The single hardware button on the iPhone is a nice touch, but it’s also handy, if, when you get to the main application screen, you can actually figure out where to go next. On the main screen for my phone, fully half or more of the items shown are ambiguously named. Here’s a picture of what you get when you hit the main screen button:
We have “MEdia Net”, which I think is short for “online stuff that will cost YOU money”. Then there’s “Mall”, which is a shortcut to all the items on “MEdia Net” that cost you money that are downloads rather than services. “My Stuff” is, I think, a file browser for dummies that finds files on your phone according to file type (images, audio, presentations, etc) rather than confusing the end user by making them deal with actual folders. I have no faith that it actually finds everything and stays up to date though, so I tend to use the file browser. ”Games & Apps” is games (that part is straightforward), and applications – I think the distinction here is that this is where apps you install yourself go. I have installed the Flash Lite Player and the Raccoon web server, and they both ended up here. Unfortunately, everything else on the phone is an application too, and a tool, if not a setting, so this name is not very helpful. It makes you wonder if Nokia starts making their own games if they will have to put THEM in a different grouping. Then we have “IM & Email”, which last time I checked fell under the category of “Messaging”. In fact “Messaging” does include email, but not IM. On closer look, it would seem that “IM & Email” once again means something like “IM & Email provided by a third party”. “Tools” includes your standard small helper applications, not all of which are particularly helpful – try to imagine Apple including an application called “About”, which does nothing more than show a legal warning about reusing their logos or terminology. “Settings” contains some items that I am hard pressed not to think of as tools, including the file browser.
In addition to the tricky naming, we are faced with the problem that some of these items are applications, but most are actually folders containing other items. This is not communicated in any consistent way, and the grouping of the icons intersperses the two types. Here’s the breakdown to one level of the navigation items from the front screen:
Video
(MEdia Net app in disguise) – automatically connects via MEdia Net app (unclear if it costs money immediately)
Messaging (app) – text messaging and email
Log (app) – shows activity
MEdia Net (a folder of bookmarks)
- MEdia Net
- Auto. bookmarks
- News
- Sports
- Weather
- App. downloads (folder)
- Graphic downloads (folder)
- Audio downloads (folder)
- Theme downloads (folder)
- Track downloads (folder)
Mall (MEdia Net in disguise again?)
- Shop Tones
- Shop Games
- Shop Graphics
- Shop Multimedia
- Shop Applications
- MEdia Net
Music (folder)
My Stuff (folder)
- Images & Video
- Tracks
- Audio
- Streaming Links
- Presentations
- All Files
Address Book (application) – holds contacts
Games & Apps
- Lifeblog
- eBay Trial
- Lumines M…(puzzle game – name truncated)
- MobiTV
- 3D Pool Hall
- Tetris
- other items I have installed (Raccoon, Flash Lite)
IM & Email
- IM
- Mobile Email
Tools
- Notes
- Clock
- Camera
- Recorder
- Calendar
- Web
- Tutorial
- Flash Player
- Calculator
- Adobe PDF
- Quickoffice
- Zip
- Converter
- Help
- About
- Radio
- RealPlayer
Settings
- Speed dial
- Voice mail
- Transfer
- Profiles
- Config.
- Voice cm.
- 3D tones
- Themes
- Voice aid
- Infrared
- Bluetooth
- Data cable
- File mgr.
- App mgr.
- Memory
- Conn. mgr.
- Speech
- Msg. reader
- Dev. mgr.
- Sync
As I realize that an extremely large percentage of the items I might click are there to cost me money, I feel my goodwill towards the Nokia team evaporating somewhat. I imagine some disgruntled UI designer was mowed over by marketing – solidarity, my brother! I’ll take a closer look at the subsections and individual apps from this point. For kicks, I’ll hopefully get around to counting up the percentage of these items that are actually useful to something besides the bottom line of the carrier, and possibly Nokia. How anyone could like, or even sign off on, a button that looks like an application, and then triggers some paid service is beyond me – this, to me, is where bad design flirts with fraud.
PS: Do you need to display a scrollbar on the screen when there is no scrolling?
