There has been an increase in the use of mobile technology in recent years. Mobile gadgets take different forms and shape now more than ever ranging from MP4 players to iPhones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) etc. Gone are the days when mobile phones, for example, were used simply to talk and text as most now function as mini-computers (and when I say that, I don’t mean notebooks).
In spite of all these developments, mobile devices are plagued by a host of design and usability problems. Some of these problems are summarised below;
- Lack of sufficient memory – although I am aware that we have memory cards that could boast of up to 2GB or even 4GB storage space however mobile applications are getting bigger than ever! Most games and musical programs now take up more space than they used too thus the problem persists.
- Content adaptation – have you tried viewing a busy web page (I won’t mention any on here) on your mobile browser? Gosh, it could take ages to get to the bottom of the page. Most developers seem unable to differentiate between making pages for a device with a limited screen just yet.
- Browser compatibility – this is the reason why a website appears differently when a user types in its URL in two different devices. There is still no universal micro-browser till date hence we might have to live with this for some time to come.
Although the problems listed above are not exhaustive, the advantages of mobile technology can be said to surpass any of these constraints. The ultimate advantage is that it is ubiquitous therefore enabling users to access information during their daily activities in spite of their location.