[IxDA Discuss] Too deep navigation on mobile phones

[Nancy Broden]

John -

Ease of navigation on mobile devices is increasingly made difficult by  
"feature creep". I believe that in order to find solutions to the  
problem what is needed is more radical thinking. Trying to extend the  
current paradigm is not really going to work. Even the iPhone, from  
which I am sending this email, does not provide the best model (it is  
a good extension of the Apple OS to a mobile device but hardly  
suitable for everyone).

What does offer promise are newer technologies such as uiOne and  
Flashlite that allow UI designers the opportunity to explore new  
paradigms and manufacturers and carriers the freedom to update the  
customer's experience on the fly (at least, that's the hope).

- Nancy

nancy.Broden at gmail.com

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 25, 2007, at 9:50 AM, John Grøtting <g at g-s.de> wrote:

> I find the developments in the whole mobile space quite exciting, but
> I can't get past one issue and I was hoping that some of our mobile
> experts and other usability experts could add some depth to one
> particular issue.
>
> I have noticed that mobile phones have always had a series of
> applications that one uses regularly and as we become accustomed to
> our phones we learn the paths to our favorite tools. The mobile phone
> seems to becoming more and more multipurpose. For years I had assumed
> that as we developed more devices that these small widgets would
> become more and more singular in focus and perhaps even multiply.
> But, I can see the benefits of having small, portable devices with
> multiple functions.
>
> However, as the applications become more and more robust, I am
> finding that the limited customization and increasingly deeper and
> deeper navigation goes against the principals that make desktop
> operating systems more and more task efficient. For example, the
> German railway (Deutsche Bahn) has a nice application which I have
> downloaded to my mobile phone, where I can download and check
> schedules for any routes that they serve. It is a very practical tool
> for anyone who travels a lot. However, when I want to pull up the
> schedule for a train traveling from Frankfurt to Hamburg I first have
> to unlock the phone and then go through 8 clicks in order to find
> which track the train I want is departing from. Once I am done, I
> then have to go through another 8 clicks to leave this application.
>
> I don't see the functions of a desktop operating system where one can
> have short cuts to data or applications placed wherever I want. I
> also don't see an emergence of standards for building application
> interfaces (this one is Java).
>
> I haven't had the chance to test out a smart phone (or the iPhone)
> yet, but from what I understand these more robust interfaces also
> don't provide the kind of flexibility and standards that would help
> us be more efficient.
>
> So, my question is whether this is more of a limit of the physical
> interface or the software interface? In this small display display
> space and limited input capabilities, we are definitely restricted in
> our interaction capabilities. The mouse + keyboard interaction just
> doesn't exist for these small devices.
>
> cheers,
>
> John Grøtting
>
> Grøtting + Sauter
> Barnerstr. 14B
> 22765 Hamburg
> Germany
>
> Tel +49.40.398.34342
> Fax +49.40.398.34340
> Mobile +49.172.4246.976
> www.g-s.de
> g at g-s.de
>
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