G. Malnati, C.

Barberis, 2012-14

Course introduction
2013-14

Summary
G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

The

mobile hype
Course syllabus and organization
Exam

Why mobile?
has become a kind of buzzword
recurring often and often

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

Mobile

Getting a lot of attention both in media and in

company strategies
What

makes the mobile ecosystem

different from the general computing one?
The main reason is economical
Mobile technology is the basis of innovations in
reaching customers, and in redesigning
business processes and software products that
lead to the creation of many small businesses

Devices as ubiquitous
sensors
G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

Mobile

devices are more and more equipped

with a wealth of data sensors covering the
most different physical phenomena
Position, orientation, motion, lightness, image,
sound, temperature,
Data collection is most of the time performed at
the operating system level and easily made
available to applications

Mobility

is the key point

While the same sensors can be connected to

laptops, their usefulness is limited because they
cannot easily be moved

Smart data collection

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

The

ability to display and manipulate

user entered together with sensed
data, makes mobile devices very
useful for data collection
Data can be entered at its source
location, when it is produced, rather
than at a later time when human
memory errors can impact their integrity
Local and remote computation allows
real time validation
5

Reaching Customers
devices are mostly strictly personal
and users have them within reach

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

Mobile

They become an excellent tool for customer-tocompany communication, allowing for instant
purchase
Mobile

apps can also support brand loyalty

and awareness
The provision of games, utilities and other kinds
of branded software allows the company to have
a positive interaction with a customer in many
more situations than only when the customer is
sitting at a computer

Changing Business
Process
G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

Business

processes are designed

within the parameters of the
available technology
Disruptive technological innovation
creates the opportunity for significant
re-engineering and cost reduction
Mobile technology has a lot of
implications for strategic and tactical
advantage and is becoming a
competitive necessity in many sectors
7

Making Money
The

most compelling disruption created by the

iPhone was the App Store

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

Promptly copied by all other key players

The

Google Play Store and the Apple App Store

provide the app developer access to the market of
app purchasers
They do not have to worry about product distribution,
returns, or payment collection
Users find it natural to visit stores to get new apps or
browse for something interesting

Several

business models are supported

One time selling, click-based advertising, in-app

purchase, periodic subscription,

Mobile Apps Design Issues

mobile ecosystem is peculiar in the design
of applications

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

The

What might work or even be excellent in desktop

environment, may be complete disasters if ported to
a mobile platform
Touch based user interface, reduced display size,
need to operate in uncomfortable situations, power
constraints, , require redesigning the logic to fit
the devices capabilities
Apps

are easy to create and obtain

If your app is ill-designed, people will simply find an

alternative shutting down your marketing
opportunities

Operating System Design

Issues
OS have constraints on the degree of multitasking they support

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

Mobile

A single application is usually owning the screen and

receiving user interaction
While

there can be background tasks, their

computation is subject to memory and CPU
constraints
The OS can kill such tasks and possibly restart them at a
later time

Application

undergo a strict life-cycle that is governed

by the mobile OS
Each OS has its own, slightly different, rules
Understanding, and designing for these rules is extremely
important to the successful app developer

10

Screen Size and

Orientation Issues

is a broad variety of devices with

significantly different screen sizes

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

There

Ranging from 320x240 pixels to 1920x1080 and even

more, either in portrait or in landscape orientation
The smaller is the available space, the harder is to
design a meaningful user interface
While

extremely natural and direct, touch based

interaction lacks the precision of a mouse
A button should be at least half-inch wide, thus
making the design dependent also on the screen
physical dimension

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Interaction design
interaction should be carefully
planned

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

User

Screens should focus on one, or a very limited

and coherent, set of tasks that the user can do
Navigation should be planned and designed so
that it is obvious to the user how to proceed to
the next task
If a task requires multiple steps, those steps
should be designed as distinct screens, and
the user should be guided through the screens
needed to complete the whole task

12

Connectivity Issues
G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

Mobile

devices get a lot of interest for their

capability to communicate with remote
servers
However, connections can be lost, or the speed
may be very slow
Connectability can change abruptly by moving a
few feet apart

Uploading

and downloading should happen

asynchronously
Providing relevant feed back to the user and
offering the ability to cancel the undergoing
operation

13

Battery Issues
apps should cooperate in keeping the
current consumption as low as possible

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

All

An app that quickly drains power will not get

used, will get bad reviews, and eventually will
not get downloaded at all
The

primary power draw for devices is

the display
Sensors like camera and GPS receiver are
also extremely power-hungry
Continuous network activity is another area
to be kept under control

14

Device Differences
G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

Android

and iOS devices each have a

unique set of hardware and software
capabilities and usage guidelines
This makes the way the user interacts
with the device quite different and
requires specific design
This is quite important in the case of iOS,
where the software revision process that
applications undergo might cause early
rejections

15

Managing user behaviors

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

Designers

often make many

assumptions about expected user
behaviors
In the best case, they will provide
written instructions about what to do
or not to do

Users

can and will do things

that
you
are
not
expecting,
often
Even
Even if
if most
most programmers
programmers tend
tend to
to consider
consider
crashing
this
the application
of
this as
as a
a problem
problem
of the
the misbehaving
misbehaving user,
user,
it is YOUR fault!

16

Course objectives
learn about the concepts and principles of
mobile computing

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

To

And the underlying software engineering

foundations that make a software project successful
To

explore both theoretical and practical issues

of mobile computing
With particular regard to the Android and iOS
platforms

To

understand the challenges of mobile

application design
With special emphasis on usability, portability,
maintainability and resilience

Course contents
and practice of mobile device
programming

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

Theory

Application architecture and lifecycle

management
GUI design and implementation
Interaction with the underling OS and hardware
Access to remote resources
User-centered

design and ergonomics

Specific lectures will be given by a professional

psychologist working in Telecom Italia
Practical assistance will be provided during hands
on labs by psychology graduated students

18

Course organization
course is organized along 14 weeks, 4.5
hours per week

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

The

Wed 11:30-13:00, classroom 4D

Thu 8:30-11:30, classroom 4D (in weeks when
there is no lab)
Fri 14:30-17:30, LABInf (graded hands-on sessions)
Lab

sessions will be held on

March 21
April 4
May 2, 16, and 30
June 13

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Group project
Up

to 3 (three) people

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

May be less, not more

Design

and develop a fully working mobile

application for Android, iOS or both
We will provide a list of possible subjects
You can make your own proposal

In

any case, you need a formal acknowledge

before proceeding
No hardware is available for development, sorry
You can either use the emulators or your personal
devices

Grading
grade is the result of three
components

G. Malnati, C. Barberis, 2012-14

Final

Written exam: up to 18 points; it must be

at least 10 to pass
Hands on labs; up to 5 points
Group project: up to 10 points
The

project may be presented when

ready
We will arrange a meeting to show and
discuss it