User experience

It’s a Tablet World

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Who would have thought smartphone mania may be overhyped and the wearable computing buzz offers a red herring? Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the tablet, the portable Internet access device of choice.

Well, maybe not choice, at least yet. Smartphone sales still outpace tablets, but in a surprising recent study from Adobe, tablets now generate more web traffic than their pocket sized brethren. Even more powerful, people browse the Internet for longer periods of time than laptop and desktop users, and significant commerce is evolving.

From an impact standpoint, marketers need to consider tablets as a crucial form factor in generating content for customer experiences.
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Vine Reflects Bandwidth and Quality Limits

There’s much ado about Vine these days. In addition to the usual porn issues, most of the controversy surrounds the video network’s six second format. Like it or not, the six second format is ideal for bandwidth constrained 4G powered devices.

Marketers are already experimenting with the weeks old social network bolt-on. But to me, it’s too early for that conversation. What’s fascinating is the medium itself and how it fits into the larger social context.

First, consider that Vine is the video short equivalent of Instagram. Load time is critical for a long stream of videos, especially given it’s mostly viewed on devices leveraging wireless carrier networks.

Competitors like Viddy and Keek also have short video formats, 15 and 36 seconds respectively. But even Vine still suffers in low bandwidth situations as I found out at a packed concert on Sunday night.

A functional stream is critical for the Vine user experience. If you are promised short videos, they better load quickly into the stream most of the time.
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