Usability Problems in Today's Mobile Internet Portals

Abstract

This paper is describing the current state of mobile Internet portal navigation. The experience is based on usability evaluations of several mobile portals during years 2002-2005. The information concerning the user behavior in mobile navigation has been available for some years and there is huge number of mobile portals out there. Some portals have good and consistent navigation, but there are also portals that do not utilize the existing information about user behavior in portal design. This paper presents the current state of mobile portal usability- what are the common usability problems in mobile portals today. The approach of this paper is more practical than academic: the information is based on a series of evaluations performed during past years. The paper focuses on navigation in mobile portals, which according to earlier studies seems to be more related to experience with the mobile portals than cultural background. According to the evaluations navigation also appears to be fairly similar in different countries.