The way to Mobile 2.0

I found this interesting picture that show the evolution of the markup languages for the mobile web during the years.

It's interesting to see how XHTML replaced the obsolete WML and the appearance of quite new players like Flash Lite. I haven't seen many applications written in Flash Lite but they will definitely have a place.
On the other hand for this picture to be complete we should add J2ME, Symbian and Brew. They are not markup languages but they play a big role on the mobile tech landscape as well as Flash Lite. In fact, many mobile sites have an XHTML version for browsers and a more polished and user-friendly version in the form of a "stand-alone" application (e.g. google gmail). There are also many Mobile Widget Engines coming out that make easier the way to create appealing applications on the handsets that consumes services from the web.

I will discuss the Mobile Site vs. Widgets in another post as it is an interesting topic in itself.

Mobile User Experience

The other day while browsing on the Internet I found this interesting picture that I think is a fantastic graphical description of all the things that affect user experience when using a mobile application.



Following the picture, on the outer circle we have “culture” which apply to many types of software not exclusively to mobile, and right inside “environment” and “activity”, these last two items are more specific to mobile and relates to location and what the user is doing at that place. These can drive to user interactions that tend to satisfy needs called “goals” and will end to be the purpose of the mobile application. To accomplish these goals the user can perform a series of “task” provided by the application. The user is also constantly affected by the surrounding environment so the level of “attention” can vary greatly with time. Then it comes the real challenge, the “user interface”, a place where many applications fail. The interface plays an important role because it's mission is to balance the devices multimedia capabilities, the quality of the wireless connection, and the type of services carriers provide with the social environment where the users are without affecting the seamless execution of the goals.
In my opinion the interface can also be interpreted as the connection between technology and the social environment that in consequence require social-aware software to blend these two sometimes distant worlds.