This is going to be a new running feature at JeffKirvin.net, where I kick around ideas about mobile user interfaces. I’ve always been fascinated by UI. I guess a big chunk of it is my own tendency to tinker with things in a continual and ultimately futile attempt to make them the perfect synthesis of efficiency, usability and aesthetics. I saw the potential of OS/2 object-based Workplace Shell long before Windows moved away from Program Manager. I used Stardock’s Object Desktop to make Windows 98 look like XP, then make XP look like Vista. And I think one of the reasons I actually like Vista is that I appreciate all the little improvements in the user interface that make it so much more efficient and easier to use than XP.
But where I do most of my UI tinkering is in mobile devices. Mobiles are, by definition, even more personal than the “personal computer” and thus the interface between the person and the machine is even more important. The iPhone has proven that UI matters on mobile devices. It can’t do half what a Windows Mobile device can do, but is so intuitive and so slick looking that people don’t care. They can pick up an iPhone and use it. They pick up a Windows Mobile device, or even a Treo, and don’t know from square one half of what the device can really do for them. It’s not enough to have features. They have to be usable, discoverable, and consistent.
For months I’ve been trying to write an article about what I’ve done to maximize the usability of my Mogul, but every time I get halfway into it, I change something and have to start over. It only just recently dawned on me that I should make this a running series, explain the reasoning for my changes and let my readers follow along on my journey to find the perfect (for this week, anyway) user interface.
So watch this category for more installments. I’m still thinking about how to structure this, what to talk about first. But the important thing for now is to get the conversation started. What do you look for in a mobile user interface? What quirks of the device you’re currently using slow you down the most?
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