The 6th post in a series about how mobile apps will be used as productivity tools in the enterprise, and how these apps will be securely distributed and managed.
Interface & Usability
In the future, the enterprise will start to manage mobile devices like smartphones and tablets holistically as an extension of an organizational desktop. Mobile applications will be built to support multiple user interfaces and will share a common user-interaction model, giving people a seamless experience, regardless of context, location or device.
When exploring a business case for the development of a mobile app, a determining factor will be whether or not the interface is effective on company-preferred devices. Many organizations today are not providing mobile access to ECM systems. For some, this is because a remote access to applications, even using a web browser, is not available.
A recent study shows that most organizations are not providing mobile access to ECM systems
Based on the consumer experience, people prefer a dedicated-app end user experience to accessing information or applications over access using a web browser or remote interface. Accessing information using a standard web interface from a mobile device is not always a user-friendly option. The mobile interface is evolving to support a better end user experience—and based on our observations, there is agreement that the tablet delivers more effective access to information than many mobile devices. And apps provide a more satisfying experience than mobile access using conventional web pages.
Reading a document on a smartphone can be a challenge. With the limited screen size of mobile devices, an appealing user interface that displays information clearly is critical in creating a positive end user experience and driving widespread adoption. Being able to view, filter, and sort information easily and intelligently on a mobile device is a key requirement.
User behavior typically drives UI development and users are embracing touch screens as technology moves away from the mouse-click to provide a richer and more intuitive experience. The iPhone, for example, is a gesture-based device that offers a touch screen for users. Touch screen devices are popular for delivering a very compelling, almost immersive, end user experience with the ability to interact with a device and its applications at a touch. Users are able to navigate through screens in a very intuitive way to view and manipulate—at a touch—objects, media assets, videos, web browser content, and more.
Our access to content will be increasingly filtered by metadata, preferences, or context. Being able to configure and personalize the mobile experience from both an app and an interface perspective is key to creating positive end user experience and removing barriers to adoption.
I’ll examine personalization and feature/function advantages of the mobile device in the next post in this series.
Read Part 1 in the series.
Read Part 2.
Read Part 3.
Read Part 4.
Read Part 5.
