Final Project Proposal: Mobile Usability- How NOKIA Changed the Face of the Mobile Phone

Belle (Ying-Tzu) Huang

Com 597: Theories and Practice of Interactivity

Autumn 2007

Oct. 24 2007

 

Final Project Proposal

Book Review

 

Mobile Usability

How NOKIA Changed the Face of the Mobile Phone

By Christian Lindholm, Turkka Keinonen, Harri Kiljander

 

I. Motivation

When I think about what is the best topic for researching an interface design with nice interaction between human beings and machines. I thought about my Nokia.

I had my first cell phone when I was seventeen years old. Since then, I’ve used four different cell phones which were produced from Nokia. On the other words, I am a huge fan of Nokia.

 

As Nokia’s slogan, “Connecting People,” I believe that mobile phones were invented because human beings have desires to connecting with people, any time, any where. 

 

The slogan Nokia uses in Taiwan is “Technology comes from humanity all the time,” which also shows that humanity is what interface designers focus on.

 

Like the cover of this book, there are only three buttons which control all the functions on entire Nokia 3310.  The “C” button represents “make a phone call.” Also, the combination of main blue button and up-and-down button can nearly complete all the commands on menu or cell phone setting. We don’t need tons of buttons any more. Simplicity radically changed people’s user behaviors.   

 

Written by present and former Nokia employees, this book mainly discusses about the process and working methods that have enabled Nokia to revolutionize the usability, which was fully explained first time. That’s why this book interests me.

 

 

II. Significance

 

Sociologists talk about how mobile phones change the tempo of our lives, culture, social structure, communication model, concepts to time and space, interpersonal relationship, identity, digital divide, and dependence on it. Even famous writer Stephen King wrote a horrific novel “Cell” to imagine the technological warfare and terrorism that cell phone might cause. 

 

Since mobile phones made foregoing changes, interface designers were eager to find a better way to make less education when people first time use their products.

 

Seeking for a better user interface (UI) design might be a solution to it. Interface design is all about understanding users’ life style. It's not about technology; it's about human life experience.

 

UI, user interface (or Human Machine Interface) is the aggregation of how users interact with a particular machine, digital device, computer program or system. User interface contains: (1) Input, which allows users to manipulate a system; (2) Output, which allows the system to produce the effects of the users' manipulation.

 

Foe advanced, a graphical user interface (GUI) might perform better understanding on mobile design. GUI is a type of user interface which allows people to interact with a computer and computer-controlled devices. The application implements graphical icons, visual indicators or special graphical elements called "widgets", along with text, labels or text navigation to represent the information and actions available to a user.

 

The goal of graphical user interface design is to enhance the usability of the underlying logical design of a stored program. The visible graphical interface features include graphical elements (widgets) that may be used to interact with the program. Common widgets we apply everyday could be: windows, buttons, menus, and scroll bars. Larger widgets, such as windows, usually provide a frame or container for the main presentation content such as a web page, email message or drawing. Smaller ones usually act as a user-input tool.

 

Giant Ant Co. addressed an article “The Context of Mobile Interaction” and a “Mobile Context Model” for mobile interaction design[1]. It describes how interface plays an important role in users’ daily life. With so many tasks and environment interferences,

Nokia, as the leading brand in mobile phone sales[2], should provide more completed interface design in the mobile market to engage users. I will also apply this model to exam if Nokia’s cell phones could achieve those tasks in daily life.

 

 

 

III. Topics in the Book

 

Mobile Usability: How Nokia Changed the Face of the Mobile Phone was written by the team that brought us the Nokia user interface that a lot of users have come to know and love. I will make a succinct summary in this section to point out several design concepts Nokia applies.

 

The first part of this book reveals the framework of Nokia user interfaces. User interface styles, according to Nokia's internal definition, are combinations of the user interaction conventions, audiovisual-tactile appearance, and interface hardware.

The second part authors discussed about how living styles and culture make the mobile interface design different. Katja Konkka, drew a panorama picture of people's living style in Mobai, India. Then authors used several case studies, prototypes, and work flows to map their design concepts.

 

The key to Nokia's UI development strategy was market segmentation to target user interfaces to specific demographics and types of users, and today we have the Nokia Series 40 for mass market consumers, the Series 60 smartphone for sophisticated consumers desiring PDA functionality, and Series 80 for enterprise users.

 

In the book, the authors describe the psychographics of groups they designed for. UI attributes for "Balancers" include intuitiveness, personalization and simplicity. Phones designed for "Controllers" have attributes of efficiency and productivity. "Experiencers" get phones that express individuality, appearance and fashionability, and "Impressers" need exclusivity, individuality and attention to details.

 

The common goal of usability professionals working on Nokia mobile phones is to develop devices from the end-user needs’ perspective, and not only based on technical possibilities. Their task is to ensure that the target user group of each model can operate the device fluently and with joy.

 

Nokia investigates all phases in the device lifecycle: taking the device into use, learning to use it, and daily use. The variety of different cultures and contexts of use make usability work especially interesting and challenging. Compared to PC application development or Web site authoring, mobile phone manufacturing requires a much wider range of usability investigation. Some examples in this book discuss about the principles of usability and Research & Development process that Nokia experts investigate.

 

Virpi Roto, senior usability specialist in Nokia Research Center, addressed the sample research topics in mobile device usability they use in Nokia[3]:

 

Input	Output	Software	Other
- Ergonomics of  keys & the whole device - Key discovery - Text input - Touch screen input - Speech input - Motion gestures	- Display quality - Audio quality - Haptic feedback	- User interface consistency - Information visualization - Usability within single applications - Application	- Mechanics (e.g. battery change) - Cover material - Graceful power saving - Accessories

 

 

IV. Extended Reading

 

Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell

 

Like the author said, “Designing a good interface isn't easy.” Users expect software that is well-behaved, good-looking, and easy to use. UI designers over the years have refined the art of interface design, evolving many best practices and reusable ideas.

 

This is a good book which addresses almost a hundred principles and patterns in designing interfaces, including the solutions to common design problems, tailored to the situation at hand. Each pattern contains practical advice that you can put to use immediately, plus a variety of examples illustrated in full color.

 

Each chapter describes key design concepts that are often misunderstood, such as affordances, visual hierarchy, navigational distance, and the use of color. I would like to capture some design ideas as background knowledge to check Nokia’s design and development process.

 

Mobile Interaction Design By Matt Jones, Gary Marsden

 

Mobile Interaction Design shifts the design perspective away from the technology and concentrates on usability; in other words the book concentrates on developing interfaces and devices with a great deal of sensitivity to human needs, desires and capabilities li>Presents key interaction design ideas and successes in an accessible, relevant wa Exercises, case studies and study questions make this book ideal for students Provides ideals and techniques which will enable designers to create the next generation of effective mobile applications Critiques current mobile interaction design (bloopers) to help designers avoid pitfalls Design challenges and worked examples are given to reinforce ideas Discusses the new applications and gadgets requiring knowledgeable and inspired thinking about usability and design Authors have extensive experience in mobile interaction design, research, industry and teaching

 

How complex can mobile interface design be: iPhone, Enemy or Partner?

 

When Apple Co. made their iPhone enter the market on June 2007, the battle on mobile interface design went to a peak. Facing to the threat, Nokia also developed their “GoPlay event” for fulfill the interaction and graphical 3D interface. The new version of cell phone interface will enter the market next year. From users’ aspect, we indeed hope that digital devices come from different could make the best performance and satisfy consumers’ needs. In this part, I will discuss about the advantages and disadvantages in iPhone interface.

 

How simple can mobile interface design be: One Laptop per Child[4]

 

The project was originated by Nicholas Negroponte to provide children around the world, especially nearly two–billion children in the developing world, with new opportunities to explore and express themselves. The desktop metaphor is so entrenched in personal computer users' collective consciousness that it is easy to forget what a bold and radical innovation the Graphical User Interface (GUI) was and how it helped free the computer from the “professionals” who were appalled at the idea of computing for everyone. Through a simple and clear interface design, scientists are hoping to reduce the digital divide in the developing world.

 

 

V. Reference Materials

 

Emotional Design, Donald A. Norman

Designing Interfaces, Jenifer Tidwell

Mobile Interaction Design, Matt Jones and Gary Marsden

 

TdAic Taiwan Digital Arts, http://www.digiarts.org.tw/en/indextw.aspx

Engadget Discussion Forumhttp://www.engadget.com/

Graphical User Interface Gallery http://www.guidebookgallery.org/

Information Architects Japan http://www.informationarchitects.jp/

Giant Ant Co. http://www.giantant.com/

One Laptop per Child http://www.laptop.org/en/index.shtml

MOSH http://mosh.nokia.com/