S60 Open to new features

Another good template for all of you creating S60 Themes. In addition to the previous Photoshop template, Forum Nokia released brand new Adobe Illustrator template that is highly useful for many of you with lots of creativity but no will or time to spend learning a quite complex method of creating Themes. With this file you can start experimenting with Theme creation even if you are not using a PC. What is exeptionally good in this new release is that now you can start creating SVG and other vector graphics based Themes!

If you have ideas to make it better, please give us feedback and post them here.

Imagine a situation where you first had a very little and then suddenly you were given almost everything. It can be tricky, or? I’m not talking about new rich people (like me ;P), but mobile UI development. Since the birth of Flash Lite the UI developers have been offered loads of new chances to impress the users and other stakeholders with the mobile UI. It is great, but as the chances grow, so do the challenges. It’s like being in a huge candy shop with all sorts of candy and having to find the perfect mix.

It’s much easier to choose if the alternatives are few, but a real talent is required to make a design rock when you have all the opportunities open. That’s a little what Flash Lite UI design is about – at least when compared to traditional Java or C(++) or even (X)HTML UI development – you have to find your own successful way of narrowing down the alternatives and creating a UI that is both unique and usable. For helping you to get started with Flash Lite UI design, Forum Nokia has published an article called ‘Flash Lite Visual Guide’. This guide contains hints, tips and guidelines how to make the User Interface of you Flash Application usable. It offers you a good starting point for your UI design, but unluckily no guidelines how to make the UI fun and unique are included ;) – I guess that’s up to you!

Adobe Photoshop, S60 Themes and Creativity

Upside: this text includes new stuff to help some potential Theme developers be more creative than ever. Downside: creativity is not included.

It's a well known fact that you can create 100% customized look & feel for your S60 through Themes. They can be really beautiful and expressive and, at the same time, they can be simply too-hard-to-use. This hard-to-useness is mostly a result of forgetting a few simple rules. Achieving beauty without the beast is a designer’s daily challenge--some can do it, others just can't, while many could. I've been wondering for a couple of years why most Themes make me basically sick. Let’s face it, 70% of current themes actually incur some physical damage to my body. I really would like to offer some examples, but you know, that wouldn't be very constructive.

Yes, I’m provocative. And yes, I think I have the answer...which I will divide into forthcoming topics. But, in general, one of the reasons is that Themes are still penetrating into top-designers day-to-day life. There is lot's of experience and talent for other themes and skins but you can't see clearly in S60 Themes yet. It's something like mobile advertising, every creative person talks about it but most of them haven't done any actual projects. This may be because there isn't enough demand and/or it hasn't matured enough.

But it's getting there, and fast. Tools for S60 Theme developers are now becoming really cool and effective;­ trust me. ­ There's even some unique support from the Nokia side. For example, this brand new Adobe Photoshop template can be useful for many of you with lot's of creativity but no will or time to spend learning a quite complex method of creating Themes. With this file you can start experimenting with Theme creation even if you are not using a PC (yes, I know may Mac users who would love to work out couple of cool Themes). If you have ideas to make it better, just post them here.

What do you think, what is status of S60 Themes today? If you know of any excellent theme designs, post the link as a comment. I know a couple of wonderful ones but I hope someone out there will be the first to contribute. Feel free to show your own stuff;)