BY MIKE VON WAHLDE
Associate Editor, INTERNET TELEPHONY

The Killer App Is Dead, Long Live Usability

The killer app is dead.

As the availability of wireless data and voice technology grows, so does the public sector using the technology. Putting these devices in the hands of Dick and Jane, and convincing them to use them daily, will truly push the industry towards large-scale growth. High-end computer users -- the early adopters -- are willing to deal with usability problems and slow download times, because they realize these hurdles are part of developing technology. The common man, however, won't accept much less than the reliability and simplicity of traditional telecom offerings. So what will finally kill traditional telecom, and move the masses towards wireless data and voice? Usability.

The killer app is dead, because there is simply no one application that everyone needs. Take me, for instance. I'm not PDA power user, yet I consult mine every A.M. to see if I can get away with wearing flip-flops to work, or if I have a vendor meeting that requires more corporate footwear. If someone has a tip on a local sushi joint, I beam the phone number to my PDA. If traffic is bad during the P.M. commute, I can write a few friendly e-mails while parked on I95. I can check the weather forecast, read sports scores, and get most any news I want (except for surf reports for the New York metro area haven't found those yet). I use my PDA almost exclusively for entertainment purposes; these are trivial uses at best, and it's still not as quick or easy to use as I'd like.

Working Towards Usable Products
I had the chance to chat with a usability specialist, Scott Weiss, founder and principal of Usable Products Company. The firm was established to rate and develop Web and wireless communications for companies such as Lucent, SonicNet, Charles Schwab, Chase, and CNBC, to name a few. Usable Products tests the user interfaces of these technologies, reports on the user experience (such as the ability to find information), and then attempts to show client companies how to make interfaces more intuitive in use. What Usable Products has found is that, even within corporate circles, PDAs and wireless Internet via mobile phones are used primarily to get people out of emergency situations, such as being lost. They're only secondarily used for buying event tickets, checking weather, gaining specific information nuggets, or checking e-mail.

Usability is a term that is enigmatic at best. Still, Usable Products is working on taking the guess work out of -- and putting common sense back into -- wireless devices. Simplifying search engines, making data transmission easier, and attempting to make wireless technology intuitive are all goals that will help eliminate the idea of wireless devices as gadgetry. Weiss foresees devices that marry cell phone functions in a PDA and utilize an earpiece as a key wireless development. The logic behind this is simple: conjoin the bigger graphic interface of the PDA that enables larger-scale data transfer with the small, simpler, technology of the mobile phone. While these developments are no longer futuristic -- companies such as Handspring and Palm are releasing these types of product -- the question remains: What hurdles must they clear? We shouldn't push too quickly for full-scale adaptation without thinking of those five-nines of service reliability we've come to expect from telecommunications.

Standardized protocols are also key to integration of wireless technology. Without ease of information transfer across media, usability is affected. Usable Products is working in conjunction with wireless service providers, manufacturers, and media in a group called the Wireless Roundtable. The group was established in order to try to standardize everything from protocols and technologies, to vocabulary and advertising. They hope that by holding open forums to discuss emerging protocols, user interfaces, and technology, some of the complexity of wireless communication will be eliminated.

Kudos to companies burning the midnight oil to craft our wireless world in a usable, personalized manner. After all, the liquor industry was thoughtful enough to design pocket-sized liquor bottles that fit the curve of our derrires; why hasn't the wireless industry pursued parallel design considerations yet?

Finally, technology is finding common sense solutions. The industry is moving more and more towards the simplification of interface and use everyday. Fast, ergonomically-designed products that integrate the get-up-and-go needs of the populous, and scalable, multiprotocol-enabled devices will eat up all this talk about a single killer app. Yep, we want it all -- is that so much to ask?

Mike von Wahlde welcomes your comments at mvonwahlde@tmcnet.com.