Enhancing the Whole User Experience for O2 Phones

System Concepts has used its unique combination of expertise in user centred design and physical ergonomics to support the design and development of two new O2 phones.

Markus Hohl, the Design Manager for O2 Devices explains “The combination of expertise in hardware and software evaluation means that System Concepts is able to offer us an integrated insight into the total user experience.”

O2 Cocoon

The O2 Branded Devices team first asked System Concepts to help them understand their target users’ requirements, habits, preferences and ideas around mobile messaging and music to help in the development of a new state of art fashion phone – the Cocoon. 

We used a diary study to establish users’ daily music and messaging habits and we encouraged participants to send us picture messages to illustrate their activities and thoughts as they progressed through the week.  This fed into a participative design session with each user to establish their ideal phones in terms of music and messaging functionality. 

The design team used these results to develop paper prototypes of the music player User Interface (UI) which we then reviewed with target users.  The designers enjoyed the freedom that the paper prototypes provided and made minor adjustments throughout the testing.  The review identified areas where the proposed UI did not meet the users’ mental models of a mobile music player and allowed us to recommend ways to make the navigational paths more intuitive. 

Our results were presented in a highly visual manner including diary extracts, participant photos, video clips and mock-up designs of possible solutions to engage team members and give the recommendations the best impact.

We also produced a short film to depict the user experience journey to help team members understand and learn from the user centred design techniques we had used.

The initial user experience of setting up a device, known as the Out of Box Experience, creates lasting impressions and will influence users’ opinion not only of the product but also of the brand.  Before the product was launched we tested the Cocoon packaging, user guides, key set-up and device tasks to make sure the Out of Box Experience met the users’ needs in the same way as the product. 

Device 2

System Concepts provided flexible User Experience (UX) and ergonomics support to the Branded Devices team for its next development project, including:

• On-site management of UI issues including usability evaluation, logging bugs, triaging any UI issues, progressing UI modifications and liaising with key stakeholders including vendors.
• User research investigating UI assets including icons, sounds, animations, screen designs and wording and whether these assets matched the O2 brand values, according to target users.
• Ergonomics support to the industrial designers by conducting an ergonomics assessment of different types of keypads, including both O2 and competitor handsets, and their effect on text messaging.  This was supplemented by an expert ergonomics review of three prototype designs for the new device.

User Experience (UX) Documentation

Documentation is a vital part of the design process, but one which is often neglected as designers move on to new projects.  System Concepts is using a user centred design approach to develop the documentation of the O2 UX for all branded devices on behalf of the O2 team.

We started by building the context of use of the documentation and eliciting key stakeholder requirements, followed by the specification of key use cases in both written and visual formats (wire frames).  This will result in a large proportion of the O2 device UI being specified and will promote a more efficient and effective relationship between O2 and their vendors.

Markus concludes “O2 have consistently chosen to work with System Concepts since 2006 due to their ability to practice what they preach by adapting their methodologies and techniques constantly to meet our requirements and hit given timelines.”

Last updated: July, 2009

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