Posts Tagged: windowsmobile


2
Jul 10

Windows Mobile and the data centric UI

“With the iPhone, Apple put together an extremely simple modal interface that works, one that people of all ages and backgrounds understand right away…Microsoft’s approach is completely different. Instead of becoming another me-too cellphone, like Android and the rest, the Windows Phone 7 team came up their own vision of what the cellphone should be. In the process, they have created a beautiful user interface in which the data is at the center of user interaction. Not the apps—specific functions—but the information itself. At some points, in fact, it feels like the information is the interface itself.”

Link: Windows Phone 7 Interface: Microsoft Has Out-Appled Apple (gizmodo.com)


8
May 08

HTC Touch Diamond Demo

If I paid a dollar every time Horace Luke of HTC says ‘simple’ in this product launch I’d be down about $132. Hyperbole aside, it’s an interesting piece of design.

Demo of the overall experience:

Demo of the the web experience:

Link: YouTube – HTC TouchFLO 3D Video on HTC Diamond (youtube.com, via)


7
Jun 07

HTC Touch is broken

Marek Pawlowski reviews the HTC Touch, an attempt at a touch-screen that’s slightly out of the ordinary, and finds it slightly lacking.

“For starters, the TouchFlo sensor doesn’t work very well. The screen itself had an almost ’sticky’ feel to it when I first took the product out of the box and it was actually physically impossible to slide your thumb in the way required. This improved over time, presumably as grease built up on the screen, but there were more fundamental problems with the software. It just wasn’t very good at recognising the swipe gesture, so the success rate for flipping between screens was typically about 40 percent. More than half the time I was having to repeat the gesture to get it to switch screens.”

Link: Hands-on with the HTC Touch – a broken experience (mobileuserexperience.com)


26
Apr 07

Spinning Windows Mobile

John Carroll argues that Microsoft’s approach of having a consistent UI across Windows Mobile devices is hampering adoption and innovation in the mobile space.

“Does this mean the UI should be completely replaceable? I think so. There are smart UI designers outside of Microsoft, and I don’t see why arming them with the ability to create innovative UIs would harm the brand. Microsoft could still create standard UIs, and people could choose to use them, but flexibility would enable third parties to drive the product into more niches than Microsoft by itself might manage with its rigid UI structure.”

Link: Free the Windows Mobile UI (zdnet.com)


18
Mar 06

Windows Mobile design guidelines

A short Microsoft white paper describing Windows Mobile 5.0 design guidelines.

“Following a summary of the new UI features in Windows Mobile 5.0, the article launches into the heart of the issue—suggested design rules and guidelines. The proper use of soft keys, dialog boxes, and notification bubbles is covered in detail. Finally, screen orientation and the problems of multiple resolutions are covered.”

Link: Designing Windows Mobile 5.0 application UIs (windowsfordevices.com)