S60 Open to new features

Somewhat related to Wendy's recent entry, I'd like to address an important issue: control and information security. With advanced mobile devices, it is possible to store various applications and fill the device with personal information. As Wendy pointed out, it should also be easy to remove/delete applications -- and it should be easy to erase private information as well.

A company did an experiment: they bought a number of smart phones from eBay, and checked if they can retrieve personal information from the devices (see their news bulletin).

And they succeeded.

Bank accounts and passwords. Business plans. Personal messages. Calenders. Contacts. And then some. Some of the devices were re-set to factory settings before they were sold second hand, as described in the user's manual. But it was still possible to dig up the personal information. The same kinds of cases have been reported on computer hard drives for years. This may be both a software and a hardware issue, but nevertheless - it's an issue that must be considered.

Fact is: user's invest real money in the devices. When moving on to a new model, they want to sell the old device or give it to a friend or a relative. They should be able to feel secure to pass the device on: how many of you would feel good in buying a new device of the same brand if you just heard your nerdy nephew was able to dig up everything you thought you just deleted?

There must be a better method of "just being sure" than tossing the device to the microwave oven for a few minutes!

From a user experience standpoint, it may be problemmatic that the "To-do" application (at least on many of the S60 mobiles out there) is missing from the Calendar options (and is located in the Office folder). An end user will expect that she can perform any calendar related tasks, e.g. any activity that needs to be completed in the future, from her Calendar application. Instead, many users have to go to the Office folder to create their "to-do" list(s). The other option is that users create a shortcut to the "To-do" list; but then it may seem wasteful (and perhaps frustrating) to the user to have the Calendar and To-do applications both as shortcuts. Any user may be left wondering: Why are they separated when they fall under the same "category"? However, some in contention may respond: Are those things a user puts on his "to-do" list really and truly related and similar to things he puts into his calendar (e.g. memos, meetings and anniversaries)? Perhaps they are they not equal...and therefore they should be separated.

So Americans like pizza…is it so bad?! A recent article describes the information-seeking habits of Americans via their mobiles. It seems that Americans of all ages have been busy (locating pizza places) with their mobiles, calling the 411 directory for assistance. From a user experience standpoint, this makes sense: a quick phone call results in useful, needed results. Users want specific information, they know where and how to get it, and voila! It is done.

I know I may sound repetitive but am I missing something? Is there an alternative to a mobile phone call to the 411 directory, which produces immediate and useful results? Could users send an SMS to a 411 number and receive similar (and fast) information? In a day and age when we don’t necessarily want to waste the time talking to another person (like an operator, or our mothers if the 411 call does not produce results), there ought to be an alternative. Perhaps the problem for users is that most alternatives are too slow, e.g. Internet access via one’s mobile device, or not informative enough.

Downloading third party applications should be and, in most cases, is an easy task to do. In this way users can tailor their devices and take their mobile lives easily onto the next level. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. I have lately witnessed a lot of frustrating moments when the device informs the user that this applications is not trusted and can’t be downloaded properly. I understand the business logic behind this, but has it gone too far? Is it possible that the existing model builds barriers to the innovations? Small companies or independent developers could be blocked out too easily. Things like Linux would not have had a chance to grow and, I’m pretty sure, the Www would look pretty different if it has been purely commercial project from very beginning. On the other hand, I don’t want to import the Internet mess onto to my mobile. So what can we do?

I've been playing around with some different applications recently. I successfully downloaded a HandyKeylock application for the N70 phones. The application was placed in "My Own" folder. I went there and "opened" the file. Nothing happened, except that the screen blinked once and went back to the menu (with the selection still on the HandyKeylock application). Now that I cannot get it to work, I want to delete the file (some of you may ask why, but this is an issue for a psychiatrist!). Is there an easy way to delete applications after you've installed them on your phone? There should be and there better be...but if it is not obvious to me, I don't think it will be so obvious to other users who are even less experienced. The fact is, I would not have wanted to delete the application if it had been more intuitive to use. Nonetheless, the options like "delete" ought to be readily and easily available.

It would be great if I did not have to transfer my images to my computer in such a complicated way. Even if Bluetooth is kind of usable to me, I still feel that the whole process is a burden. I have to force myself to do it - to turn the BT on in both the devices, to select the images (which is so slow) and accept the reception in the computer.

How about having a one-touch image transfer process? I could for example have a small flat gadget permanently attached to my computer with a cable. Every time I put my phone on this small blanket, my phone would automatically copy all my images to my particular image folder in my computer? I could leave the device lying there for a while and come back and *know for sure* that everything is fine.

Bluetooth is not that complicated as infrared used to be. Yes, I used IrDA for long to transfer my mobile phone images into my computer - imagine how long it took and - even worse - I needed to keep the phone steady next to the infrared port. I always had to place my phone on a thin book so that the visual connection between the devices was exactly right. In that sense, BT is a clear step forward. But still, could I have something smoother :-) ?

I read some very interesting, yet expected, findings from a British survey in an article yesterday: British mobile users are not actively or thoroughly searching for mobile content. Usability problems of long download time and difficult navigation were the primary reasons. This, of course, was not what mobile content creators had hoped and wished for.

The bottom line is that users are not searching for content on their mobile devices in the same manner as they would on the Internet: on the Internet, users browse; on their mobile devices, users look for specific information. According to the survey findings, users do not want to spend the same amount of time surfing the web on their mobiles that they do on their PCs (perhaps this is also related to cost). As mentioned above, this may be primarly due to the amount of time it takes to find the information (and lack of time the mobile user has to find it). Fortunately, users from the study indicated that they would consume more content if it was faster and inexpensive to do so.

So what does this mean for our S60 users? Is it a waste of time to develop web browsers, content, services etc? Or, can something be done/created to help mobile users? How can it be ensured that their experiences with the web via their mobiles will be quick (download time) and easy (navigation)? I guess the final question is about cost: To what extent does the cost (of waiting and searching) have to do with the non-consumption of mobile content? If the cost is covered, will mobile content consumption increase?

According to a recent Dutch survey conducted in several European countries (a sample of over 5000), Nokia users appear to have a stronger connection to the Nokia brand than other brand users (e.g. Samsung). The reason: good usability. So, it seems that Nokia's investment in usability research, including user experience research, has payed off.

I came across this site for teenage girls (gURLS.com) this summer. It seems like these kinds of sites are the perfect solutions for companies wanting to make that link and leap from the Internet to mobile. It is a great site and was created at the time when teenage girls were surpassing teenage boys (in the US) with their mobile phone use. Quite smart!

So after checking out the site, and enjoying it, I was left wondering this: why not create sites like this (especially for users in the US who are still so tied to the Internet…for a variety of reasons, one being the inability to obtain good, solid, consistent coverage) for different users, especially S60 users? Sure it is useful, and user-friendly, to have a S60 site for those who already know it exists or who are adept enough in the mobile world to even know what S60 is. But then there are the others who just use the technology and don’t know much about it; and because they don’t know much about it, their desire for content, applications, and services etc. is limited.

Although we know that teenagers are a huge source of revenue for mobile products and services, those who are purchasing the smartphones are, for now, from a slightly different demographic. They are men who make enough money to buy a smartphone and the accessories to go with it. So why not create a site: www.mobileMENtality.com? (Note: I'm obviously joking about the name, but hopefully you catch my drift!) Offer all types of demographic-specific (!) content, and mix in S60-related mobile content, applications and services. Do any sites like this already exist that are truly geared towards making it easy to understand what kind of stuff is out there for the non-technie, "not interested in the details" S60 users--sites that are also interesting and fun!?