Handhelds devices (מחשבי כף יד) by definition have no fixed location, can be operated without the need to be rested on a table and allow the installation of new applications.
In 1997 I got my first handheld device, which was an Apple Newton Messagepad M130. Sadly, I stopped using this amazing touch screen operated device soon after it stopped supporting one of the most important features that I need – to synchronize my PC address book.
One of my usability assignments was to define an offroad navigation solution via a PDA and a dedicated GPS unit. In contrast to street navigation systems that calculate the best connection between two given points, there are no predefined routes in open areas, so that the user must be able to define routes using an interactive application. The user should be able to navigate according to the route that he has defined and to track his pace for further evaluation.
For this assignment, paper prototyping was the natural approach. It is an efficient technique for designing and testing user interfaces. One of the most important advantages of this technique is that it is platform independent, which means that it works well for PC applications, web design and hardware with dedicated interfaces such as handheld devices.
The basic idea of paper prototyping is that the interface is illustrated on a number of papers, including all the buttons, menus and even popup windows that are part of the user interface. Afterwards, a usability evaluation with real users is being performed with the help of the paper prototype. The conclusions are then translated into the details design.
The application turned out to be a big success. The UI concept has now been adopted at all of the handheld applications, and has been praised by many off-road navigation forums and PDA magazines for many years in a row.
Pocket PC, which is one of Germans leading magazines, has published an independent review of the application. The conclusions of the review was that this is one of the most intuitive and easy learning off-road applications that is currently available on the market.. Read the test report (in German)
