Efficient vs Effective
Wednesday April 30, 2008
First blog post! While we never intended this blog to give mobile phone reviews, after receiving my new Nokia E65 I’m compelled to write about its interface, and usability. As an Apple addict, of course nothing below an iPhone was going to cut it, but until they arrive down here I’ve got this to deal with.
We’re being confronted more and more by interfaces in society. Gadgets don’t fulfil a single purpose any more, they’ve got to be a jack of all trades. Your phone is a camera. Your music player is a video player. Your car is quickly becoming is a mobile command centre. Unfortunately more often than not they’re masters of none. I’ve seen people struggle with buttons on water coolers, when all they want is something to drink.
When we design websites we’re designing the navigation and the content, they have to work together, otherwise the user will have no idea how to find what they want.
So when my phone touts “One-touch efficiency”, I expect efficiency. However Nokia’s idea here is to throw so many options at me, I could press any of them and get something done. This is known as the “Windows Shortcut” approach.
Want to open an application in Windows?
- Put a shortcut on the desktop
- or make it a favourite in the start menu
- or open it from your recently used applications
- or from the programs menu
- how about from the task bar
- or just browse to the app itself and double-click.
Want to open an application on the Nokia e65?
- Put a shortcut in the Active Standby Area
- or assign it to the custom key
- or assign it to the right select key
- or assign it to the left select key
- or go through the menus and find it
- or make your own folder in the menus, and put a shortcut there
Can you see the frustration? If you have a simple task in mind, you’ll be lost in a myriad of options.
You would think the big button in the middle of the phone would do something important right? Wrong, it just selects the first application on your “Active Standby Application” area. You want the menu? It’s that tiny button below it (though the menu scares me so much I stay right out of it).
There’s keys there that I’ll never use, and keys I can program for shortcuts, but the software lets me allocate short cuts as well?
Clearly the people who made the hardware never met the people who made the software. Neither side shows confidence in the other, both show no confidence in the user to get along with either.
We’re not making mobile phones here, but we do have to place great importance in the design of an interface, how to use it, and how to find what you want. If we made 10 links to the same page, on every page, you’d quickly give up too.
So I’ll keep using this until that iPhone drops. How many buttons does it have? Oh yeah, one.
Filed under Opinion
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