BW0023 NOV 30,2000 2:58 PACIFIC 05:58 EASTERN
( BW)(CA-NIELSEN-NORMAN-GROUP) WAP Doesn't Work; Nielsen Norman Group
Releases WAP Usability Study
Business Editors
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 30, 2000--Usability
expert Jakob Nielsen today announced the release of a report on WAP
usability based upon findings from an in-depth field study conducted
in London by the Nielsen Norman Group. Entitled "WAP Usability -- Deja
Vu: 1994 All Over Again," the study found that WAP usability is
currently failing miserably, and will continue to fail in 2001. The
true potential for the mobile Internet is expected to gain momentum by
2003. The 90-page study will be available for download December 1 for
$18 from the Nielsen Norman Group web site at
http://www.NNgroup.com/reports/wap.
"In my opinion, WAP stands for Wrong Approach to Portability.
Companies shouldn't waste money fielding WAP services that nobody will
use while WAP usability remains so poor," said Nielsen, "Instead, they
should sit out the current generation of WAP while planning their
mobile Internet strategy."
The title of the report, "WAP Usability -- Deja Vu: 1994 All Over
Again," alludes to the fact that study's findings are strikingly
similar to usability studies conducted by Nielsen in 1994 at the dawn
of the Web. He predicts that the evolution of Internet mobility will
follow along the same analogy: When things got easier to use on the
Web, more users adopted it, and commercial use exploded.
The Nielsen Norman Group WAP study was conducted in London due to
the advanced state of the mobile phone market in the United Kingdom.
Twenty users were given WAP phones to use on their own while keeping a
diary. Traditional usability tests were conducted at the beginning and
end of the one-week field work.
Significant findings in the fall 2000 WAP usability report:
|
| -- | 70% of the users answered no when asked whether they would like to
have a WAP phone within one year;
|
| -- | 20% of the users indicated they would like to get WAP within three
years;
|
| -- | even the simplest tasks take much too much time to provide any
satisfaction to users;
|
| -- | even after spending a week using a WAP phone, user performance
remained appallingly low;
|
| -- | current WAP services have severely reduced usability because of
misguided use of design principles from other forms of media,
particularly Web design.
|
Nielsen Norman Group (http://www.nngroup.com) is a user-experience
think tank and consulting firm that advises companies on how to enter
the age of the customer and achieve success through the design of
human-centered products and services. Each of the four principals of
the Nielsen Norman Group -- Jakob Nielsen, Don Norman, Bruce "Tog"
Tognazinni and Brenda Laurel -- are world-renowned experts in
usability and user interface design. Besides authoring books and
evangelizing to large audiences about user experience, they conduct
high-level usability reviews of websites, Internet services, consumer
products, software designs and anything else that needs to be
easy-to-use. The Nielsen Norman Group is headquartered in Silicon
Valley, California.
--30--jr/sf*
CONTACT: Antenna Group (for Nielsen Norman Group)
Darcy Provo, 415/977-1920
darcy@antennapr.com
KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA UNITED KINGDOM INTERNATIONAL EUROPE
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS SOFTWARE INTERNET
ADVERTISING/MARKETING