Building Mobile Experiences

The mobile device is changing the ways we interact with each other and with theworld. The mobile experience is distinct from the desktop or laptop experience; mobile apps requirea significantly different design philosophy as well as design methods that reflect the uniqueexperience of computing in the world. This book presents an approach to designing mobile media thattakes advantage of the Internet-connected, context-aware, and media-sharing capabilities of mobiledevices. It introduces tools that can be used at every stage of building a mobile application, fromconcept creation to commercialization, as well as real-world examples from industry and academia.The methods outlined apply user-centered design processes to mobile devices in a way that makesthese methods relevant to the mobile experience--which involves the use of systems in the complexspatial and social world rather than at a desk. The book shows how each project begins withgenerative research into the practices and desires of a diverse set of potential users, whichgrounds research and design in the real world. It then describes methods for rapid prototyping,usability evaluation, field testing, and scaling up solutions in order to bring a product to market.Building Mobile Experiences grew out of an MIT course in communicating withmobile technology; it is appropriate for classroom use and as a reference for mobile appdesigners.