Michael DeVries

Even before the launch of the Apple iPhone, it was expected that it would have a dramatic impact on the telecom industry. Not only was the phone coming from a highly reputable design company, but potential buyers were being absolutely convinced of the ease of use and usefulness of the product, even before they had their hands on it. The advertising campaign doubled as a training tool, and the web tutorials increased the reality of the excellent usability expected out of the iPhone.

The task then was, as quickly as possible after iPhone launch, to educate as many product groups, executives, marketing groups, and other Sprint functional groups about the user experiences inherent in the iPhone design. The key would be to initially use the heuristic evaluation method I designed, and to include the necessary parties along the way to optimize the efficiency of 1st person awareness.

Research Design

• Facilitate a core team user experience SWOT on the iPhone and present it to Executives on Monday morning after the Friday afternoon iPhone launch.
• Lead multiple design, customer equipment, product, and other teams through a series of evaluations to ensure fast understanding of the competition. The table provides part of the evaluation schedule and number of tasks considered.
• Compile the evaluations and produce a benchmark heuristic score and a breakdown of the anticipated usability (see example score presentation - values have been changed from original data).
• Collaborated with the usability lab team to devise a usability test, and integrate findings into internal communication documentation.

• Cross functional teams of directors, managers, technical teams, designers, researchers, project managers, and others had fast access to key iPhone user experiences and usability issues.
• The project validated the heuristic evaluation methodology and its usefulness.
• The project received an Excellence Award for delivering useful, actionable results quickly to those that needed it the most.

• Conducted an evaluation of the iPhone core design strategies and presented them to multiple teams, including the Sprint/Samsung Instinct team.
• Proactively supplied multiple teams with intelligence about potential iPhone upgrades. The information came from competitive intelligence methods and by watching what the hackers were able to accomplish (see hacker's home page screen shot).
• Support Marketing during Sprint Samsung Instinct launch by ensuring they understood iPhone v. Instinct detailed functional and user experience differences. This prepared them for discussions with Walt Mossberg and the CTIA media.
  
• Analyze competitive Instinct strengths against iPhone to support Marketing viral marketing strategy. Marketing was to produce a number of video shorts. By understanding the key user experience differences, I was able advise Marketing on where to place their advertising emphasis and consult on user experience issues during the shooting of the video shorts. The following are examples of the video shorts:
  • Replacing the battery
  • Larger 3G network

• Proactive planning, scheduling, and prioritizing
• Team evaluation facilitation
• Heuristic evaluation
• Data synthesis and trend identification
• One on one consulting
• Group presentation