Sample page from Designing Mobile Interfaces

We're all the way to QC1, which means Quality Check, as I get it. I think there's a QC2 in a couple more weeks. It's tedious work, but also thrilling to see it not in Word, or on the web, but actually in a book format. Enjoy: And don't forget to pre-order before it comes out in November. Now 560 pages, but Amazon shows much less than that. I suspect you will not be able to get it for $30 when it comes out.

Fresh mobile design elements, just in time for Spring!

I almost can't believe it's been almost six months since my last update. I use this file almost every day. Which maybe is why I haven't gotten around to updating. I've been working a lot, working more (freelance in my "spare" time), writing a book for O'Reilly, and editing an entirely other book. When that comes out, I'll also be sharing the file I've used to make all those illustrations. But for now, I've got a few updates all throughout the old, well-used Mobile Design Elements document itself. As always, you can grab these from the same wiki where I'm writing the book, on the Drawing Tools & Templates page, where I also put up every other template, stencil and UI guideline document or link I can find. Remember, it's a wiki, so add your own if you find one. So, like I said, there are little changes all over. Mostly in the small components. But a few highlights: I've added an iPhone 4. Keeping to the resolution scaling didn't work for the doc size, so I had to make it different. Keep in mind. Just noticed I didn't get an annunicator row into the 4... Oh well. Sure, there are lots of places that have iOS device stencils, but if you like mine, now you have one. Compared to the smartphone fanbois, not everyone has this one. A featurephone. Specifically, a convertible one with 10-key one way, and a slide out keyboard. This is in outline mode only right now, but I will probably shade it someday, and will post that as well of course. Speaking of annunciators, I am trying to not just add items, but to organize them. So, all the system status items I could think of (actually, which resulted from research for the relevant section of the book) are now ordered like a typical annunciator row, and options have been added as I encounter them. Be sure to wander around and check out the rest. Pen input bits and pieces. More unscaled handsets for illustration. Lots of little icons and other pieces. A wholly new and fairly complete keyboard section, so you don't have to draw your own for quick comps. And more. Enjoy! Now, off to more writing and drawing.

21% of the Phones I See Are iPhones

For some time now I've been hearing "everyone I see has an iPhone" from all sorts of folks in the mobile industry. I presume it's some sort of self select error from fanbois. And sadly, it seems almost everyone in the mobile industry is an overbearing fan of the iPhone. To the point that they are constantly surprised by baseline features of pretty much any other phone when I pull one out of my box of phones. And they spend all their time with one iPhone people, marry other iPhone people, and seem to think it's a really simple world. A month ago, an example of those comments that annoyed me was:

"If you watch the phones people display in public, you really see only two in large numbers: iPhone and BlackBerry."

I am sure that can be parsed to be technically true, but I hear a lot of comments along these lines. And with a popular developer mentality of making products for yourself, then your friends, and users who matter will come as they may, I am saddened by this. I have even heard non-technical (not mobile designers or developers, I mean) folks being given crap by their non-technical friends (same definition) for having an "old scool" phone, when it does perfectly good internet, email, etc. It's just not the latest favorite smartphone.
So, I was looking around one day exactly a month ago, and realized I am looking at all sorts of phones in people's hands. So, it's that simple. I started recording them. Every handset I even sorta could identify, I recorded. The methodology I used was:

• It has to be already visible. No asking everyone in the room to pull out their phones. This gives the observed weighting that everyone seems interested in. There's some "that's what they use" thing that implies everyone else's phones are unimportant. I have actually had conversations where people dismissed sales numbers.
• I discounted my family, and all work friends. And their immediate families.
• If it's clearly a phone, it gets recorded. This makes for some vague labels on some of them. I can recognize a half dozen handsets at 100 paces. Others are "flip phone" at all but contact range. So, you'll see some oddly vague data. But this is to avoid my own bias on recognizing phones I have or use or read about all the time.
• I started to record cameras, music players, etc. It got out of hand. Just let it be known that convergence is not as far as I would have thought. A LOT of people carry other devices, and almost everyone who wants to take photos brings dedicated cameras to events they know are gonna happen. Very, very little cameraphone use at school concerts. A few Kindles observed also, but no other readers, no iPads.
• No demographics. Partly, to make it easy. I was typing these into my phone while doing other things. Partly because I don't have the capability to bother everyone to fill out a survey. I would worry about my own bias therefore, so didn't gather any.
• Yes, it's local. Kansas City and nearby areas. If you think we're all rubes, blow me. Go ahead and design for your friends in the bay area, and stop reading now.
• This is only 72 total devices. Take that as you will.

Some other observations I made, but which were not as well recorded: Every type of phone was seen being approximately equally used for everything. SMS, email, games, video playback, internet searches. On iPhone, Android, Blackberry and every stupid little message phone. More study of this would be nice, but it's even harder to tell what people are doing. This is based on when I could tell. Oh, and fairly few people talking. Less than 10% of the observed phones were seen because someone was talking on them. I didn't record it, but more like under 5%. Very few. Mobiles are typing and looking devices now. All the data I used is available for you to mock and laugh at. Or, I guess, add to. If anyone likes this, go ahead and continue the experiment. Vector versions of the charts above can be downloaded as well. I think most of this is clear, but one definition is sort of mine alone. The Message Phone the stupendously common QWERTY device, usually with a slide-out keyboard, and some controls (usually a full 10-key pad) when closed. Sure, other devices and even many smartphones share these features, but for here, I am calling it only featurephones. Note that these are not counting as touch, since it's impossible to tell that at a glance, but some huge percentage of them are indeed touch devices as well. They often are pretty neat, with nice keyboards, good haptic feedback, perfectly good screens, multi-day battery life, etc. Note that iPhone and Android are neck and neck. And message phones slightly outsell those. Hmm... Oh, and check out that last one. Other devices outsells all others. Sure, it's a mishmash, but don't say any one thing is dominant when it's easy to make charts like this. Anyway, as far as validity, I always say that crappy, cheaply-done research that broadly backs serious, heavy research is trustworthy. Nothing here is totally surprising and much hews exactly to known sales or use ratios, so I do tend to believe it. So, what's this all mean? Simple. There are a LOT of devices out there, and people use them. Look at the data and see what is really going on. More importantly, look at real data and make sure you look at your own users, and your analytics the right way. But what if 96% of your traffic is coming from iPhone? Well, I'd be suspicious of the analytics first of all. Seriously, I've seen this way more than once. If you sell anything but iPhone apps and get that sort of traffic, then first be suspicious and make sure you are getting the right information.

Am I the only one disappointed with My Location?

Oops: I had somehow gotten the impression this was an iPhone-only service (I blame the iPhone hoopla, its not /my/ fault!). Since it works across platforms and networks, that is more interesting; I guess Google didn't want to mess with getting the rights from each carrier to be a certified-for-LBS appliation. Which means I go back to being mad at every carrier for restricting this information. Oh, and My Location doesn't work (yes, I have the latest version) on my S60 phone. So, that makes me sad. Actually, to be more clear, I am bored with Google's "new" My Location product. I am disappointed with the numerous, generally fawning reactions to it. Its not that I have anything against having location in the iPhone. In fact, it tops my list of things that disappoint me about it. Instead, its because location is not just GPS. GPS phones can generally step down from telemetry sending to triangulation, then sector, then cell, to give some location sense to the application. This has been available for at least five years (I worked on UI for it at least that long ago). So, to me, non-GPS location is table stakes. This technology should have been included with iPhone from day one. Being not familiar with the AT&T network, maybe they never installed the triangulation software, but that just means the whole network is behind the curve. It may be marginally interesting how Google implemented this (is it really just for them, or did AT&T really just install it on the network and every service can, theoretically, get to it?) but I suspect not. For example, I am hearing reports of it not working sometimes. The network always knows which tower you are on, so if its not falling back, maybe I am in fact disappointed in Google. Or maybe AT&T; google is making users map the towers? I don't get it. (For the record, I was already disappointed with Nokia and/or AT&T for not including similar LBS with the GPS-less N75. No one gets a free ride from me).

N75

I have had my N75 for a few weeks now, and thought it was worth mentioning.

My very first mobile phone was from Sprint. I had used AMPS devices; bagphones abounded, and I even have a friend's long-abandoned Moto Dynasty in the museum above my desk. They were horrible. And being the nerd I was, I decided I liked CDMA, so waited for Sprint. I lived in Westport, and the Sprint store was walking distance, so I got one the week before they actually advertised availability: "so, you guys are open now?" "no, not really, but come in anyway." Hence, the 0455 number. Including all test devices and employee phones, I am #455 in the MSA.

Anyway, I have long known I was totally out of the loop on other interfaces. I only recently became aware that even companies like Motorola bend to Sprint's will a little, so even that interface is changing (3rd softkey on a RAZR?) when on Sprint. To get the experience, I need to change. Sprint made it easy, by insisting on signing me up for a THREE year contract when I get converted off the employee plan. So, I rushed out and got something. I settled on the N75 because its S60 (Symbian) but is still basically a phone.

But seriously, the possibility of a true featurephone seems really compelling. I sorta hate PDA-phones (my inherent dislike comes out in my iPhone commentary. My phone has to:

• Have a good radio. Strong, clear, interference-free. An antenna reasonably free from coupling and reasonably polarity-independent.


• Have reasonable battery life. Preferably all weekend. Willing to disable features to get this when I need it, but it needs to be possible.


• Make phone calls at the drop of a hat.


• Work with gloves, etc. No bare-finger interfaces. Haven't seen a touchscreen I'd want to use to exclusion, but it might happen.

Everything else is a bonus, as long as it doesn't intrude on these basics.

Overall, I think the N75 is about 75% of the way there. Really compelling product, which I am therefore starting to use for all sorts of non-phone enterprises. I read gmail on it all the time. I respond a couple times a week. I am starting to take photos with it, semi-seriously. I use the Opera browser a lot, for info I would previously have had to wait to find when I get home. Actually, I even pull it out and browse when I could go into the next room and get one of the several laptops we always have about.

The customization of apps is unbeatable. The ATTifying of the Nokia browser is lame as hell. Its really only used as a stepstone to download stuff now. The gmail app and some other things are unbeatable. Replacing the calculator is just nuts though. Never thought of a phone like that. Really, its a computer. Even has the ability to switch apps without abandoning. Which is really cool when you get it into your head. Data storage is pretty normal as well. Compare this to getting a KRZR to read ringtones off the SDcard.

If you think I am indeed addicted to my portable computer, note that the N800 sits on its kickstand on a shelf by the TV most of the time, instead.

That said, the N75 does have some downsides:

• Battery is not as good as it should be. Not great, but it should be better.


• Memory is too small. I run out. But a lot of this is AT&T's fault for leaving the music store running all the time.


• Yup, its got the AT&T overlay. Screams and animates at startup and shutdown, insists on saying their name on the greeting, has the stupid music app always open, and some other stuff. I may unlock and run the Nokia updater, which purportedly makes it a straight Nokia phone.


• No GPS. I go back and forth on this. Sure, I want it, but you could say its a pricey feature. If it wasn't in all sorts of $0 consumer phones purely for e911 purposes. Today, I find it inexcusable that this does not have a GPS. I use maps almost never as a result, and it makes me sad.


• Widgets are not widgets. They are just apps. The idle screen is too idle. I want the main menu on the idle screen, and I want portlet-like smart widgets. Apps can stay running, so why can't I get a count of new gmails on the idle screen?

More will be said about this, I am sure, in the context of additional thoughts on mobiles in the coming years.

P.S. Alison has the KRZR, so I still know how that works. The PM325 basically died, though. Anyone need one for spares?

A few days with an iPhone

Yes, I don't own this, so I might have a different opinion after a month. I have used the device a dozen times, so was pretty familiar with it, and just spent the whole weekend using it. I used it as much as I could for all my weekend tasks, legitimately taking notes, mapping stuff to get to it, timing things, browsing when I would otherwise have to haul out a laptop, etc.

Except that no one had the number so I received no calls on it, I feel I worked it out pretty well. The iPhone is one of those products that has a visceral, emotional response. Its so pretty that using it tends to make you happy. There are quite enough glowing reviews from fanboys of all stripes, that I won't proceed further. Oh, its better shaped than I thought. Maybe mostly the thin-ness, but it was a snap to carry, even with a wallet, knife, flashlight, KRZR and so on already in my pockets. Miles better than the Treo 650 I previously borrowed from work for a few weeks.

 Its got at least its share of flaws. Now, I'm gonna disregard all those I've already read, and focus on things I alone think are lame, or which I was surprised to find to be true all these weeks later. You are, as always, free to disagree.

• No LBS - I went out and googled this one; with maps on the home deck I was sure I had just missed some setting, but indeed, there is absolutely no location service at all. Even sector would have been enough to make me happy. This changed my opinion of the whole thing as a network device. It felt like a big iPod after this.
• Browser crashing - Safari likes to crash, sometimes 5 times in an hour. And when it crashes, it takes you back to the home deck. Maybe, it saves your window list, maybe not, but in all cases they are all empty. So I've waited forever to load up info into 5 tabs, and they are all blank. Even if the device is gonna crash, better state preservation would be nice. Also, note there are no error messages. It took a while to make sure it wasn't me hitting something wrong.
• Safari zoom in weird - Its a pure zoom. By the time I have zoomed enough to comfortably read most text that needs a zoom, line lengths are too long to fit on screen. Either I pan constantly (difficult to track) or have to carefully scale and peer at the slightly-too-small text.
• Many not finger-based selectors - My favorite of this is the "odometer-style" rolling number selector for changing time on the alarms. Changing the number involves putting your finger on the number directly. This might work fine for a pen or mouse, but I can't see anything past my finger. Many other functions are like this.
• Many dumbed-down, phone-like interfaces - Again, lets talk about alarms. You get an alarm. And you can dismiss it. That's it. Large, empty screen without extra functions, or even a way into extras. 5 clicks and some dragging can get you into the appointment itself, and set a different alarm time, but why can't I snooze, or reset the reminder time directly? The wife's cheap LG phone has more, perfectly easy to use, features than this for its alarm modes. I expect more than a button or two from a device like this.
• Inconsistent interface - A few interface elements are beautifully designed. The pulldown or combo-box (or whatever you want to call it) in Safari is clearly designed to be worked on a tiny screen and is a snap to use. Many other places have the same basic selector need, and use something else, or, essentially nothing and rely on desktop metaphors. Sometimes, within the same process. Some elements (e.g. settings) have a clickable breadcrumb, others do not, and none give you a way back to the home deck. I know there's a big home-deck button, but I feel (and felt when clicking the device) this broke the breadcrumb paradigm for no great reason.
• Network connection unreliable - I don't mean the "EDGE sucks" part, which is true, but that all my network sockets kept... expiring. Even at home, with full EDGE and full WiFi, it would loose connection. The only way around this seemed to be to cycle the WiFi. Whether using WiFi or not, this action caused the network to wake up and I could continue. I can live with slowness if I have to, just not no connection at all.
• Very poor map searchbase - And, most of all, senselessly so. After a while I started actually doing searches on both the iPhone and the desktop, thru googlemaps directly. Simple searches, like houses in Lenexa could not be found on the iPhone, at all, when using precisely the same search string.
• General lack of affordance - Many items, like the zoom by doubleclick or zoom by multi-touch, are reasonably learnable, but there is no way to discover them except by reading the manual (or deciphering a commercial, or googling "how to..."). I was disappointed in the lack of backup modes and how stripped-down GUI won the day every time.

My Life Changing Device

I've been hearing people talking about the iPhone in excessively glowing terms for quite long enough now. I've even heard people in the cube next to me talk about how its world-changing, or life-changing. Remains to be seen, but I doubt it. For starters, yes I have played with one. Its a good PDA (needs software and a non-terrible network). By a long shot the best mobile browser ever. And its got some other neat interface stuff, seems well designed and built as all Apple products are now and the input is as good as can be expected (I wear gloves in the winter... not a lover of finger-only inputs). Anyway, its simply not gonna be anything like a life-changing device for me at least. Why is simple, I never had PDA, smartphone, even iPod. I used a spiral-bound datebook for 2 years in high school, but never really got into it. What I love is the laptop form factor. For the past few years of rejecting smartphones I have justified it as my need (or love) of graphics, cause that's what I do for a living. But maybe there's something else. I've always preferred this form factor. By my second year of college, I was using this pseudo laptop like thing for notes, schedules, etc. That died, and there was a gap, but for the last ten years or so I have carried a laptop with me practically everywhere. I can remotely look up pretty much any file, record my grandfather's WW2 reminisces, download listen to my entire music library, watch movies, output photos to TV, plug in an aircard and do internety things while on road trips, blog, or really whatever. Carrying around a computer all the time exposes them to damage, though. I coddle, but sometimes I break things when I fall or they get run over by a car. So the life changing device to me? A ruggedized laptop. Why? Its a real appliance. Like everything else (non-electronic) I carry around, or used to, its only marginally concerned with abuse. It gets scratched when I drag it across the street, but it still works fine. I don't even have a case. It's just got a sling for when I need to carry it more than across the room. Oh, and its a touchscreen. Yes, I've tried tablets. Too fragile, and just weird. Too much effort to be tablets if you know what I mean. Someday a ruggedized laptop might come out that's just perfect, though. This isn't the final state, I hate windows so its not my primary, and its too heavy, and its only got a 6x8 screen. What I hope for is not just that I can keep buying old, used ruggedized laptops, but that every electronic device (or at least most) are built to last. And in this, the iPhone may be a harbinger of something good. Apple's been slow on making their laptops really solid (though they are trending correctly lately) but the iPod series is almost the definition of rugged. People carry those around a lot, and they stand up to a lot more abuse than most phones or other devices I know. The wife's iPod (I don't have one, but I am exposed to them) is a 2G model, and runs like the day it came out of the box. I hope this degree of longevitity and ruggedness is where electronics are trending.