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I'm looking forward to seeing how these devices play in real world usage. The two things that jump out at me immediately. 1. Most important: On a device with a
by macrael 16y ago
I'm looking forward to seeing how these devices play in real world usage. The two things that jump out at me immediately.
1. Most important: On a device with a small screen pixels should be precious. It worries me that many of the built in apps use a significant and unchanging amount of the screen to tell you what app you are in. I don't know if it will really impact usability, maybe there is enough screen real estate to go around, but it seems wasteful. Perhaps the fact that many of the different app's UIs (especially the list UI and the list of tiles UI) look very very similar makes it necessary for you to have a 1/5 screen reminder that you are in the photos app and not the marketplace?
2. The multiple message selection is the best example of this, but there are others: many of the possible interactions with on screen elements are completely hidden and non-obvious. It would be difficult to discover that you can manage multiple messages by tapping on the far left hand side of a message. Contrast this with the iPhone, where you tap edit or whatever, and the message management UI comes on screen. It reminds me a little of the Anti-Mac interface (http://www.useit.com/papers/anti-mac.html http://www.useit.com/papers/anti-mac.html) in that it is actually faster (you don't have to go and hit a button that takes up space on the screen in order to start moving messages around) but at the price of discoverability. Are there other examples of Windows Phone 7 being designed for expert/informed users?
- wallflower 16y ago> Are there other examples of Windows Phone 7 being designed for expert/informed users? To use Windows Mobile, you had to deal with ActiveSync. To use ActiveSync, you have to be fairly tolerant and technically proficient. For example, when upgrading the OS, you have the responsibility(1) of manually backing up all your contacts, data, apps. Contrast this with iTunes (yes, iTunes isn't elegant) - when iOS 4 came out - it downloaded it and asked if you wanted to upgrade your phone and did so without losing settings, data, apps. Now, Android supposedly can do OTA updates. The point here is if WinMo7 requires ActiveSync - it is severely behind the times. I'm hoping WinMo7 won't require a user to use ActiveSync and it is all stored securely in the Windows Live cloud. I usually used lots of colorful adjectives when dealing with ActiveSync. I had a boss who was convinced to get a WinMo device by a co-worker; she lasted only about a month (ActiveSync). (1) http://www.htc.com/www/supportdownload.aspx?p_id=59&cat=2&dl_id=113 http://www.htc.com/www/supportdownload.aspx?p_id=59&cat=...
- desigooner 16y agoThere is no ActiveSync component to WinPhone7 .. The data (photos, contacts, documents, settings, etc) is all synced up to cloud via a live.com account (which even includes the newly announced feature of tracking the phone in case of loss or theft ala mobileme) The data can also be synced via the Zune software on a desktop much like iTunes (but Zune Software is a far better experience in my opinion when it comes to music and video).
- wallflower 16y agoLooks like the Zune was a good investment into consumer friendly software
- macrael 16y agoOk, that's not at all what I mean by being designed for an expert user, though. The example I gave shows windows phone 7 taking the speed side of the speed vs obviousness tradeoff. Are there other examples if it doing that?