User Experience of Mobile Internet - Human-Computer Interaction and Innovation in Handheld, Mobile and Wearable Technologies - page 189

Figure 4. Mobile adaptation techniques

2007). Each transformation technique has navi-
gational advantages and constraints (MacKay &
Watters, 2003) as well. Many current automated
transformation options do not consider features
such as user task, familiarly with information,
web-page layout and mobility of the user, and
their impact on the usability of the resultant trans-
formed page (MacKay et al., 2004). Further re-
search to improve these solutions and user expe-
rience will be required.

service providers should develop more valuable
and special services.
To improve user experience, users need to be
able to understand, follow, and control the mobile
Internet costs (Roto et al., 2006). Affordable usage
costs should be accompanied with clear pricing
structures. One option is time-based tariffs where
the user pays for each minute, 15 minutes or by
the hour. The interviewed Swiss customers clearly
preferred such time-based tariff models to volume-
based ones (van Veen, 2006). Another option is
bundling a small package of mobile Internet usage
with another subscription or even giving it away
for free and thus letting the customer have a risk-
free entry to mobile Internet usage.

Pricing

With respect to paying for the mobile Internet,
consumers want predictability, simplicity, and
affordability (van Veen, 2007). When Forrester
asked European regular Internet users why they
did not use the mobile Internet, 55% stated that
it was too expensive (Forrester Research, 2006).
In a focus group study in China and six Eu-
ropean countries (IUP, 2008), non-users of the
mobile Internet were assuming mobile Internet
costs to be high, and they did not know how
much they would be charged for mobile services
nor the pricing policies. In this study, flat rates
were of interest to many participants as they
were familiar with this kind of pricing from their
home and work broadband charges. Kuo and Yen
(2008) suggest, based on their user studies in
Taiwan, that if service tariffs cannot be reduced,

CONCLUSION

The mobile Internet has great potential in providing
users with personal access to topical information
and services. There is still a lot to do to improve
user experience of the mobile Internet, however.
Service providers can improve user experience
by providing services specifically designed for
mobile use and even utilizing location and other
contextual information in the services. To make
this affordable, the service has to provide clear
value for mobile users.