Saturday, March 22, 2008

Personalization of the Mobile User Experience

by David Jacques

[Article originally published as: "Up Close and Personal with Your Customer", David Jacques, in Charged magazine, Mar-Apr 2008, p.53. Download original PDF]

There is no doubt that personalization in product and service delivery is one of today's hot topics. Personalization answers people's deep need to reflect and reaffirm their individual beliefs and values, or in some cases their belonging to a group.

Over the past few years we've observed and interviewed hundreds of people in their homes, at work and followed them around in their social context, in order to have a better understanding of the role of mobile phones in people's lives and to uncover innovation opportunities.

Varied Segments

One thing that stood out was how almost everyone personalizes their mobile phone to some degree, with ringtones, wallpaper or themes being the most common form. In fact, it's one of the first things people do when they get a new phone. We’ve seen countless teenagers exchange ringtones of their favorite songs, set their wallpaper to pictures of themselves or loved ones and install cartoon or video game character themes. And personalization is not limited to tech-savvy teenagers. Interestingly, we saw many non-tech-savvy older adults set their wallpapers to a picture of someone close to them, although most often with the help of friends or family. That could represent an untapped market.

Different Needs

Before companies start developing yet more mobile products and services for everyone and their mother, they should get a good understanding of who they are targeting, and what these customers want. This may seem obvious but look at service providers and content developers in the past few years. With a "create-it-and-they- will-come" attitude they invested heavily on purchasing and developing a vast array of mobile products and services, much of which in the end almost no one uses. By trying to provide something for everyone at the same time, they end up appealing to almost no one.

With mobile content, the key to success lies not only in identifying different target segments and understanding what constitutes value to each of them, but also in understanding what they are willing to pay for — there are some things that people value greatly, but would not want any other way than free.

Personalizing the Channel Experience

Offering the right value is only the first step — it needs to be delivered. Lack of segment focus of the sales channels is one of the biggest barriers to people buying mobile products. And that's not to mention poor usability. How many times have we seen people try to use mobile portals and give up, saying "this is not for me"?

Designing portals that cater to specific segments' needs is definitely a step in the direct direction. But the envelope could be pushed even further by providing individual, unique channel experiences.

There is immense potential to attract and retain more mobile customers by allowing them to personalize portals to their individual needs, thereby creating a stronger emotional connection.

But even with the best of intentions, creating and delivering customer value doesn’t happen in isolation; it requires getting close and personal to target customers through research and including them in the design process.

[The following text is an addendum to the original article]

Personalizing Design, Features and Functionality

Not every mobile phone's capability suits everyone's needs at every moment. And perhaps one of the biggest innovation opportunities we found was in the personalization of the very design, features and functionality of mobile phones through upgrade modules. Some companies, such as Modu Mobile, have already started offering products with a similar concept, although to a limited extent.

Imagine a Web site where customers can truly personalize their mobile phone by selecting its features and functionality, the style and the color. This could be pushed even to the choice of the material, from plastic and metal to leather and even "green" materials, allowing personalization that further matches people's deep values.

Upgrade Modules

What more, modular phones would allow customers to buy extra components to "upgrade" their existing phone with, for example, a snap-on camera or a gamepad. This upgrading model would fit particularly well the buying behavior of people in frequent cases. For example, after losing their mobile phone, many people need to buy a new one quickly but do not want to spend relatively large amounts on a full-featured model right away. Having the ability to upgrade provides them the peace of mind that their quick purchase is not yet another loss. This would also allow people to carry around as little or as many features they need for any occasion; from a stripped-down call-only phone to a multimedia powerhouse.

Service Design

The true potential of this would be realized if the same company also offered exclusive, seamlessly integrated services around its phones including the sale of content. All-around service design is the model Apple applied very successfully with iTunes. This model, combined with upgrade capability, might very well be the next phase in mobile phone personalization. But adding choice adds complexity, and the challenge will be in making such services targeted and easy-to-use.

About the author: David Jacques is Founder and Principal Consultant of Customer input. He is specialized in human-computer interaction, usability and qualitative research techniques.

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