December 7, 2007 • 8:30 am
Blue Flavor: Mobile Device UI Design
I came across this while researching different mobile user interfaces, and I think it’s a good analysis of what drives user interface design in the mobile industry.
I love this part:
…as much as we’d like to forget, the U.S. is not the center of the mobile world. The devices we see here are usually designed for consumers in the UK or the Netherlands. (Asian phones rarely make their way to the States, with a few exceptions like the upcoming MVNO Helio)
Outside the U.S., people use mobile technology far differently than we do, often using SMS and mobile web features more than they do voice. Device UIs are designed for flexibility, to allow subscribers to use little apps and tools that we may find a little gadgety.
Filed under: Design, Mobility, Usability and HCI
January 21, 2007 • 1:43 pm
I’m going to be in the minority and not jump on the iPhone bandwagon. Apple, while a company that produces quality products, should not be immune from criticism.
Cases in point:
- The iPhone (or whatever it will be called) is too expensive, and too crippled by Apple.
- 8GB is not a lot of memory.
- The iPhone will not record video (yet).
(See this link for a little more info).
One prognostication I do like:
Apple’s disruption in the mobile phone space is good news for anyone sick of paying too much for phone service, as it will greatly increase competition in the mobile phone and service industry. That will ultimately benefit everyone, not just Apple’s customers. Analysts mocking the iPhone should know that.
I’m certainly not mocking the iPhone, but Apple is going to need substantial market share to make that happen and I’m not convinced the numbers are there.
I’m also sure the phone will be immenently hackable, but at a price that only the real early adopters will be willing to pay.
Filed under: Mobility, Usability and HCI
October 27, 2006 • 1:17 am
Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker » (Update: link is broken. Dr. Troublemaker strikes again!) Update: The link is back up.
I found this huge del.icio.us cloud via this ask.metafilter post. A better example of inefficient tagging I have yet to see.
According to one of the respondents, Dr. Troublemaker has 2441 unique tags, with 1400 of them representing only one bookmark. Browsing through them myself, I saw that many of the tags are variants of each other, which complicates the problem.
Filed under: Usability and HCI
October 21, 2006 • 6:19 am
Scrybe – the online productivity suite I’m dying to try – Download Squad
I was scanning Digg when a reference to Scrybe caught my eye. Featuring a ZUI as well as some other impressive user interfaces, Scrybe looks like it really tries to keep context at the top of its list of priorities.
This reminded me of a presentation by Microsoft’s Cathy Marshall, wherein she mentioned that you can’t search for something you don’t remember you have. When you’ve forgotten something, you’ve also likely forgotten the context of the information.
Filed under: Design, Usability and HCI
