S60 Open to new features

Hi Risto,

We've been working with Flash Lite for 2 years now and have developed many, many games, applications and tools.
http://www.blueskynorth.com

You make some very good comments about the challenges and differences between Flash for web and for mobile. We found from the outset that designing for a small screen and slow processor really makes you think about what you are actually trying to achieve, and not just think about how cool an app or UI could be.

The next few months will be very exciting as we see what developers have been up to and how ideas and thoughts to Flash Lite design have changed over the past year or so.

I agree, lets make sure the slogan reads "99% of Flash Lite is cool"

Hi Paul and nice to hear of you. Yes your point is valid - because of natural limitations of small devices we need to focus on most practical solutions keeping creative side alive as well. It's like days back in C-64's, nedrs had very limited resources that made you push your limits (oh, those were the days my friend, I was actually Atari XL guy;). People were using brains, not just some pre-coded stuff to make monster-code. As S60 and similar phones are quite sophisticated devices, they do have obvious limitations and it makes us work harder and use our problem solving skills more and more. I'm little bit worried what happens when phones get more mature, do we get lazy? Let's hope not.

Hi Risto,

Great Blog!

hhhmm I think I must disagree with you that 99% of flash web sucks :) Yes, very true, there are many many crappy flash sites out there but to leave only 1% for the good ones is a bit unfair. I must admit my guilt in helping polluting the web back in the days and after reading Peter Morville and Don Norman books, Mobile Usability etc... I am really making a conscious effort to focus on usability and content rather than funky buttons.

If you give someone any tool, not just Flash or even HTML, if there is no talent they will create a not so pleasing experience…
On “Emotional Design”, Don Norman mentions that sometimes an object that is perfect on usability but ugly does not provoke some everyday emotions we all need. So we might be happier with a product that has some faults but brings us a smile on our face everyday (mini cooper as an example, macs for some ).

Last week was a great week for Flash Lite on the North America market and I hope it is here to stay. I have been playing with it lately and I love the small screen challenge. The fact that to load dynamic content is a pain and depends on some many variables still is a bummer.

I very much appreciate Nokia's innovative approach and wanting to stay ahead of the game by trying new things such as supporting FL for a while now. ..

Hi Moca and welcome!

Well you see, I'm little bit provocative - my point is that I do hope "flashterbation" won't make it way to mobile Flash. Even I consider myself as positive person I feel that we've lost battle of web Flash at least for a while - hopefully people get enough experience through mobile flash development that it reflects to web as well. Who knows. Web is filled with lot's of great Flash but I see mobility as an filter for all cool stuff available. User feedback is so immediate and voting is done by feet ;)

Beauty is basic human need (I hear Maslow yelling...). I agree you fully. For some reason good usability is often considered as opposite to beauty OR as 100% of lame design (I know one Guru who I could blame...;). It's a fact that excellent usability itself does not guarantee good sales, it's user experience in total that makes it happen. There are lot's of examples of low usability but great sales (this is actually something I'm going to write soon, one of my favorite topics;). And luckily vice versa. Usability itself is one part of successful user experience and it's quite "cheap" way to make products more efficient.

Everyday challenge for the developer is to combine ease-of-use to expedient design with proper amount of wow. This is where talent comes in, with proper tools to better understand your users needs. Luckily you just can't automate "talent" ;)

I think Nokia has been clever by providing lot's of concrete material to support developers life to achieve best possible usability. Or what do you think?

ahhh I hope flashterbation don't make it to mobile either but I am a bit pessimist. Give it some time and when they discover what they can do, it will come. Maybe not as much as the web since it takes a bit more effort to get your stuff into the phone.

The good news is, this crappy content will not be in our faces unexpectedly since carriers pretty much control which content they will provide and we can choose carefully what we want to load into our phones, like you said a filter...

The challenge with beauty and style is it gets old after a while. Styles fade and become cliché, it is only cool for a period. It is hard to find something that is useful, pretty and survives time.

Google comes to my mind now... I read posts complaining on how ugly Google is and mock-up samples on how it could be... hey! It can be a bit ugly but it is damn useful and I don't care how it looks. I don’t even care about the search related ads, they are useful too and they don’t blink bright red next to blue! If I can't Google, I get withdraw attacks.

Honestly I have not looked so much into Nokia's SDKs since I stay within Flash most of the time, but learning about how much they care and their production process is inspiring.

I would guess talent, proper tools, and a team of people working together who understands the value of every part including usability and planning working towards the same goals make a good product? Or is this a bunch of crap, business reality is get crazy Steve Jobs out there and he'll steal, push and exploit everything he can to give us cool stuff?

About beauty, you're right, style does change but it's easily fixed with re-design;) I mean it is really hard to create something that's unique but survives time. But on the other hand, design is reflection of current time and it _needs_ to change. Like S60, it has it's own strict style but still it changes as time goes by.

Google is a good example of "function comes before form". People don't care about ugliness because it brilliantly fills user needs (and I don't think it's ugly - of course if one just observers it like piece of art but it isn't art, it's a tool - you can't go and see some Matisse and say hey I don't like it because it's not useful;) Google is opening way to one direction but there is need for different roads as well - world would look really boring if everything would be like Google. They have visual brand that is basically logo and white, almost empty front page;). I predict that if they get some real competition, design is something they will think again - at least competitors will.

About wanna-be-steve-jobs, I'm really surprised how everyone are raving so much about things they do. Almost everything is benchmarked to success of iPod. Of course world needs trailblazers but how to become one? As a loooong time mac user is feel sort of irony in all of this and I'm sure most mac users agree with me;) But if this makes world any better place (and more beauty), I'm happy.