25 October 2008

Nokia's S60 5th Edition
Evolution Of The User Interface

User interface (UI) is one of those jargony-sounding terms that are often used to make one feel smarter or better informed than really is. It is a term that you've probably heard before but you may have never heard clear and precise definition, although it has a very simple meaning!

User interface is the way in which the product is designed to interact with the user in terms of the graphical, textual, and auditory information the program presents to the. In simple words it is set of all the things that allow you and your phone to communicate with each other.

Introduction and launch of the new S60 Touch UI gives the application developers an exciting challenge to bring the mobile user experience to the next level.

It is great to see that Nokia S60 dev team have managed to greatly improve UI, add touch funtionality but keep the original spirit of the S60 platform and full backward compatiblity! Although most of the applications will work just fine on touchscreen devices, developers need to redesign user interface to get the most from touch controls and further improve customer's touch experience for their applications!

Instead of waiting, Idean's developers jumpstarted the work in cooperation with Joiku - one of the hottest developer companies out there - by giving their killer JoikuSpot application concept a brand new cool look and greatly improving it’s usability.

So, here it is, the first glimpse of how the typical 3rd party application optimized for the 5th Ed might look like and I have to admit that I am impressed. This glimpse into the future is a preview of what is to come, a great user experience that combines natural touch interaction with fresh, usable and effective user interfaces and I just hope that more developers will follow the Joikus example!!

*click to enlarge

Presented UI is just a concept and not a final version, JoikuSpot Touch Edition is still in design phase, and these screens are made just to help you to visualize what the end product might look like!

"Idean was able to "bring JoikuSpot to life" with WOW-elements never seen in software UI on S60 devices"- Tom Ojala, Chairman, Joiku

We started a project with Joiku with the task to "create a UI which is on par with Apple". And that is exactly what we did. We did not simply brush up the graphics, but also created a component-based approach to help developers write their code efficiently. This part of the project is not yet public, but is another great example of Idean’s capacity to deliver a full service.

"Idean’s UI design does a great favour for Nokia’s Touch UI, bringing the best elements and capabilities of the Touch UI concretely to life"- Tom Ojala, Chairman, Joiku. "Idean’s UI design for JoikuSpot made it possible to simplify the user experience and usage flow of JoikuSpot with more than 50%" - Tom Ojala, Chairman, Joiku

To learn more UI optimization visit Idean's web site, they can make this happen for your S60 application as well!!

Disclaimer: The presented UI concepts here are mock-ups for the final target design of JoikuSpot Touch Edition. Joikusoft does not guarantee that the final Touch Edition will look exactly like this or perform the JoikuSpot functions exactly as illustrated in the preview.