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Nokia was incredibly political. But they were comfortably smug too. When we made games for Nokia platforms, we'd hear horror stories from engineers. Extreme ma

Nokia was incredibly political. But they were comfortably smug too. When we made games for Nokia platforms, we'd hear horror stories from engineers. Extreme management to engineer ratio (like 1 for 5 or less), non stop meetings and slide decks. One strategy that the engineers came up with to have peace was to get two or more project managers involved, so they could sest in meetings and calls all day and let people dev. They were also the biggest player in Finland. The best logistics. The most market share. They had so many devs in their rollodex. Clearly, they could ship an iPhone killer. Clearly they understood everything about mobile and knew everyone. They even had a cloud project (Ovi) that predated iCloud. I remember meeting them back in the NGage days and thinking who are these clowns making a portrait screen for games, with no dpad, and a phone you hold sideways. No focus on apps (Palm and other handheld had plenty of homebrew and emulators). The company was a juggernaut that could ship the old Nokia bricks, but never adapt to be good at software, or have a good mobile OS. It's a shame, because honestly the best industrial design and UX people I've seen were there.

drunkenmagician 3y ago
Do you have an example of Nokia UX you feel was better than the alternatives at the time? I was a long time Nokia user (ex telco / mobile messaging) and I don’t recall anything cutting edge on the UI/UX front. Their industrial design was good though (mostly).
- tetrisgm 3y ago
  The Nokia N9 had a really polished UI that wad all gestures based. It wasn't until the iPhone X that we'd see this again.
RandallBrown 3y ago
I remember wanting an NGage so bad. I had a whole plan to get my gameboy and all the games together to trade in so I could get one from GameStop. Then I went and actually tried one. Having to remove the battery to swap out games was too much for me.
- tetrisgm 3y ago
  It's incomprehensible. I think it came out in 2003. Handheld consoles and their UX were well understood by then. I can't imagine how this device would get greenlit, pass through user testing, and ship. There are so many steps where this product could have been put on hold for revisions. They shipped it regardless. Says a lot about confidence or not listening to feedback.
jnsaff2 3y ago
The obligatory, insanely funny, almost unbelievable story behind the design of the ngage. Can't be unseen, you have been warned: https://i.imgur.com/VXgGvQQ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/VXgGvQQ.jpg

drunkenmagician 3y ago

Do you have an example of Nokia UX you feel was better than the alternatives at the time? I was a long time Nokia user (ex telco / mobile messaging) and I don’t recall anything cutting edge on the UI/UX front. Their industrial design was good though (mostly).

tetrisgm 3y ago
The Nokia N9 had a really polished UI that wad all gestures based. It wasn't until the iPhone X that we'd see this again.

RandallBrown 3y ago

I remember wanting an NGage so bad. I had a whole plan to get my gameboy and all the games together to trade in so I could get one from GameStop. Then I went and actually tried one. Having to remove the battery to swap out games was too much for me.

tetrisgm 3y ago
It's incomprehensible. I think it came out in 2003. Handheld consoles and their UX were well understood by then. I can't imagine how this device would get greenlit, pass through user testing, and ship. There are so many steps where this product could have been put on hold for revisions. They shipped it regardless. Says a lot about confidence or not listening to feedback.

jnsaff2 3y ago

The obligatory, insanely funny, almost unbelievable story behind the design of the ngage. Can't be unseen, you have been warned: https://i.imgur.com/VXgGvQQ.jpg https://i.imgur.com/VXgGvQQ.jpg