Wireless Informatics Forum (WIF) (
http://www.wirelessinformaticsforum.org), a non-profit organization, has been formed to provide resources to the mobile community including a platform for mobile operators, handset manufacturers, service providers and software vendors.
Through WIF, members of all these communities can share ideas and best practices in the development and delivery of mobile products and services. WIF allows free access to discussion boards, industry news, data and research papers from forum members.
WIF promotes the collection, validation and sharing of knowledge to build a better understanding of user experience optimization and define industry best practices, a statement issued to media noted.
Rapid advances in mobile technologies often force end users to abandoning their new services, explained Tim Deluca-Smith, Director of WIF in a statement to the press. He cites the example of Apple (
News -
Alert) iPhone which shifted mainstream thinking towards the true value of the user experience.
In this backdrop, WIF wants to address several questions such as: What does user experience really mean? How do you measure it, improve it and protect it? How does the value of the user experience differ between countries and user demographics?
WIF encourages all stakeholders in of mobile community to participate and address these issues.
From time to time, WIF also identifies key points of end-user dissatisfaction and tries to understand the root causes and facilitate solutions through active and open industry participation.
To realign the mobile community behind user experience optimization and Wireless Informatics, WIF developed the following five-point charter:
1). The mobile user experience is frequently compromised by technology complexity. Go-to-market strategies for new products and services must put the consumer first and include more comprehensive market education, training and support solutions, allowing end-users to access the services they need first time, every time and without disruption.
2). Problem prevention is the new problem management. A better understanding of the user experience, from retail environment audits through to post-sale customer care analysis, will help to mitigate continuing support issues and enhance the user experience.
3). The way in which mobile end-users source devices, share and consume content and connect to services is changing. The industry must adopt best practices to accommodate this new behavior and deliver a consistent user experience no matter what the origin of product, service, or connection type.
4). Customer care and all related support services must not be viewed as an OPEX (News - Alert) drain and final frontier in the end-user relationship. Instead such support environments must be recognized as fertile grounds for changing user behavior, driving more profitable usage patterns and championing user experience optimization strategies across the organization.
5). A chasm is forming between the wants and needs of the mobile operator, the device manufacturer and the service / content provider. This misalignment is damaging to the user experience and must be closed in order to deliver compelling mobile data services that meet end users' expectations for service and quality.
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P R Sai is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
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