Opinionated comments on mobile phone industry news
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All entries are written by Anders Borg, CEO and Consultant of Abiro, that has a long experience in strategic planning, developing embedded and Java software, usability aspects, and the mobile phone industry in general. You can also read the latest Mobile News entries on your phone via wap.abiro.com, and we provide many News Feeds from popular news services. For advertising and contribution queries, please use the feedback form. News feed (local) FeedBurner Feed
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Sunday, July 30, 2006
UI consistency across phones or across a phone
The cryptic title expanded: Should the UI of after-market applications look and behave the same across all supported phones, or is it more important that the applications look and behave the same as other applications on any specific phone?
I'm a fan of the latter, as people get used to how applications work on one phone at a time and expects/assumes also after-market applications to follow suit. That also seems to be the conclusion of this note about user interface styles.
It's not all easy if you make Java ME applications. The note points out that KVM providers and phone manufacturers sometimes don't realize the above and assigns keys differently in the case of Java than what would be the case for embedded applications. When you use the basic UI widgets in Java ME you have no control over exactly which abstract button goes where, so the manufacturer must do this right for it to work consistently.
I typically apply this model when using the lcdui widgets:
* Commands that passively take you back in the UI flow (like Cancel or Exit) are set to the BACK type
* Commands that saves or performs are set to the OK type
* Commands that should be in a certain menu order get the SCREEN type, where priority decides the order
It should be noted that this is not perfect either, but it creates a reasonable level of consistency between phone applications and also across phones. The command types and priorities are just hints, so expect the unexpected.
Little Springs Design - designing the mobile user experience » Blog Archive » User interface styles
I'm a fan of the latter, as people get used to how applications work on one phone at a time and expects/assumes also after-market applications to follow suit. That also seems to be the conclusion of this note about user interface styles.
It's not all easy if you make Java ME applications. The note points out that KVM providers and phone manufacturers sometimes don't realize the above and assigns keys differently in the case of Java than what would be the case for embedded applications. When you use the basic UI widgets in Java ME you have no control over exactly which abstract button goes where, so the manufacturer must do this right for it to work consistently.
I typically apply this model when using the lcdui widgets:
* Commands that passively take you back in the UI flow (like Cancel or Exit) are set to the BACK type
* Commands that saves or performs are set to the OK type
* Commands that should be in a certain menu order get the SCREEN type, where priority decides the order
It should be noted that this is not perfect either, but it creates a reasonable level of consistency between phone applications and also across phones. The command types and priorities are just hints, so expect the unexpected.
Little Springs Design - designing the mobile user experience » Blog Archive » User interface styles
