Design Case Study: Symbol Technology
From MobileDesign
What effect does user-centered design have on products? Just ask Symbol Technologies. Symbol's focus on workgroups and the enterprise environment has made their Pocket PC (tm) products stand out from the crowd. That doesn't mean that their products are for everybody, though. It means their products are right for their target audience.
I asked Symbol's Vice President of Product Architecture, Vinny Luciano, about two of the newest products, the PDT 2800 and the PDT 8100. Each is a Pocket PC 2002 (tm) device with a built-in scanner; the 8100 also has a physical keyboard. These products compliment Symbol's line of handheld scanner products.
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[edit] Users
Symbol is well aware that their users are different from typical consumers. It starts at the most basic level: who owns the device? In the consumer world, the world assumed by the Pocket PC design and architecture, the device belongs to one person and to one computer. Think about it: synchronization and data storage is built around a one-computer relationship. The data on the device belongs to only one person, even though one person's data can be swapped for another person's data. In Symbol's world, that of the workgroup, devices are assigned to the entire group, and the device shares data not with a computer, but with a server. This many-to-one relationship between users and devices means that if the devices store user data, the data needs to follow the user from device to device.
Wireless carriers like Sprint PCS are starting to focus on workgroups for their 3G networks and billing systems, but Luciano maintains that the 3G devices still have a relationship with a PC, even if there can be multiple users. Further, the applications on 3G devices, targeted at enterprise customers, have little integration with actual data. For example, an enterprise application might be an expense report, which can be stored locally. Symbol's customers might require database entry, periodic tracking, sorting, or any of several other tasks that require interaction with the data, not just inputting or viewing data.
Pocket PC users tend to look at their device briefly, then go on to another task in the physical world. They may use an application like a document viewer for a while, but they are quite distractible by tasks in the physical world. In contrast, some Symbol users will interact with their device continuously. Typical Symbol users may be recording inventory in a store, sorting packages in a warehouse, delivering packages to customers or visiting a retail client.
Symbol has created a wide variety of devices for the wide variety of work processes it users have. For example, the distinction between the 2800 and the 8100 is that the 8100 has a keyboard. Users with work processes that can avoid text input, like package delivery or retail scanning, get the 2800. Users with old applications that require a keyboard, or with inventory that is incompletely bar coded, get the 8100 with the keyboard.
Symbol also enhances the users' work processes with the variety of architectural models the devices can support. This means that the enterprise does not have to change how it does business to take advantage of Symbol's devices.
[edit] Design Philosophy
All Symbol's scanner products, not just the 2800 and 8100, are designed around three questions:
- What job will be done with the device?
- Where will that job be done?
- How does the device connect to the infrastructure?
These questions, and years of successful products, have led to some organizational knowledge shared by Symbol's product development teams. For example, all scanning devices are ambidextrous. The 2800 and 8100, for example, have a large yellow button on the front of the device, and a yellow button on each side of the device. Any of these will trigger a scan. When the devices are put into a gun format, scanning is inherently ambidextrous. The decision to put three buttons where one would have sufficed cost an extra $7-$8 per unit, made the unit harder to seal, and harder to ruggedize. But the decision was never in question. Scanning is just too important for Symbol users.
For devices intended to be used frequently or continuously, good ergonomics are critical. The device has to minimize the risk of repetitive motion injuries and reduce fatigue. Consider a wrist-mounted computer with bar code scanner, intended to be used for 8 hours. If the scanner were on the wrist, the user would have to point the entire arm to scan something, using large muscles not specialized in fine motor control. So Symbol spent the extra money and put the scanner on a ring connected to the computer, allowing the small muscles of the forearm to do the fine motor control they are good at. Symbol then went one step further, and made sure the plug to which the scanner would connect was replicated on both sides, ensuring that the computer and scanner would be ambidextrous.
Ruggedness is another universal design feature in Symbol products. Devices get tested in the Symbol tumbler, a large machine like a clothes dryer where a device gets stress-tested for a couple days. Devices are larger and more expensive to accommodate ruggedness needs.
On the software side, Symbol recognizes that device management is as important as the device. They therefore have a server that automatically updates and manages software for all a client's devices.
[edit] Trade-offs
When asked what the biggest trade-off in device design was, Luciano had no doubt, "Size to drop specification. We could have made it a little bit bigger, and much more rugged. We could have made it a little bit smaller, and a lot less rugged. That's where we spend 95% of our trade-off energy on every product." A 6 foot drop to a concrete floor can create a force of 3000 gravities for 15 msec.; the resulting wave of compression causes components to move with respect to each other. The greater the clearance between the components, the greater the ruggedness. Users, however, want small sized devices.
The focus on the user extends to the software, where more trade-offs lie. Symbol has started making devices with Palm and Pocket PC operating systems. The advantage is obvious: there are lots of developers with expertise in creating applications for these platforms. The disadvantages are not as clear. One issue Luciano mentioned was the need to "kill the dentist." When a standard Pocket PC device is started, some version of Outlook Today, the view on the personal information manager, is shown. When a device is started the first time, there is a sample dentist appointment displayed to show the user how to use the device. This is clearly inappropriate for delivery drivers, inventory clerks, and so forth.
A main advantage of Pocket PC to consumers is its flexibility; that same flexibility is dangerous for Pocket PC users. So Symbol allows its clients to lock down the operating system, allowing the users only job-related applications. Thus when the package sorter turns on the device, the device shows the package sorting application and not Outlook Today. Even more challenging is the device with the keyboard: Windows CE is designed to pop up a virtual keyboard whenever text input is necessary. Beta users reported that this was confusing and annoying, as the virtual keyboard obscured the task-related content on the screen. Symbol is now working on locking down the virtual keyboard on the 8100.
Another trade-off involves SKU management. Because Symbol's customers may be purchasing a large number of units, Symbol will customize the device somewhat. For example, Symbol will provide a keyboard for the 8100 based on the type of data entry necessary for the client.
[edit] Final Thoughts
In a device market dominated by names such as Compaq and Toshiba and driven by price, Symbol has lasted more than 25 years with a small name and high prices. The 2800 costs 50% more than competing Pocket PC devices, and yet it is selling well. When Luciano runs a video of the tumble machine tossing around Symbol handhelds during a presentation for a customer, he says that their eyes light up and they say, "You know what, that's exactly what my people are doing with those things." When asked about how working for Symbol is different from working for other device manufacturers, Luciano says "I imagine that the average developers working for the other Pocket PC manufacturers feel much more disconnected from the value they provide to the end user."
