i'm mixed. yes you should design a user experience after observing people, but at the same time apple has repeatedly shown us that they can do better in house without asking for help from the common consumer. i'm neutral on this, it doesn't really say anything new.
I think you need to take the general idea of what the user wants to do (the User Story) from the users themselves. How you enable them to do those things are up to you. Too much of the user's experience is based upon preconceptions of what's been before... You can't use that to influence radical UI changes. You can use it to some extent when seeking ways to improve an experience in subtle ways rather than radical though.
At least that's my opinion, haven't read the doc yet
That they originally chose Symbian OS (possibly one of the most obfuscated user experiences out there) makes me think the goal of giving a better user experience is a new initiative at Nokia?
Doh, you are of course correct. The Symbian kernel is actually very well architected IMHO - but I still stand by my point that for the average normob, both S60 and UIQ are not very intuitive.
Intuitive means something different based on the user and their background experiences; this paper seems to say that Nokia designs for UX after looking at those factors.
Now, if Nokia is looking to redo how they expect users who are very familiar with their devices, then they do need to ask and weigh heavily if past UI is really good enough to continue with. IMO, its not. Devices should be designed from the premise of finding the basic problems, and then building the experience around the solution. Where the UI in S60 was once good enough, there is now a lot that is being stuffed into devices addressing problems but the UI doesn't evolve with the experience. Figuring out how to evolve the UI is very hard (for them) as they are trying to keep the brand of what is familiar.
It might be impossible in the end to do this though; making the need for an entirely new UI to address UX in various contexts all the more pertinent to solve now.
My question is, you consider S60/UIQ to be unintuitive as compared to what? In my opinion, compared to other smartphone OS like Windows Mobile, Palm, and Blackberry, S60 is pretty intuitive. However, compared to something like the iPhone, it's not. It's all relative.
As was pointed out, it's also relative to the user. Obviously, the out of the box menu configuration for S60 handsets is intuitive in the opinion of the team working on it. However, we all know what a complete mess the menus are, and most of us have our own intuitive way to re-organize them.
To me the s60 platform is intuitive, especially for the amount of things it does. It's even able to seemably expand in features when you become more experienced (eg Multitasking) with little extra effort.
The iPhone is a marvel of modern UI, but Nokia has coped extremely well for such a well established UX with 'excess baggage'/bad habits from 'the old days'
All it would take though, is for Nokia to give the right person with radical ideas a chance and they could have the next generation unbeatable UI... Can they afford to take that chance? Can they afford not to?
@constantine - I agree. It's just missing the standby screen is all. However, the icon/folder is what makes S60 daunting, I think. There's too much JUNK in there, that needs to be relegated to the 'Crap' folder (as it is on my S60 handsets)
The S60 UI is efficient for a phone-first device; for a data-first one, the Palm/iPhone model works better; and the WM Today screen has more extendability towards notification and performing immediate functions.
Just a note: intuitive is always relative. It is never something that can be gained by understanding metrics; it can only be addressed with solving the problems inherent to use and user expectation...user experience is not as relative a metric. UX has to be understood within metrics, but cannot use those metrics to be the basis for addressing expectations only. Nokia (and every other company) has to design intuitive interfaces around the user experience of what is expected by the user, expected by the developer, and wanted by the company. Those three never align equally unless you are God designing the human body, and even then people find issues with that intuitive interface.
14 comments so far
Just downloading this now. Any thoughts from your end?
1 year, 1 month ago by arjw
i'm mixed. yes you should design a user experience after observing people, but at the same time apple has repeatedly shown us that they can do better in house without asking for help from the common consumer. i'm neutral on this, it doesn't really say anything new.
1 year, 1 month ago by constantine
I think you need to take the general idea of what the user wants to do (the User Story) from the users themselves. How you enable them to do those things are up to you. Too much of the user's experience is based upon preconceptions of what's been before... You can't use that to influence radical UI changes. You can use it to some extent when seeking ways to improve an experience in subtle ways rather than radical though.
At least that's my opinion, haven't read the doc yet
1 year, 1 month ago by dsample
well yea, goals as to what you want to do are easy to propose, getting to that goal is a hell of a problem
1 year, 1 month ago by constantine
That they originally chose Symbian OS (possibly one of the most obfuscated user experiences out there) makes me think the goal of giving a better user experience is a new initiative at Nokia?
1 year, 1 month ago by aksyn
symbian is not an OS, symbian is just a kernel. S60 is the UI and platform developers interact with.
1 year, 1 month ago by constantine
Doh, you are of course correct. The Symbian kernel is actually very well architected IMHO - but I still stand by my point that for the average normob, both S60 and UIQ are not very intuitive.
1 year, 1 month ago by aksyn
Intuitive means something different based on the user and their background experiences; this paper seems to say that Nokia designs for UX after looking at those factors.
Now, if Nokia is looking to redo how they expect users who are very familiar with their devices, then they do need to ask and weigh heavily if past UI is really good enough to continue with. IMO, its not. Devices should be designed from the premise of finding the basic problems, and then building the experience around the solution. Where the UI in S60 was once good enough, there is now a lot that is being stuffed into devices addressing problems but the UI doesn't evolve with the experience. Figuring out how to evolve the UI is very hard (for them) as they are trying to keep the brand of what is familiar.
It might be impossible in the end to do this though; making the need for an entirely new UI to address UX in various contexts all the more pertinent to solve now.
1 year, 1 month ago by arjw
My question is, you consider S60/UIQ to be unintuitive as compared to what? In my opinion, compared to other smartphone OS like Windows Mobile, Palm, and Blackberry, S60 is pretty intuitive. However, compared to something like the iPhone, it's not. It's all relative.
As was pointed out, it's also relative to the user. Obviously, the out of the box menu configuration for S60 handsets is intuitive in the opinion of the team working on it. However, we all know what a complete mess the menus are, and most of us have our own intuitive way to re-organize them.
1 year, 1 month ago by rcadden
To me the s60 platform is intuitive, especially for the amount of things it does. It's even able to seemably expand in features when you become more experienced (eg Multitasking) with little extra effort.
The iPhone is a marvel of modern UI, but Nokia has coped extremely well for such a well established UX with 'excess baggage'/bad habits from 'the old days'
All it would take though, is for Nokia to give the right person with radical ideas a chance and they could have the next generation unbeatable UI... Can they afford to take that chance? Can they afford not to?
1 year, 1 month ago by dsample
the iPhone UI is pretty, but it is not a marvel. it is the same icon grid paradigm we've had for years. brewing a rant ... dinner first.
1 year, 1 month ago by constantine
Of course i'm eagerly waiting for the s60 touch device eagerly
1 year, 1 month ago by dsample
@constantine - I agree. It's just missing the standby screen is all. However, the icon/folder is what makes S60 daunting, I think. There's too much JUNK in there, that needs to be relegated to the 'Crap' folder (as it is on my S60 handsets)
1 year, 1 month ago by rcadden
The S60 UI is efficient for a phone-first device; for a data-first one, the Palm/iPhone model works better; and the WM Today screen has more extendability towards notification and performing immediate functions.
Just a note: intuitive is always relative. It is never something that can be gained by understanding metrics; it can only be addressed with solving the problems inherent to use and user expectation...user experience is not as relative a metric. UX has to be understood within metrics, but cannot use those metrics to be the basis for addressing expectations only. Nokia (and every other company) has to design intuitive interfaces around the user experience of what is expected by the user, expected by the developer, and wanted by the company. Those three never align equally unless you are God designing the human body, and even then people find issues with that intuitive interface.
1 year, 1 month ago by arjw