Archive for April 13th, 2006

Posted on April 13, 2006 - by jono

On mobile phone design…

Today I sat in a talk about Windows Mobile, and the way that Microsoft are making mobile devices more flexible and usable for a variety of different purposes. We were shown a bunch of demos of applications running on the devices, interface improvements and there was lots of discussion about where they are heading. Like every other session at this summit, the presenter was very keen to solicit feedback about their work and where they are going. So, I chipped in.

Personally, I think pretty much every mobile phone based device sucks when it comes to user interface. Over the years I have been wooed by the relative merits of Palms, Nokia phones, Handsprings, iPaqs, Zaurii (is that plural for Zaurus + 1?) etc. Now, PDAs are really marketed as mini computers that are built to run applications, but mobile phones are a different beast – they are by their very nature, consumer items, and carry with them the expectations of the consumer industry.

Part of the problem is that mobile phones are positioned around the concept of applications and not content. When you use Windows Mobile and you want to read email, you need to open Outlook. When you want to write some text down, you need to load Word. When you want to listen to a song, you need to load Windows Media Player. Why? When accessing this kind of content on a consumer device, why on earth should I need to access an application? The problem is that this concept is entirely inconsistent. If I want to phone someone, I don’t load Microsoft Dial, when I want to send a text message, I don’t load Microsoft Gr8txt – in these scenarios I just access the functionality directly. The problem is that Microsoft are applying the thick client application approach to mobile devices, and moving away from the concept that devices are just devices, and software is merely ’stuff that makes the devices work’.

These devices are fundamentally ‘objects that do something’. They are most typically objects that are designed to achieve a particular purpose, and although the functionality varies on these devices, the scope of their functionality is usually limited. If I worked for a mobile phone software company I would totally switch this viewpoint. I would make content and people the top level objects, and surround this content with applications that allow you to do interesting things with that content within the context of a mobile device. Content needs to be the focus. As an example, I would really optimise simplified data input, voice to text conversion and data reading. People just don’t create complex documents on mobile phones – they are a horrific pain in the arse to use for anything beyond a couple of lines. People do however read documents on mobile phones, and people do need to communicate in simple textual ways. With this in mind, I would dedicate the research dollars to better user input rather than making Microsoft Office work on a mobile phone.

The problem with Windows Mobile is that it has been subjected to the typical Microsoft approach to usability. The thing looks, feels and operates like Windows, and it feels like a cut down PDA without a keyboard. This is the wrong direction. Microsoft need to develop their software so that it doesn’t feel like software, and instead feels like an integrated device. There was a lot of discussion in the presentation about how they try to improve the user experience, and are working to maximise screen real estate and such. At one point in the presentation, the Technorati founder and I were joined in a two pronged attack on their flagrant waste of screen real estate. A good example of this was their email client. We were told how the client automatically cuts out all the headers from the email and focusses on the content (which is good), but they made a step in the wrong direction by making the To, Subject and Attachments lines each use two lines with lots of whitespace on the right side of the screen – these three areas took up half the screen. This left half the screen for writing the email, and provided about 20 words worth of space. This is an insane use of screen real estate. If I was using this device, once I have entered the To and Subject lines, why do I need to see them while entering the text? Simple interface swapping would solve this problem and make the interface much clearer and more flexible.

Windows Mobile (and mobile phone software in general) needs to become more integrated and discoverable. Computers by their very nature complex beasts, and you need to understand the lingo associated with them. Windows Mobile really does just look like a cut down Windows XP, and steps away from the device construct. Compare this your microwave, your video recorder, you burglar alarm and even your iPod. The iPod is a great example of the software driving the device – you just never ever think of the iPod software as an Operating System with as bunch of applications. You just do what you want to do and it happens.