On behalf of the whole team at Taptu, I want to wish you all a wonderful Christmas holiday.

2007 was the year of the birth of Taptu into the public eye, going into beta and hitting some exciting milestones with our Music Wall application on Facebook.

However, what was most important for us in 2007 was the opportunity to meet so many of you – our users, readers and industry colleagues – at conferences, Mobile Monday events or during user testing sessions. You’ve given us incredibly useful feedback, suggestions and ideas, making us feel more excited every day about building a search engine that opens up the mobile web.

So thank you all for your fantastic support during this first year! Enjoy the mince pies, egg nog, turkey and family parties, and see you in the new year!

[tags]Taptu, Taptology, Christmas, thank you, 2007[/tags]

Few people haven’t yet tried their hand at defining Web 2.0, and here, Nokia takes a stab at it and has some fun telling us.

Sitting in my parents’ living room in Canada, I’ve seen just how much unrequested mail they receive, flyers from supermarkets and furniture shops to clothing and hardware stores. Each one is filled with “50% off” claims and coupons. It’s a quaint tradition that is now being shoehorned into new technologies like mobile.

Mike writes about it saying that marketers tend to think of the mobile as a fantastic advertising medium, “always on, highly person, uniquely identifiable users”. That much is true, isn’t it?

“So I end up reading about things that the folks in the industry generally tend to term “The Starbucks Example”. It’s the example where a service could somehow figure out you’re near a Starbucks (whether it be location based services or some kind of near field communication system like Bluetooth) and push you a coupon (”RIGHT THEN!”) for 25 cents off your latte. [...] How often do I really want 25 cents off my latte? Is it really worth all the other junk I get in return for it?”

While maybe I’m more of a sucker for Starbucks than Mike may be, in theory, I can quite comfortably see a Bluetoothed voucher for 25p off a latte cause me to detour towards the overpriced coffee store on the way to my destination. However, it’s an extremely slippery slope, and encouraging Bluetooth marketing exercises would probably result in a heavy influx of untargetted marketing messages to my phone, which I definitely would not welcome.

Coming from an email marketing background, I know quite how poorly some “marketers” can choose to understand data protection and user privacy, giving themselves artistic license over what “opt-in” means. Carlo also echo’ed my suspicion that too often, bluespamming is so untargetted that it gets a very poor conversion. So let’s scrap Bluetooth marketing!

An unprompted SMS is even more invasive than Bluetooth marketing, since it can disturb me during a much needed holiday nap, so that’s out too.

This leaves us with user-initiated promotion. This is like the mobile equivalent of double opt-in in email marketing – Far tougher to achieve user participation but cream of the crop conversion rates as a result, since you’re only reaching those who are actively showing interest. The best example I can think of for this is Orange Wednesdays, a promotion that’s been running successfully for over 3 years, launched by Orange and Flytxt in the UK. Orange customers get a 2 for 1 discount on movie tickets on Wednesday nights, feeling they’re getting a great deal at 50% the usual ticket price, while cinemas get a fresh influx of visitors in an age where the big screen is suffering from lower footfall every year. Brilliant deal!

Using a word which needs to be texted to a shortcode is a reasonably low-effort option for the mass market, while QR codes scanning is only a suitable solution if uber-nerds are the target market. Ask anyone else what that stamp-sized black and white garble means and you’ll get an uninterested shrug.

The bottom line is that it’s got to be simple and non-intrusive, something that not all marketers can achieve successfully!

What are some of the best mobile marketing campaigns you’ve seen? What’s the wildest ideas you’d like to see using mobiles? At what point is a discount, a promotion or an incentive good enough that it should be allowed to interrupt our life?

I spent all of yesterday at Le Web 3 conference in Paris, invited by 3i. Loic LeMeur fronted the event and made sure the uber-bloggers flew in. At the 3i dinner I got to talk to Om Malik (well ‘talk’ might be stretching the point. We shared an elevator and he agreed with my statement that ‘this elevator has got a mind of its own’) and a few words too with Robert Scoble. Forrest Gump would have been proud of me.

There was much to admire in an event which showed real flair in the way it was put together. Two keynote speakers in particular stood out for me, with spookily similar insights, told in completely opposite ways.

I’ve been wanting to listen to the real Twitter story for a while, and Ev Williams gave us some sensible insight into what made the design of the Twitter service so successful. Instead of asking “what can we add to make something better”, ask instead “what can we take away to make something new”. Tell friends what you are doing in 140 characters – that’s a tough constraint. Reduce the human cognitive load of the service and people will use it a lot more.

The real coup of the conference was to bag Philippe Starck as a keynote speaker, with his trademark leather trousers, outrageous and thought-provoking:

• The smart people will be the “no-consumers”
• The smart products will be the “no-products” (products and services that do less, not more)
• Too many products are 90% shit and 10% good stuff, so remove the 90%
• Without a strong concept the product doesn’t deserve to exist
• My collection privee concept – sofas that make sex more comfortable
• Minimal is the essence
• I’m not scared to look ridiculous
• Designers need to be more courageous and more humble

[tags]LeWeb307, LeWeb, Loic LeMeur, Philippe Starck, Evan Williams, Twitter, Taptu, Taptology, Steve Ives, mobile, design, conference[/tags]

Yesterday, the team thought the bottles of bubbly were to celebrate 100,000 users for our Music Wall Facebook application…

But little did they know, we were only just beginning our own Ballmer Peak experiment…

Original xkcd cartoon: http://xkcd.com/323/

Yesterday, our Music Wall application on Facebook hit a new milestone – There are now over 100,000 people currently using the app.

When the idea cropped up that we should use our search engine to create a music app on Facebook, we didn’t know whether it would really fly since there are so many apps out there. It’s exciting to see how users quickly adopted us and started sharing music with their friends, allowing us to hit that milestone. So this is a big thank you to all our users for making this such a fun project!

Go on, what are you listening to these days? Why not share it?

I love tech. I truly do. In fact, I’ve got a severe condition called “gadgetitis”, which becomes particularly acute around tech expos and Christmas time where all sorts of new techy goodies are released. And I love beta versions, even though they’re flakier than Paris Hilton. I love sneak previews, even if the app turns out to only be worthy of the TechCrunch deadpool. It’s a terrible addiction and as far as I know, there are no cures.

By the same logic, I almost always say that the more technology, the better. Almost.

Today’s an exception. This is my plea to the RAC, once my most reliable source of up-to-date traffic news, to step away from the Flash animations and return to this old technology called text. The wonderful thing about text is that it’s clear, succint and doesn’t require any fancy plugins. It’s easy to use when on the road with only a phone at hand.

This new animation completely fails from a usability point of view:

1. It doesn’t respect the KISS rule: Keeping it simple means it’s more widely accessible. Not everyone has Flash enabled. My iPhone certainly doesn’t. :S
2. It’s utterly useless to someone who isn’t local. Very few cities, towns and villages are identified, no matter how close you zoom in. Why aren’t the primary non-motorway roads identified? It’s certainly not because the map is too cluttered!
3. The usefulness of the information displayed is questionable, especially in comparison to the detailed alternative that used to be available. Is the slowdown due to sheer traffic density or are we dealing with a 6 car pile-up where the motorway might get closed? That’s far more likely to affect my decision of what to do next than telling me vehicles are travelling at 10mph.
4. The colours, which represent severity of traffic, aren’t accompanied by a legend, so the user has to guess what the scale is!

With the holidays coming and more people on motorways driving long distances to see family and friends, it can be a lifeline, helping us make a quick decision on whether a detour is needed. I’m afraid that the RAC designers didn’t do their homework here. Back to the drawing board, guys!

[tags]design, gadgets, iphone, mobile, rac, road congestion, traffic, usability, user experience, Taptu, Taptology[/tags]

It’s now been about a month since I went and picked up an iPhone from the O2 store in Cambridge, standing in a queue of no more than 20 punters. It was a far cry from the US launch – there had been no one camping out by the store, the hype in the media was lukewarm and my geek friends rolled their eyes at me for getting my phone from O2.

In the week preceding launch, I had a “Will I, Won’t I” personal debate on whether the iPhone met my needs and, in theory, it ticked all the boxes, so I took the plunge.

One month on, I’m still the only geek for miles ’round who hasn’t jailbroken her iPhone, I’m sure of it. But what’s life with the iPhone, once we get away from the glitzy keynotes and polished promos? Is it really all it was cracked up to be? As it turns out, a number of my assumptions about the big switch from a Nokia S60 phone to the iPhone were wrong.

Assumption #1: EDGE/2G speeds won’t be as bad as people make it out to be

True. Aside from a few exceptions, I’ve never found pages took that long to load, even full-fat web ones.

Also, based on my past month’s travel, The Cloud doesn’t have to worry about me clogging up their network – I’ve yet to find myself in an area where I can use it and have only connected to the home and office wifi networks. So my network diet is mostly 2G, with the occasional spot of EDGE when out and about.

Assumption #2: I won’t miss any of the N95’s features

False. Hate to admit it, but I do miss the video functionality. There have been a couple of priceless moments I wish I could’ve caught on video in the last few weeks, where I had to settle for a few photos that don’t quite tell the same story.

Assumption #3: I’ll get used to the keyboard really quickly

True…ish. Even a month on, sending text messages, taking notes and the occasional blog entry, I still find the keyboard somewhat difficult to use. It takes more visual focus than a classic phone keypad or a physical QWERTY keypad, and since there are no physical grips for the fingers, it’s easy to hit the wrong character repeatedly. When getting bumped around on the train, the phone is likely to guess the word wrong if too many characters are mistyped – It’s a dictionary guessing algorithm, not a mind reader.

Assumption #4: Multiple web browser pages easily accessible will be one of my favourite features

True, true and TRUE! I love having 4-5 pages opened and quickly flicking between Jaiku, Facebook, Google Reader and a news page without having to re-enter the URL via typing or picking a bookmark.

Browsing the web is mindblowing and doesn’t require prior understanding of computer or phone UI. Rarely can one find a device that appeals to a hardened geek like myself, as well as a 4 y/o girl and my father in law who’s in his 60’s.

No Flash plugin is a minor inconvenience, not a big issue. So far, it’s only been a problem with the RAC traffic news service, and considering how much Flash-based sites frustrate me, it’s a wonderful treat to bypass most of those pointless intro pages…

Assumption #5: Only geeks will buy it, but it’ll have knock on effects on the rest of the world who own less flashy devices

Reasonably true. While some people in the O2 store queue were from unlikely demographics, such as mother and daughter who were dropping their £18/month contracts and small Samsung phones for the heftier iPhone contract, the average buyer remains the Mac-toting ubergeek with disposable income I expected to see first in line.

It is less popular in the UK than I had predicted, but with a high profile in the media for the iPhone, the announcement of Google Android and the growing availability of unlimited data tariffs, the interest levels in enjoyable mobile web browsing are increasing.

To hit critical mass, mobiles need to offer a friendlier user experience, more reasonably priced high-end devices and a wider availability across operators.

What has the iPhone achieved? It’s given a nice big boot up the arse to mobile manufacturers, developers and designers across the world, reminding them that what really matters to most mobile users is a frictionless experience where there’s no complicated learning curve.

So there it is. While the iPhone itself is somewhat imperfect, I’m thrilled about what it MEANS for the future. Take away the brand, the gloss and all the hype, you’re left with what is unquestionably the best portable web browser in town and a newfound awareness of mobile browsing for the masses.

Am I still happy with it? To put it quite simply, I don’t think I’d ever be able to go back to any other device now.

[tags]iphone, apple, mobile phone, gadgets, technology, mobile web, mobility, taptu, taptology[/tags]

Most of the Taptu team works outside of the spotlight, creating and testing many design iterations or crawling the web to grow our index, but this week, Matt, one of our User Experience designers, is taking the stage to talk about his role. – Vero

I’m Matt, one of the User Experience (UE) designers at Taptu. I work with Marc who you’ll hear from next month.

So what do we do? In short we design the look and feel of the user interface that users experience as they use our products. Our aim is to create usable, engaging and aesthetically pleasing products across the wide range of devices Taptu works on.

We spend a huge amount of our time thinking about the needs of our users and talking to users direct. We feed this user-centred approach into each prototype we create. Eventually those prototype designs make it to a public release that you’ll see.

In future posts we’d like to give you insight into our process and some of the design issues we’ve faced. Is there anything specific you’d like to hear about? Let us know. A good place to start for this first posting is with our users. How do we get to understand the target users of our product? A key method we use to evaluate our designs is User Experience Testing (aka Usability Testing).

On a monthly basis we find a set of target users and meet them face-to-face, one-to-one. We ask them to try specific tasks and ‘think aloud’ as we observe the way they interact with our prototypes. Our observations help us identify design elements and ‘flows’ that work for users and those that don’t. We feed our learnings directly back into the next prototype each time we test. If you’ve ever watched real users trying-out your product for the first time, you’ll know exactly how insightful it can be.

By interacting with our users directly and regularly we reap valuable knowledge about their behaviours and expectations with our products. We learn what makes them ‘tick’ cognitively and experience a ‘reality check’ about what users really want when using Taptu.

We run our UE testing sessions in London, where we can source the varied demographics of users that we need. In future we will run studies in other countries, as we develop the product for those markets. Our aim will be to understand the cultural differences of each country or region.

Ok, that’s a quick overview of one of the processes we use. Again, if you have anything you’d like to hear about let us know. We aim to listen and react to our users and that includes you…

[tags]taptu, taptology, web design, mobile design, usability, user experience[/tags]

If you’re a keen mobilist and are based anywhere near Dublin, there’s only one place you can be next Monday night: The Mobile Monday Dublin’s Christmas do, organised by James Pearce of dotMobi and sponsored by none other than Taptu. It’s a chance to have a chat about mobile search, and have some food and drinks in great company.

When: Monday 10th December, 6:30 for 7:00
Where: The Porterhouse, 16-18 Parliament Street
It’s a free event but you’ll need to register here.

We’re sending our best Guinness drinkers, so come by and say hi!

[Update 3/12/07: Forgot to mention, we'll be at Mobile Monday London tonight, as well as SMS Text News Drinks. See you there!]