Float Mobile Learning Symposium from a Designer's Perspective

It is evident to each designer that problem-solving is key to their design process. For me, mobile design is a new medium in which I am learning and growing my skills on a daily basis as well as problem-solving. I attended the Float Mobile Learning Symposium last week, which served as a great boost to my mobile learning progression as well as an inspirational event. I was able to connect with colleagues and listen to, and learn from, some great speakers about various aspects of mobile learning. In this post I want to share some essentials that I learned at the event from a designer’s perspective.

Gary Woodill’s presentation on The Past, Present and Future of Mobile Learning allowed a look into the future of all the creative possibilities mobile learning can provide to visual communication. Gary highlighted the work of Metaio, www.metaio.com , a company which is at the cutting edge of augmented reality. I am excited about the potential of how augmented reality can be utilized within the interactive museum field to provide an even more engaging experience.

Josh Campbell, owner of Magic+Might, spoke about multiscreen design strategies. Josh’s presentation had a lot of great material, especially from a designer’s perspective. His main point was that defining as much information about the device and platform ahead of time allows for a smoother design and development process. Josh explained that when designing for different devices, a designer needs to consider the interactive platform, gestural differences and screen designs of each device. He stressed the importance of considering the specific iOS for which you are designing and whether or not it is a retina display. In addition, he pointed out that there are various screen dimensions and resolutions that need to be taken into account for mobile devices.

Josh focused on the layout and gestures of mobile devices. He explained the three main layout areas within a screen design: navigation, content and the detail area. He advocated hiding the detail area when designing with a large amount of content. Josh also discussed three kinds of screen designs: multiplane, grid layout and coverflow. He said multiplane and grid layouts were good for large screen devices but while coverflows are aesthetically pleasing, they should only be utilized with devices that have remote controls. From a television interface perspective, Josh felt it most important to keep controls near the user on their handheld and then have the content appear on the television. He made me realize how much multiple screens could enhance an experience by making it shared to users and how I might leverage multiple screen designs in order to create an innovative experience for a user.

Gestures are also a very important when designing for mobile and Josh discussed some ideas regarding gestures that one needs to keep in mind during the design of a project. During the design phase, designers need to consider whether or not the gestures are direct or indirect interaction and whether swipe, flick or tap is the best gesture to be utilized with the specific interaction. Josh explained that as a designer moves between devices, one needs to reorganize and reinvent. He feels that if you consider the screen size, resolution, the process speed and upgradability for each phone or tablet, you will have a greater chance to succeed.

The main takeaway from Josh’s presentation for me is that the mobile market is fragmented, making it especially challenging for designers. In order for designers to deal with this issue, it is important to narrow down the target audience and client needs during the definition phase of the project. By designing with a benchmark and target audience in mind, your overall project will be more successful. When the client asks for everything, make sure you narrow in on what they really need as a basis and then work from that starting point. In essence, the more tightly focused a designer can be for their target market, the easier their design process will be during the project.

I am always excited to have an Adobe speaker at an event because they have so much knowledge about the software that I use on a daily basis. I undoubtedly always learn something from their presentations. Kevin Hoyt, an Adobe Evangelist, spoke about some new features Adobe CS5.5 is offering in relation to mobile. Within Dreamweaver, there are new sizing guidelines for screen dimensions of various mobile platforms. One can modify their CSS and then preview the CSS on the device of their choice. During Kevin’s presentation, when he showed examples of mobile projects, it was evident to the knowledgeable designer that the visual style for mobile design is highly realistic. I predict that this will change in 5 years or so, once people become more comfortable in using mobile devices. Eventually the mobile design style will become more abstract, but for now, realistic textural treatments will continue.

I attended Dan Pfeiffer’s presentation on development because as a designer, it is important to understand a developer’s workflow. That way I can understand more specifically what happens once I provide my designs for them to develop, as well as be able to help them during the implementation of the design. I learned from Dan that developers have different code that needs to be written for each mobile platform. Developers use a program called PhoneGap that allows them to code for six different platforms. Webkit in PhoneGap allows developers to render the design to appear similar without having to deal with style inconsistencies across the platforms. He explained that developers have some struggles that designers need to keep in mind when designing for mobile. He specifically mentioned that any project is going to be limited by the device’s browser engine so designers need to keep that in mind. He also pointed out that users expect immediate feedback to their interaction. Since I have knowledge of CSS and HTML, I can assist developers as needed with CSS and some JavaScript in order to create animations and implement styling.

Steve Hoober’s presentation was entitled, Avoiding the Heuristic Solution: Creating Inspiring Mobile Design with UX Principles. He had some good process philosophies that I needed to remind myself of as a designer. Steve stated that designers should define, compare and expand their practices to succeed. He advocated something that I’ve learned over the years; that collaboration is important and a team must stick to the objectives. A team must follow the right process in order to find the right answers to the project’s tasks and challenges. Steve stated that no one idea is perfect and one must embrace their constraints. As a designer and a person, I have learned that one must be open-minded to others’ ideas and suggestions because they provide the opportunity to ask questions and view designs from a different perspective.

All in all I felt that I learned a lot at this conference, most importantly that the future is now for mobile learning. No other technology is more accessible across the globe than mobile devices. It is exciting to be in on the beginnings of an entirely new learning platform and I am looking forward to growing my design skills along with the growing and varied needs of mobile learning.