22 July 2008
Nokia S60
Touch UI Screenshots
Show Hidden S60 Philosophy Switch?
In light of the recent S60 Touch UI screenshots seen all across the internet, I noticed some important cues about the new utilization of touch into the S60 environment, and I am particularly turned off.
If you look closely, the Menu/Task Switcher element is in the upper left corner. This might go unnoticed by Symbian S60 neophytes, but hard core users like myself will notice a complete shift in Symbian and Nokia's philosophy of one-handed operation.
How so, you might ask? I'll explain. The majority of the world is right handed, hence, devices are usually designed with a right handed person in mind.
If this were so, and the device is being held in landscape mode, the Menu/Task Switcher key is in the only location you could describe as farthest from the thumb, the most used digit to select any element on a touchscreen device without a stylus when held that way with one hand.
So I immediately expose this as designed for two hands! I understand that a touchscreen brings a new element where occasionally, two hands will be imperative, and probably welcome. But the core of S60 has been entirely controlled one-handed.
The benefits of a one-handed controlled UI are undeniable, even to Windows Mobile touchscreen users. Its one of my many bragging rights my Windows Mobile using friends envy, and a major selling point for the platform, and for Nokia. They realize the freedom of one-handed control improves productivity by allowing the other hand to accomplish other tasks.
WebIS, a company specializing in Windows Mobile software development, and creator of Pocket Informant, a popular app for Windows Mobile smartphones, thought to integrate and heavily market its application's one-handed control, obviously seeing it as a selling point.
In recent articles on PocketNow.com and MSMobiles.com, leading Windows smartphone sites, out recent dislikes about the latest beta of Opera Mobile 9.5 for Windows Mobile were expressed. They complained that, unlike the integrated OEM version embedded in the new HTC Touch, which has an integrated function to allow using the hardware controls to control the browser mostly with one hand, the beta forces users to use the touchscreen and stylus to control the browser. Laughably, and even more ironic, this was reportedly done to mimic the iPhone's browsing experience, inhereting its many headaches. Take notice prospective iPhone buyers!
I don't particularly like Windows Mobile's interface, but they have a long history of integrating touch, and when they speak of still wanting hardware buttons to program and keeping most usage possible with just one hand, it serves to take notice. History is here for us to learn from. This is especially true now than Nokia wishes to enter the touchscreen market big time. Windows Mobile's previous woes and successes can be a studying ground we can learn from for the future of touch integration.
I'm hopeful someone will report that those S60 Touch UI screenshots are examples of a landscape 270' orientation, because otherwise, I may just need to grow an extra hand.
*click to enlarge Right now, the entire world is accessed in my right hand. I should point out that, much like all my other articles and forum posts, this article was composed entirely on my N95 8gb and my right hand, all while having poured me a drink at 3am, sitting in my bathroom, one of my tiny apartment's few quiet private spaces, keying away.
It is my right that touches the entire world through my phone's many connections, while my left is free to walk my dog, pump the gas, wave to a friend, check the mail, flip the burgers, or hold back jealous iPhone users drooling over my luscious N95 8gb, etc. I've grown accustomed to it, as Nokia has spoiled me to be. Have they engineered a way to make my phone do all those things? If so, I'll get my wallet! If not, they had better continue figuring how to retain one-handed interface control. I'm truly counting on it.
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