it
will be a better idea to use both approaches to develop because both have different advantages
in design. Availability of mobile apps force the developer to develop application which make user
comfort and provide right amount quality and Experience. It is bit critical to be always on correct
quality and experience and maintain the usability of the product as well. In the control
environmental and under right conditions user experience and quality experience can act
differently and can affect the result in real world because it can’t be create the correct type of
user behavior and only assume that it will react like that. In real life issue it involve among other
a non-deterministic QoS and in particular the performance of the underlying networks and
infrastructures supporting the execution of mobile application without guarantee upon its
performance [4]. Quality of Experience is very critical for highly interactive apps because it
required very small frequency to change date over network. In normal it depend on the developer
who is developing the product and they assume and do judgments about the user views and
gauge an app perceived experience. The reason users, whose quality of experience expectation
is not satisfied will give up using the app or switch to another provider. It is estimated that almost
200 apps are removed from IOS store because it can’t give quality of experience to user. These
applications required to developer over 2 months and been withdrawn from the store within
months from the launch [4].

The rest of the paper is organized as follow: Section 2 presents a preview of existing literature;
Section 3 experience evaluation model and methods; In Sub Section 3, we discuss quantification
model and experimental methods; and Section 4 conclude all the findings with user experience
theories and earlier research knowledge. According to the study findings, it suggests some
recommendations to improve user experience of software products especially mobile devices.

2. Literature review:
The modern age in which we living right now is the age of digital world. Now days all the
technologies are being developed in digital world but with each day the advancement became
change and will be different the old one. 20th century’s biggest invention is mobile phone which
change the whole world view because it give access to all the person to access any kind of
application over it[3].In past the mobile phone are just used as the a telecommunication devices
but as the development and research in mobile phone technologies it became more useful and
more important than anyone can ever imagine[4, 5].But the real punch of technology give when
in 2005 java mobile first invented and come to market with many more functions and many more
services that the facilitate the user of whole world [6].As the technology hit the market over
5billion phones sold in USA and more in whole world [6].As these advancement coming the
different mobile companies are being developed some health application and shopping center
application to take some advantage and open new door for mobile phone application[3, 7].

Some new trends like augmented virtual reality come place that give a whole new level of user
experience because in this technology user can actually can see and feel itself in a digital world
and it became a perfect example of human machines interaction[3].But at that time developer
and software companies don’t use complex method to evaluate user experience they just focus
on functionality of the product to provide best function without bugs but totally overlooked the
design and user experience which will be changed over time[5, 7].Any product which have more
high user experience will have more quality because user will find it more useful if it user friendly
and provided all the information in right manner and keep the user interested at cost [1, 2].

Most commonly peoples sees skeuomorph design as an object which affect the design and its
process.it can also be defines as a entity of design that can have bit or little more of the product
purpose of design to develop [4] . if we want to describe it little more short-termly I can be stated
as that design is a process which have different kind of elements and other user palest which can
be emposed and can have some effect on it. By the time change our approach for traditional HCI
by bringing out aspects such as beauty fun pleasure and personal growth that satisfy general
human need but have little instrumental value get the lack of definition. User experience is a
multidimensional concept because it can be change bt the view of user. When we compare
usability, and enjoy ability it became very handy to scale up the user experience[1]. And product
which have more usability will have more quality and quality is parallel to user experience. It is
force reason for researchers to consider what user experience actually is how it can evaluate for
future. Different type of user experience model has been introduced which are holistic model is
one the most recent and it is building on the previous model. They show that three user
experience components which together determine the user overall[1]. Currently there is not any
kind of good model that can generate user experience overtime and there need to be some kind
of model which can determine which is best design and system that can improve ux over time
and there will no need of total redesigning.

User experience is very complex concept and different researchers took it as different viewpoint
depending on their angle to see it. It is never very clear to designer that how to develop a good
User Experience product can be different for both designers and company to achieve certain
amount of UX varying on type of product they are trying to producing e.g stimulation, relaxing,
efficient of fun. Identifying the correct UX elements and other factor for batter promotion of the
product and development process[8]. In past few year with the advance development in Apple
and OS mobile application it draw much of attention of users to use it and extra dependence of
designer on Skeuomorphic design. As the lunch of windows 8 and new design popped us also
called Flat design which make great spark in app development make many designer to debate
over which is better way to design different apps[5]. In old method most of the apps are focus to
perform their function and color schemes are totally overlooked which make most of the apps
that belong from different fields similar to each other with the new flat design method color
schemes are very carefully design as the nature of app [6].it will be a better idea to use both
approaches to develop because both have different advantages in design. This new technique
build whole new level of development and designing area’s to make software more user friendly.
In old time the soul and main purpose of the designers is to be near to reality and build the
application which look similar to real one. This thinking is both side good and bad. Since it limited
the digital world designing and user experience and as well it limited the designing process to
limits, but as the development process goes on and user need increased it is required to develop
something which need more color schemes and more interesting apps that why in 2014 Microsoft
comes with a new designing technique of flat design development in this new designing
technique application are developed in more color and organized design are developed [6]. In
this manner the designed product looks different from real world but more comfortable to use
because in real world the designing look fine because it all in physical form but in digital it seems
little different. Only this factor is not only the key factor that change the user experience from
old to new times. But telecommunication devices became very popular from 2005 to onward and
in 2005 it was estimated that 400 million java support phones were shipped which are capable
of running java and java web services. And researchers also intend to have over a 1billion invest
in this market. Moreover, to provide wireless communication some companies have started 3G
3rd generation mobile networks to provide best mobile communication services [7]. This
development improves the usage from lower level to higher level and mobile trends start to build
and change from the old one.

In early days the mobile phone user is just use phone as telecommunication devices but as the
development and different mobile phone frameworks things began to change. Now people start
moving their self from not only just calling people from their phone but also entertainment and
enjoyment and socializing and also using world wide web services. Mobile phone also gives great
advantage in advance when the mobile user can take care their health with mobile phones. New
technologies are being develop to detect heart-beats and steps taken to keep track people health
and their daily need of water. The amount of mobile phone user gets boosted in 20014 to onward
and it became more then 7 to 9billion subscription on worldwide as compare to 2000 as it is
displayed in Figure 1[8].
 Figure 1

3. Problems:

In every research article the main problem related to mobile User experience trends is come
across that there is no way to find the user experience in number. It can only be generated in a
way that will be in a qualitive manner[1, 8]. Over time user experience may change from different
aspects or may be change with age but it will affect the product usability mostly the young people
find an product more attractive which have nice color and well managed data presentation but
the old ages people likely to have application which is more close to reality and perform all the
process with single touch of button[1, 5]. Application which are developed from 2005 to 2014
are normally developed in skeuomorphism process, in this process the design and look of the
application always keep near to reality and real world application [5].Which is good but not so
attractive because an application which developed for health it should have some color
presentations which will show that application for health[7].And application which is developed
for shopping must have different color and different button style to show happiness and other
promotion to give use more higher user experience[3].Trends of user experience can affect the
user experience and will affect the quality of the product[4]. Designer are confused to use which
design technique to achieve top user satisfaction and differentiate which design technique is
good skeuomorphism or flat design[5].
 4. Experience Evaluation Models and Methods:
The purpose of this study is to build quantification models to represent and calculate the numeric
values. Although, a considerable work has been done in mobile UX, but here we try to quantify
the user experience using mobile devices.

4.1 Quantification model:

This model integrates multiple elements in a single value. Actually, UX includes usability, affect,
learnability and user value. This model of quantifying user experience covers almost all the
domains including, human factor, Quality engineering, psychology, business and marketing
sciences. Some researchers also modeled usability and its elements like learnability [9].
Quantification model can be classified into two different ways, User decision strategy and
mathematical criteria. In user decision strategy, compensatory and non-compensatory rules
are considered. Compensatory rules consider as many elements as possible while non-
compensatory rules consider only one or two elements when a user make his/her own decision
about acceptance of a product. While mathematical formula categorizes quantification model.

In addition, models can be either deterministic or probabilistic. In a deterministic model, every

set of variable states is uniquely determined by parameters so that the model may perform the
same way for a given states. Contrarily, in a probabilistic model, variable states are described
by probability distributions. In this study, five quantification models were identified to
investigate relationships among overall UX, its elements and their sub-elements: simple linear,
polynomial, S-shaped value, conjunctive, and disjunctive models. Although the models were
 Table - 1

originally invented and used to apply usability, system quality or user satisfaction concepts,
they can be used for the UX concept.

Usability, affect and user value can be defined as the degree to which a product/service is easy
to use, the degree to which a product/service’s appearance or image appeals to the users, and
user’s subjective values attached to a product/service, respectively. Conjunctive and disjunctive
models were proposed [10]. The conjunctive rule states that a user may purchase a product if
every element of the product meets the user’s minimum requirement. For example, a blind
person cannot be accepted as a referee, at best. In contrast, the disjunctive rule states that a user
may choose a product if just one element of the product is remarkable. For instance, someone
who can kick or pass or run very well can be selected as a football player.
4.2 Experimental methods:

Some laboratory experiments were conducted to validate the quantification model and its
elements. Experimental methods include many further steps but only four are discussed here
which are as follows,

1) Context of use
2) Apparatus
3) Tasks
4) Procedures

Context of use: Context makes users have diverse experiences [11]. Various contextual factors
including previous experience with similar products or services, points of time on the customer
lifecycle, and user characteristics can affect UX. These factors were controlled in this study. First,
participants who did not have any experience with the experimental device were recruited and
assumed to have just made a purchase. In addition, participants were undergraduate and
graduate students. Controlling contextual factors can improve the comparison of quantification
models by reducing variance caused by differences of context.

Apparatus: The iPad without 3G was used as an experimental device. It has a 25cm liquid crystal
display (LCD) and can be controlled by bare fingers. The iPad satisfied our assumption that users
should not have experience with the experimental device, because it was not released in South
Korea until the end of the experimental period.

Tasks: A total of thirteen tasks were designed, based on thirteen default applications of the iPad:
calendar, Safari, mail, iPod, settings, maps, videos, YouTube, photos, contacts, notes, iTunes, and
App Store. Each application was used for one task which consisted of two to four sub-tasks. For
example, the mail task included three sub-tasks: logging in to the account, reading an e-mail, and
sending an e-mail. In this case, the task would be completed if a participant enters his or her e-
mail address and password to log in, reads a recent e-mail in the mailbox, and sends an e-mail to
a designated person through the wireless internet.

During the experimental tasks, participants were asked to finish each task freely instead of
conducting the task accurately or rapidly, because performance measurements such as task
completion time and the number of clicks were not assessed. Furthermore, the posture of
participants was not controlled. The iPad was placed where participants felt comfortable
manipulating it, and both landscape and portrait modes were allowed.

Procedures: Participants were pretested to investigate if they had rating ability. The validated
ones were instructed about context of use, tasks and dimensions at the beginning of the
experiment. Next, thirteen predefined tasks (applications of the iPad: calendar, Safari, mail, iPod,
settings, maps, videos, YouTube, photos, contacts, notes, iTunes, and App Store) were
performed. After they finished all the tasks, the participants were allowed to freely use the iPad
for 10 min in order to provide them diverse experiences which might not be covered by the
predefined tasks. Five evaluations, that is to say subjective ratings, were conducted during the
experimental tasks in order to reflect the temporality of UX [12]. The number of repetitions of
evaluations was determined by a pilot test, considering participants’ fatigue. According to Dewey
[13], an experience per se, having a beginning and an end, is based on passage of time. For this
reason, this study regarded ‘time’ as one of the most important variables, unlike in traditional
usability research.

5. Conclusion and Future Work

In consequence of the peoples growing expectations about the front-line technology, it has
become progressively more important to understand user experience of Mobile devices. UX is a
broad concept demonstrating the interaction of humans with technology. This study applied
modeling techniques to quantify UX. This paper has also presented a review of user experience
studies in selective Mobile application publications. We identified and categorized the latest UX
publications for mobile devices. It is evident from the number of findings that there is a need to
address UX related issues like user experience evaluation using latest technology. A primary goal
of this review is to offer resources for mobile community by providing an overview of the UX
related studies. The review will help to promote UX as a field of study and further improve the
quality of user experience.

In future, we plan to conduct a more comprehensive search to enhance our results. In addition
to focusing on Computer science and Information technology publishers we intent to cover other
research areas related to Mobile UX such as art, gaming, education, culture, industrialization,
advertisement commercialism or medicine in the review. There is a need to design a proper single
framework which incorporate all the important elements related to User Experience. Besides
that, there should be a practical investigation or experiment to support the theory of the finding
in this paper as well as to identify any new elements to model the framework.
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