S60 User Experience

Goodbye and see you soon!

2006-10-09T13:47:45Z

Our delightful journey with this User Experience blog has now come to an end
as S60.com is gearing toward more customer-oriented content. Our mission was
to share our expertise and insights with you developers and in return learn
more from you. And that mission was a success – we all made it happen! Thank
YOU!

The blog team has loved every moment, as we hope you did as well. Looking
back, this has been a unique project. We were able to raise and discuss a
great variety of hot topics, including mobile Flash, users in different
cultures, different application areas and concepts and personalization, to
name a few. However, the biggest category was User in sight. That’s the
starting point to everything. For User Experience specialists, following
user needs and behaviour is a continuous undertaking.

So where to go next? Luckily, there are many excellent blogs and sites out there continuing the discussion we started. My recommendations include my friend Kelly's great blog Gotomobile, Niko Nyman's versatile blog and one particularly interesting UX site, by one of my favourite writers: Scott Berkun’s UX clinic. Check it out, and while you’re at it, post a link to your own favourite UX site in the comments!

One more look into the future of User Experience. I see an emerging and
maturing world full of diversity - and that world has no borders. The key
element of success in the UX field is seamlessness: the ability to combine
user research, interaction design and UI design into one natural
uninterrupted flow. That's called evolution. It will not happen overnight,
it will not happen by itself. We will make it happen, together. If you want to learn more, just contact me.

So, I won’t bid you completely farewell, as we are not going away. Nope. For now, meet us at Forum Nokia - lots of new and interesting fresh stuff there (for example: "S60 Platform: Visualization and Graphic Design Guideline" will be published soon). Look for us where the users are, we’re always closer than you think!

And we’re just getting started.

On behalf of the whole blog team,
Risto@Idean

More than words

2006-09-29T11:02:35Z

A couple of things came to my mind when exploring the voice commands in my new phone. It is relatively easy for a user to call someone by saying the person's name, or to open an application using the voice commands. Unfortunately, voice commands cannot be used for opening any application or view - even though there are quite many alternatives available. Also, after a promising start, having opened an application using a voice command, a user cannot proceed much further using only voice. It would be handy, for example, to start the text message reader using voice command--but this may not be possible (I could not find a way, at least). And it would also be nice if the user could select a speech synthesizer speaking one's mother tongue - at least Finnish messages sound quite funny with the English-speaking synthesizer. :-)

So, while there are interesting voice-related features, they are not used to the extent they could be. Could the user, for example, activate a kind of “voice command profile” in which messages and other texts could be heard? To make it more fun for the user, different kinds of speech synthesizer voices could be offered for listening - maybe even with varying emotional tones. As for emotional expression via mobile, the nature of potential solutions is limited by just one's imagination - as is illustrated by a monkey* developed at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory.

* The page works with Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Closer, but still not quite there yet

2006-09-22T12:30:36Z

This entry is not that S60-specific, but still something that deserves an entry on this very day: Helsinki City Transport, the public transportation organizer in Helsinki, Finland, updates its SMS-based ticket purchasing service today. Here's an insight for you non-Finns out there how things are done over here.

A quick recap: in the service, you can send an SMS to a service number to instantly receive an SMS-ticket that is valid for one hour on Helsinki trams, subways and commuter trains. The service has been around for quite a while and the whole concept is absolutely brilliant: forget about standing in a queue or trying to find loose change for the ticket vending machine; simply send an SMS and be on your way.

But. Enter the usability problem.

]]> Until today, what you had to do is send the following exact message to the service number: "A 641". My first reaction was: "What? Why? Why not just the word 'ticket' or something?" The code was (is) very unintuitive and cryptic: very difficult to remember by the non-frequent user. What was it again? What does the code mean? Why a random string of numbers? Does it work without the space character? And - what was the service number again?

Granted, there are plenty of information posters and simplified instructions scattered around. But there never seems to be one where you need it. So - why not just the word "ticket" as the code? Or even several alternatives ("ticket", "lippu", biljett") to cater for all official and common local languages?

The logic behind the cryptic code, A 641, is as follows: "A" stands for a certain ticket type, "64" is an identifier specifying the country (Finland) and 1 means Helsinki. How logical and exact. Definately required an engineer. (By the way, I think there are no other ticket types you can purchase with the service - no current need for different codes.)

Now, the service update: as of today (in honor of the Car Free Day), instead of "A 641", you just need to enter "A 1". Shorter, easier - better, but not quite there yet. Still plenty of room for improvement. On the plus side - at least the old code still works together with the new one, and the five-digit service number did not change. (And even all variations 'A 1', 'A1' 'a 1' and 'a1' work now.)

Do you have a similar service in your home city? How does it work? And what could be the ideal solution?

Mobile camera as much more

2006-09-22T10:54:12Z

Users often comment that they would like to have a good quality mobile phone camera. Usually taking photos is the only consideration...but what about other ways of using the camera?

In some situations the camera could help a user to "take notes". A user could, for example, take a picture of a book cover that her friend recommended (to later look up further information) or capture the opening hours on a shop door. (These could possibly be stored separately from rest of the photos.)

If this does not seem terribly helpful, what about reading 2D barcodes using one's phone camera? There has been some earlier discussion about this in Tommi’s S60 Application Blog. I tried generating and reading Semapedia tags, which is basically phone-readable barcodes that take you to Wikipedia pages.* Quick and easy.

A mobile user perhaps does not need to browse Wikipedia daily, but the idea could be applied to various everyday situations, e.g. being in a movie theater or video rental store and trying to decide which movie to see. It would be handy to read a barcode on a movie list or on a DVD cover and then instantly receive a link to the movie trailer. For some time, several friends have been waiting and hoping for a phone-readable barcode solution to pay their bills.

Other suggestions?

* Semapedia.org is a "non-profit community-driven project to bring the knowledge from Wikipedia to relevant places in physical space".

Lost in contacts

2006-09-12T06:00:00Z

Hi S60 enthusiasts! I’m Joonas, a fresh addition to the blog contributors. I’ll kick off with one of my favourite applications: Contacts aka Phone Book aka Address Book. The application is vital for me. It’s my vault of contacts, addresses, phone numbers and birthdays. It has replaced my memory. However, it’s not a particularly easy memory to use.

]]> I have some 400-500 entries in my address book. I think that this is a reasonable number of entries, considering that the address book is my primary place to where I collect all of my contacts, addresses, favourite restaurants, service numbers etc.

I was browsing my address book one day, searching for one particular contact whose name and number I couldn’t quite remember at the time. While browsing, I found lots of other entries I had totally forgotten even to exist. Some of them I didn’t recall at all. I also found a couple of double entries - or that was what I first thought. When I examined the doubles more closely, I discovered that they were not doubles, but individuals who just had exactly the same name but different phone numbers, addresses, and so on. I was lost.

There is lots of detailed information you can add (while it is not as easy as it could be) to one entry: name, several different phone numbers, email addresses, street addresses, titles, company names, web addresses, even countries, birthdays, pictures and so on. Browsing these details is slow if you have to check lots of entries to find your target (left soft key to open the options menu, several clicks down to select details for more detailed information than first and last name).

Fortunately I remembered the missing name after some browsing and found the contact I was originally searching for. But what about when you don’t remember the names? You might remember his or her title, company or face? What then? That doesn’t help you much if you don’t remember where to search.

Someone might ask why I don’t use groups to sort my contacts. Good question. Groups might be a wonderful feature. However that feature lacks lots of actual functionalities to make it really wonderful. These are sorting and filtering. Dictionary.com defines the term group like this: a number of persons or things ranged or considered together as being related in some way. Assigning filters for groups would be one way to make those relations. It’s not the only way and there is still a need to set some of these relations manually (like it works now), but filtering and sorting should be there. However, browsing, filtering or sorting an address book is not easy. It is almost impossible if you don’t know the first or last name of your target. Correct me if I am wrong, but these two are the only options you can sort or search your contacts at the moment. Why can’t you use all the metadata you have entered for the entry to sort or organize your address book?

I think we might need a more sophisticated way to browse, sort and organize our contacts. Creating entries could also be easier, but that is a completely different story. Am I the only one who is lost in contacts?

A Real Convergence Product

2006-09-11T10:00:24Z

Couldn't help laughing when I saw this fantastic thing. This is a microwave oven with a FM radio. It is a convergence product, isn't it?

Maybe what people really want from the much-hyped convergence is everyday items that really cross the boundaries of conventional product development thinking. The owner of this oven was very delighted when he found the product. The designers of the product have understood what kind of usage patterns there are in many kitches. People listen to radio while cooking or eating. So, let's offer them a radio in a space-saving way!

Location rules

2006-09-07T12:41:46Z

New technology leads to new innovations and application concepts. When the technologies mature and become commonly available, users can reap the benefits and enjoy the new services and experiences.

One of the things I personally look forward to is the continuation of the location-based services boom. As the writings on the wall suggest, device manufacturers are taking steps toward increasing the focus of location services - perhaps the time of having integrated GPS/Galileo-capable devices from major manufacturers is sooner than we think!

New technology brings new concepts and killer applications. With something as revolutionary as location data, there are plenty of innovative applications out there, waiting to be discovered.

Example. Being an enthustiastic photographer, I just love the idea of combining digital photos with geotagging (basically, adding location metadata to the image - technically quite simple). So, a few years from now, when look on my collection of thousands (and thousands) of unorganized digital images, I can smile and enter queries such as: "Organize the images according to the city where the picture was taken" or even "show me all the pics I've taken in Europe, excluding that awful trip to Manchester in 2002". So simple, so effective.

What could the next mobile big hit be?

Wasted space?

2006-09-06T08:30:49Z

One user recently complained during testing: I wish I had more applications available on my Active standby application list (note: the user did not actually say this; he said “…on my primary screen”). Users generally do not like to “travel” too far to do anything on their mobiles. If, for example, they don’t have the Clock application on their shortcut list, they have to complete several steps to actually set an alarm.

One possible solution is to create a more “active” interface. Take again the clock example: What if the clock were an icon to which the user could move the cursor and select the clock? Then the user, without leaving the primary screen, could set her alarm, check her various World clocks etc. And, even better, the user can replace the Clock application on the Active standby application list with another application he uses regularly!

Information freeways and VIP lounges

2006-09-05T07:00:56Z

I witnessed a very interesting moment with my friend when he tried to synchronize his new phone, powered by Windows Mobile, with the email server. His works in a small company and it does not have huge IT support available - people have to do these things by themselves. The system was asking for certification and did not allow us to perform the installation. When we looked for more information about synchronization, we discovered that the system will not work with sites without certification. Fine with me…but maybe not for everyday consumers. Is this clear for consumers who are buying these devices (I don’t think so)? Is it possible that these kinds of definitions will exclude a lot of people from the mobile community?

Unfortunately, the whole theme – to have my device interact with the mail server – is too challenging for basic users, which is shame; with well working and easy-to-use features (should be close to plug and play ideology) platforms can create a real value to their users. This case, once again, raises big questions: how free is the information and is it possible for everyone to have internet on their mobiles? As I mentioned in my previous entry, there are big challenges that we’re facing on the road to a fully working mobile internet – just start with the issues like security and information overload. However, these challenges are not impossible to overcome. If we can make the technology work for us and not the other way around, I’m sure that we will witness a true revolution of mobility.

Which application wins the golden "shortcut"?

2006-09-01T11:43:26Z

As I started to write a different entry, I wanted to take a screen shot on my mobile device to support a point that I was trying to make. Instead of completing the task, my phone was locked by the same command that was supposed to take a screen shot. So, at least two applications on my phone are "initiated" by pressing the "pen" key and the * button.

So what does this mean for the end user? Installing several applications onto a user's phone may lead to major usability problems later. Does this mean that the user can only install one application at a time? Is the user forced to find out how to work 2 or more applications that require the same shortcut command? This experience needs to be an intuitive one: a user finds an application that appears useful to her, she installs it, she uses it. Because she has a good experience, she goes to find another application; she installs it, and she----doesn't use it, she cannot use it because she can only use that shortcut command to start one application. Is this right?

Who's reading your information?

2006-08-31T12:36:02Z

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!

Calendar & To-do: Separate but equal?

2006-08-29T07:39:06Z

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.

Could that pizza location be only an SMS away?

2006-08-23T08:25:49Z

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.

The opportunities and threats with untrusted applications

2006-08-22T09:19:21Z

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?

Am I missing something; or Deleting applications should be easy

2006-08-18T11:56:06Z

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.