Mildly irritating: a WAP usability study

The Internet is poised to go mobile. Much has been said about the technolog y that will make this possible, but little about what potential users expec t from WAP and a mobile Internet. This article is based on the experiences of 20 test users who participated in a usability evaluation. The users were given WAP enabled phones to use for one week. The conclusion of the resear ch was that WAP is not a user-friendly service. Connection times are far to o long and even when the user is able to get connected to a WAP site their connection is often timed out even before any data is downloaded. When the test users were asked whether they thought they would have a WAP enabled ph one within one year, 70% said no. However, when they were asked whether the y would like one within three years the negative responses dropped to 20%. So there is hope for the service. indeed the research shows that there is a market for data services delivered through a mobile Internet and gives a s trong indication as to what the users would want from such a service.