By Julie Bort
Network World, 09/24/01
We tested four categories of devices: Web-enabled cell phones
that use the Wireless Application Protocol; Palm OS PDAs; Research in Motion's
BlackBerry pagers; and a Windows CE Pocket PC.
With the help of usability experts from Hastings Research,
we selected devices that had the most intuitive interfaces.
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For the WAP phones, we chose the Qualcomm TP 2100 on the Sprint
PCS network for its ergonomic design: big buttons, no clamshell, simple controls
for the interface (accessible through "OK" and "CLR").
The more intuitive the interface, the quicker participants were trained and
could give feedback on the tasks.
We also used the Motorola Timeport P8767 operating
on the Sprint PCS network. It too had a big screen and intuitive
interface. We threw in the Nextel L85 (also manufactured by Motorola),
running on Nextel's iDEN network, to test a second network. Participants
could choose any phone for the test or switch among them, but
the data from the questionnaire was calculated for the category,
not the specific phone.
In the Palm OS category, we chose the Palm VIIx because it is
the de facto standard of the genre. We had two Kyocera Smartphones (one running
on Verizon's Code Division Multiple Access network, the other running on Sprint
PCS' network), and a Handspring Visor on OmniSky, but because all
rely on the same Palm OS interface, Hastings believed their results would
be similar to the Palm VIIx.
Our Pocket PC choice was the Hewlett-Packard Jornada
with wireless access provided by OmniSky. We had a few Compaq
iPaqs with wireless functions, but after repeated attempts to
get the devices to maintain their network connections and perform
our required tests in the lab, we opted not to use them. To be
sure, the Jornada was also difficult to configure and of the two
the vendor sent us, only one consistently held its network connection.
We used only the applications that were preloaded to get feedback
on how much configuration participants thought would be necessary.
Hastings selected a series of tasks that covered the major functions
a business user would perform. Participants performed the same tasks on every
device, rating their perceived ease of use each time. The tasks were: searching
Google for the Hastings Web site; determining hyperlinks by clicking through
the Hastings site; reading data via the screen by downloading a news story
from the San Francisco Chronicle home page; finding the address for the Network
World San Mateo, Calif., offices via Yahoo; creating and sending an e-mail;
and calculating a life insurance policy via Insurancecalculators.com.
During the tests, the WAP phones were unable to access the insurance
site, although the site was previously accessible during Hastings lab tests.
We therefore excluded this test from all devices' scores when calculating
overall performance results.
Only IT professionals participated, and they did so over four
sessions in two days. This factored out slow speeds caused by a temporary
network brownout.
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