I first came across 5800 which was the first Symbian S60 slate phone and I hated it. The contents is rather small and resisitive screen is responding slowly. At least the system is stable. That can’t be said about the new S^3 version, which certainly did bring some improvements to ease touch input and generally speed the phone up, but that’s only the first glance.

The problem with Nokia is their marketing, which is almost always the top of everything. In videos the system looks appealing, but one just can’t judge interface by pictures, that’s impossible.

Incoherent experience and 1990-ishness

Any UI should feel like a strong, convincing product made for our lazy skulls. While reading mail, browsing the news or chatting with friends, we don’t really like to think about anything but the contents. This UI definitely requires lots of thinking.

In symbian every part have different structure of use. Desktop is made of few screens with widgets, main menu is a candy-screen gallery of iconography by various authors, submenus are lists of commands and tertially menus contain mix of each always shaked into completely different cocktail. In the result user is constantly trying to figure out where the hell did he just happened to land and why. Nokia, on contrary to windows or apple, has stuck somewhere in the command line age with this. But at least they’re keepin us on toes, right?

Incredible beauty following incredible uglyness.

These Finnish people. They always had amazing eye for beauty. Any Nokia ad almost equals diamonds, half their phones are diamonds, and half their graphics as well. In symbian you get both. Convincing Ovi applications, nice details and as a bonus super-ugly soft keyboard and music player someone forgot to suit up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so pretty and disgusting at the same time. I wonder is there more than one design teams in Nokia? Or is the graphic design so undone because of hurry, or laziness? Actually that makes sense. I think the system suffers from human nature – the well designed parts make someone very proud but create a huge obstacle as well. It also happens to me. Sometimes I reach the top of the design before finishing the job and have far less motivation elsewhere…knowing I can’t overcome the look of the well designed shop listings I don’t put much effort in *some* keyboard.

In these pictures there is a photo gallery above song listing . I chose these parts to demonstrate two things:

How unappealing the submenus are. And what smart little experience details one can stumble upon. Yes, I am talking about the popup labelling either timestamp or letter in the list. Good UX should be consisting of such small intelligent things that are non-intrusive and helpful rather than layout defying every possible grid system the designer creates. This feature isn’t perfect however. It is only shown when one scrolls using scrollbar – yes the small thing one can hardly see nor touch and use to scroll.

Next two pictures are shots of Music Player, where they (for whatever stupid reason) chose to go with Apple styled stack of covers, but it is not all. For some (even sillier reason) there is also classic list, popup list and even combination of both. It is actually not so bad in pictures, but in real life it really is a pain. The lists are following one another in completely incomprehensible way so user have to click several times to start the playback. Plus there is no way to return just to one or another. It shouldn’t be forgotten that Coverflow is not much useful when there are now covers (as in my case).

In the last eye-candy picture you can see that Finnish designer is not the problem, because Ovi Store is incredible and well designed application which is fun to use. It is quite complex, yet functional and well solved.

Details creating the mess

This is connected to the incoherence. In symbian there is handful of small things that are just great and then there are really bad small things. And there’s plenty of these. Shaded widgets with unified look – the desktop widgets looks all the same. Themed with dark low-resolution gradient exceptionally succeed in killing just about every beauty one puts underneath. The utterly similar look is also confusing when user is searching the very desired widget. The biggest problem is the size, one widget can take up only one rather small slot.

Yet again, on the other hand there are lovely little ideas like point-to-select lists with help popups:

This is an easy, but smart way to deal with a list of options. Point on an icon to get more information, release quickly to select as default. Amazing feature. How it comes the whole system isn’t like that? Who knows.

Virtual keyboard in Symbian is not the prettiest keyboard out there, but so far the best. This is a reason why I would recommend Nokia S^3 candybar to a friend who’s into typing. The spacing, the response, the layout, the keyboard is great for writing. Actually I composed this post almost completely on this phone – how cool is that? Well…you guessed it. It is not *that* cool.

While typing on this keybord is seamless virtuoso experience the use case is not that hot. Firstly,  to start typing one needs to tap into the input field, and if one is lucky enough to hit it for the first time one gets to a new page with keyboard. Once in there it is impossible to scroll through the text since there is no scrollbar and dragging selects the text. Secondly, when you are in the overview mode one can scroll, but can not select – amazing isn’t it? Another issue of the keyboard is that the layout is dynamic (well of course it is, there is not much space to use), but the favourite keys are spread within the layout (I suspect there are three keys that updates to one’s behaviour) which is quite confusing and in the end one mostly manually search for special characters anyway.

System stability

This OS (as well as other) have some issues. The issues keep growing with growing demand on content oriented usage. While S60 on 5500 Sport is incredibly stable and reliable, on N Series it has always been a problem. More stuff = less stability. It’s like everywhere else, but symbian suffers in a particularly interesting way – it loses focus. When there is not enough memory to go with, the system doesn’t stop, it just somehow ignores some tasks and performs another. Imagine a schedule of tasks to do, and then proceed one by one, but you have only fixed time to perform each, so you can only skip here and there in the end. Oh yeah, and it also crashes, soft restarts, and does more great actions…

Thankfully one can fight this. After bringing the device home I would suggest everyone to perform hard reset, flash it with the newest version to get clean installation without all the preloaded crapsoft and then…well manage your data and tasks wisely.

A good interface

To the point, otherwise this post would get way too long. There is this idea of good interface in my head. The main principle is solving problems, graphics are secondary (important, but secondary). I would classify good interface as a assemblance of smart little processes that are seamlessly connected to each other. It should be mostly based on the same principles through the whole system so the experience is coherent and memorable. For example movement should be similar within composition of every page, the search and get pattern too. This is what wireframes are for, break it and you get a mess. Like any other design application interface design is about solving problems within certain set of rules one creates. As result of this there should be the void feeling when using it – that means it works.

Symbian breaks too many rules to be good. The system defies its own wireframe on every page, the layout varies too much, buttons are always placed variously, graphics are not following guidelines, and last but not least it still is not ready for touch devices. Even the newest version of symbian (S^3 PR 1) reminds of its precedestors way too much. The system still utilizes principles that worked on classic phones, but are not suitable for candybars.

Same problem has Google Android’s default launcher (The alternatives are material for a whole new story). Blackberry’s submenus are also troublesome, well, unappealing, but at least they follow certain set of rules. At this point the best mobile UI can be found in Windows Phone 7, which follows guidelines precisely and the structure is very thought-out. Speaking of Apple’s iOS, there are certain principles that works well, but on the other hand it wastes too many resources on shiny graphics (which I am not a fan of). There is an interesting thing to point out between iOS and WP7 – both use completely different wireframe and both work quite well. While iOS has rather simplistic mini-experiences in shiny package (clearly targeted to masses), Microsoft focuses on bringing full experience under one hood, and succeeds.

Symbian is changing

Guys at Nokia seems to be aware of the situation and promises to bring UX updates to the interface with every new version. I can see some progress – for example Anna unifies the iconography, brings nicer-looking keyboard and emphasizes clearer typography. Belle should fix the button misplacement and refine the graphics to appeal more modern and minimalistic. I am interested to see where it goes. It seems to use some of Nokia Meego interface, so it might be quite interesting.

It’s an online application giving purpose to all our data. I mean ALL our data. At this point we are creating, using and deleting our data. It’s like stuff for us. But it can be much more. Life can be pretty harsh today in digital world speaking of organization and handling all the information. Lifetab will do this for you and it will reward you for doing so. You will be able to create individual or social goals which will make you proud as you gain rewards not only from the system – badges, experience points, achievements – but also from the users – acknowledgment for what you have done!

What does it do?

Basically, Lifetab is a virtual reality where you are your own avatar. You grow up by performing various actions and as you grow up, you get cooler ranks, achievements and more accurate statistics.

Its sophisticated profile page allows users to exactly specify which information is public, which is strictly personal, and which is meant to reach particular group of friends. This way you can create an alternative virtual persona nicely reflecting your true self without disclosing anything too personal.

It logs your online presence (if you wish), pulls data from your facebook, twitter, foursqare…whatever profile / service you use and rewards you pretty much in the same way any mmorpg game does.

It’s your one-line diary that helps to understand your life. Moreover you can travel back in time and check what you were doing around the same day three years ago.

It gives you statistical overview of your real self-development, utilizes your connections in purposeful way, and much more.

It utilizes social power – via custom or administrated goals you can create and organize reachings, set rewards, entertain and make the world a better place to live in. Plus you can gain fame and acknowlegement for successful goals.

It’s yours – thanks to high profile customization options user can setup their preferences like – groups of friends / hieratical friend listing, their own diary domains, their own values and more stuff.
You don’t want to share the same information with your love and your boss, or do you?

Why this is not another social network?

There are two major differences between this project and popular social networks.

Firstly, we’re not trying to create and operate data without understanding. We’re utilizing any data we can found, returning them to the user in acceptable form of graphs, vizualizations and game dynamics. There’s tons of hidden data about us on the internet, we want people to explore them, and use them.

Secondly, we’re going from bottom. We think if we [society] don’t create this kind of application, sooner or later, any government or business party will. And that would be end of the internet freedom. Here it is up to you what you share, say, do with your data. Keep it for yourself, tell all your friends or just your family; or make some money with it if you want. Of course we can’t prevent other companies from harvesting our data, but this way, we at least see what they know about us.

Our cornerstone

We really like honesty within society made of individuals sharing the same morals. That’s why in Lifetab you – an original individual – create the whole social structure with other individuals, rather than being part of unified artificial social network. We believe everyone has rights for anonymity and control over their life. You should be able to decide what you like and what is against the grain to you. Using the recent findings in psychology and game design we’re trying to build a platform solving major problems of modern age, engaging us more to our lives while using the latest accessible technology.

Undertaking this project we wish to pioneer in future internet society. We are proud to be on the beginning of something new and as major as the creation of internet itself.

For free

The service is planned to be and will be free to use.

However we’re just a small team of people with some great ideas, creating Lifetab from our own resources. We would use your hand to power our servers and ourselves, thus we ask you to donate if you like our work.
It is like world-wide collection for better future.

We value our donators. If you donate reasonable amount you will gain extra stuff like access to our IRC, internal docs, updates, and support.

More information can be found on our teaser website:

www.lifetab.me

My friend Devine has been working on this system – Horaire. Which is essentially simple one line diary allowing him to track his personal development. I got sincerely interested in this concept and started playing around with the idea. Soon I realized its immerse potentialities and the project core was born. Playing with Horaire, it [core] soon started to grow – I added idea of browsing logs, custom categories, data harvesting from various fields, game system, and last but not least, augmented reality.

During my research I found many interesting names and projects of similar kind; Jane McGonigal – author of great book Reality Is Broken and researcher in field of social gaming, Seth Priestbasch – author of SCVNGR and experimentator in ARG, Ken Robinson – ‘education reformator’, and others. Those people and their work has inspired me to push things forward, and  affirmed that the idea is really worth creating.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of similar projects and we don’t want to kill these. We’re here to unite these under one hood so the data provided are really meaningful on the output. For sufficient statistics, we need as much data as possible. Some may not survive, some may overgrow us, but most importantly, we’re all just starters in this domain. We all are trying to finally give purpose to our data and understand its possibilities.

During the fall 2010 I worked hard to describe project structure, technology concepts, design and visual. And I started looking for developer. Took a whole bunch of mails and few months to find a good developer willing to work on the prototype just for the vision of world-changing project. Finally I succeeded. Ironically he was closer than I thought the whole time; Kevin is a friend of Devine, also amazed by Horaire. Thanks to the fact of interests, the project grown even more. With Kev joining the project we finally start moving forward, not only in developement but also in the concept itself.

Lifetab™
is in development since 24 December 2010
and under creation since 14 July 2010

…and I’ve grown 100% more nuts since that day.

For human or any other entity, it is very natural to exist in certain surroundings. The biggest element of the surroundings is our planet – the framework for our existence. It contains smaller divisions – elements existing in the same places we do. This is connected closed system we’re part of. It is very natural to perform actions in it, it is very natural to interact with it, and it is very natural to customize it. The whole system is being processed via 5 senses to our minds – to our abstract processing unit, where the information is bended, explained, understood, categorized and stored. No need to mention that we can feel some kind of atmosphere, or a mood if you wish, of the place. The information stored by this process is transferred to genes over the years so for the newer generation this particular experience may feel absolute. The whole system was designed and created at once, and has evolved as needed and has been changed many times in order to solve its mistakes. Why to mention this? Speaking about billions of years of evolution is important to get the abstract idea of environment and to understand these needs in GUI.

We have learnt to create physical elements depending on our environmental knowledge. Based on the stored data in us, we tend to make the physical designs and our artificial surroundings to feel as natural as possible. Our subconscious intention is to create a comfortable, pleasuring place to live and to fill this place with objects with the same precise intention. Physical, environmental designs are much more perfect, than the non-physical ones. Mistakes are just too obvious to ignore. While designing a physical object, revision is easy to perform – the created prototype is put through series of tests, the mistakes are noted and resolved. Everything is done in a very natural process of interacting with the item. You wouldn’t buy a scissors that doesn’t fit in your hand, would you? For some reason not many users think about how well the non-physical interface is designed, but today it is very important to do so.

So what is that ideal natural state? Generally it should be a UI which feels natural to use, is easy to follow, is not visually overwhelming and acts as a part of reality. There is something needed to be understood in order to create such designs. The abstract meaning of UI, the connection between data and reality, the most important part is you.

Let me make an example.

I always tend to put myself in a clean environment, which provides a depth of perfection and absoluteness. Which allows me to focus on what I need, when I need? It allows feeling the environment just as it is and nothing more. I imagine a small example of a perfect surrounding suitable for everything. It is a square room; it is modular and can transform its shape when required. The whole place is painted white only, but there is a light. The light is changing color according to the desired mood. It is big enough to feel free, but not too big, to feel small. It is a unit of harmony of the relationship between men and their surroundings. It feels like nothing, but everything. Your presence is filling it with whatever you want.

Now to connect it with the GUI, imagine yourself inside of such a room. You have few options to explore it. By olfaction, touch, vision, hearing, and taste. While working with a graphical user interface, you get fewer options. You certainly can touch it and see it, but you can hardly taste it or smell it. Also hearing is not that useful and the touch is more like an input device, than a processing unit. In the reality we are part of the surrounding, on the screen we are not. I personally disbelief the designer should try to reproduce elements of reality on the screen. In contrary he should look for a way to bring the “abstract” feeling, the mood of the room into the device. Current UIs proves the remaking pots, buttons, gloss, shadows, etc. is not ideal. The device is more of an empty room from the example above, than a desk or table.

The data explanation today is mostly graphic. Designers can work with shapes, colours, text, icons, sound and even movement. Although the major problem isn’t how it does look, it is the way we interact with data. Even when the UI is dynamic, changing with every movement, click, whatever, the data access is mostly static. Once click – one action – one rendering. I think the interface should be visually simplified, while the ways of interaction should be improved and extended.

I’ll show few visual examples in the next story.

Thank you.

Also it depends on what you want. For me it’s something DIN-like – Helvetica Neue qualities and neutral enough to be used everywhere. Here’s what I found:

1. FELBRIDGE / Monotype / Robin Nicholas

I really like this one for its overall neutrality and DINnishness.
It seems to be a great face to replace your DIN if you are already
tired of it.

2. SCENE / Monotype / Sebastian Lester

The Scene is a bit different case. The face feels very
warm to me, probably because of the rounded corners.
It is still technical enough to please my requirements.
Although I personally don’t feel few things right.

3. PRELO / DSType/ Dino dos Santos

Prelo looks like a cleaner version of Scene to me.

4. CHEVIN PRO / G-Type / Nick Cooke

Chevin is quite funny face in my opinion.
It looks playful yet very effective.

5. MONOLINE / Foundrytypes

Monoline is a font of two statements to me.
It is unique and could be a strong part of CID, but it has also very
specific requirements on its use. This face carry some deeper
mood in it which makes it not so commonly usable.

6. STERLING / Foundrytypes

Sterling is awesome sans-serif. Very clean, neutral.
Looks stable to keep great composition on both screen and paper.

7. AAUX / T.26 / Neil Summerour

This one is going to do the work well too.
Check Neil’s site, there are two more sans-serif faces that
worth a second to look at.

8. NUDISTA / Suitcase Type Foundry/ Tomáš Brousil

What kind of Czech would I be not to mention my  nation mate.
Tomas is a Czech designer and his typeface  Nudista is even
claimed to be DIN replacer… and it works well.

9. COMENIA SANS /  Suitcase Type Foundry/ Tomáš Brousil

Comenia sans is more common usable face by the designer of Nudista.
In my opinion it does perform great, as well as Sterling does. If you
haven’t heard of Comenia family yet, you’d definitely google it.

So these are the few I’ve found so far. I’ll update the list once I have more to show. There is still plenty sites to browse through. But I must admit it is not that easy to find really pleasuring fonts. If you’d like to suggest more faces of this kind I’d be very pleased. Feel free to do so by posting a comment or sending me a mail.

There has been many updates on this site, although all of them totally minor. Now that the research has progressed it is a great time to perform a bigger one. Few watchers may notice that I am still updating the blog-part only, but be sure the main site will be online soon. It will be running completely new web rendering engine, which I am currently working on. Please note the site is fresh-uploaded not debugged version now. I am planning to finish these tasks as soon as possible. Also I’d like to finally implement Horaire (timeline), to track my work efficiency and keep the blog updated at least by short entries of this kind.

PROTOTYPE 01

The test version of the engine is planned to be released till the end of 2010.
More information is coming soon.

The interface design, surrounding us everywhere today, hasn’t been evolved much since 1973(Xerox Star Workstation – on which the Apple Lisa’s GUI was based later in 1984) , respectively 1995 (Microsoft). It has been stuck in the same position with only slight movement noticed few times. Although, the technological progress didn’t stop, did it? Why the interfaces are still so outdated when the technology provides hi resolution displays, multi-touch surfaces, billions of colors, effects renderings, and many more? Why the interface still feels so unnatural and unfriendly with the powerful devices today. There have been few major breakthroughs in the department of UI, but the fontal paradigm and original philosophy is still in use. The artificial archetypes have been accepted as the only widely used – right concepts. These ancestors aren’t designed badly though. The designs provided the best solution possible in the past. When the first pointing device was developed the need of proper interface showed up as well, and I am confident the designers have done their best to not destroy their physical designs. Although the very first interfaces were developed retrospectively – the physical object was designed first, the interface was second. Maybe if the designers would work on both at the same time, the result could be different. Once the creator is limited by another structure, the inner one can’t exceed its defined boundaries. So that’s another argument to wish for a change – why to continue development on the platform which basics were partially wrongly designed.

So habits, laziness, awareness of changes, incompatibility issues are the major reasons the UI design is still the same. But when one knows the technological background of graphical user interfaces, one also notices the potential of change. To perform complete change of UI loses would be low. Believing in two releases of operation system it requires four to six years to complete the task.

At the moment I am writing series of stories about User Interface design, because this is a department I can write a lot about. A department that I believe needs to be changed.Few years ago I started a project Colorfusion which is my platform to perform these changes, but for a lack of time, there was no major progress. This is meant to be changed in 2011 so I am in middle of research to support my ideas. I am about to share concepts of stories to open a discussion, so the work will be more meaningful.