The latest round comes from a study published last month by the Nielsen Norman Consulting Group, which surveyed 20 new WAP users in London about their experiences. But using WAP as the scapegoat for the mobile industry is getting old. In the latest study, user complaints tend to be related to the way WAP sites were designed. As with any IT project, technology must be implemented in a way that motivates a user in some intrinsic or extrinsic way to use it. Lengthy menus, tons of options, and disorganized content formatting don't cut it on a tiny screen, which is often text-based.
Confused users get frustrated and give up.
The WAP Forum has published a set of technical specifications under which a mobile data environment is made possible, but it can't develop everyone's WAP Web sites for them. You can do this yourself, or, if you are tired of continually recasting your apps, enlist the aid of a wireless application service provider or wireless consultant. It won't be the only piece. It may not even be the most significant piece. But it will be appropriate for a certain subset of users if implemented properly.