Keitai

(But first, a look at where we came from)

The Desktop

In some ways, designing for the desktop was dead easy. Development times were typically long (lots of time to plan and test), most of the products were applications (lots of functional requirements but relatively easy to test “Can the user easily find and use the print button—or can’t he? Does he get the expected result to his actions? “) Users typically only had two input mechanisms (a mouse and a keyboard) and screens were large—accommodating a seemingly endless number of dialogues and controls. Very soon, we began to figure out the language and means of desktop interaction…

• the window/tabbed window
• the dialogue box, check box, radio button, input field
• the drop down/jump menu
• the actions: click, double-click, drag, highlight, scroll
• the toolbar(s) (stacked, floating, or docked)

Sure there’s been evolution (the Macromedia’s stacked menu interface, 3DS Max’ endlessly multi-layered scrolling pane, and Microsoft’s next release of Office are good examples) but, a decade onwards, the overall interaction for the user is still pretty consistent. You almost never come across an application that asks you to only navigate using the letter ‘f’, quadruple-click to select, or overrides a whole bunch of keys for custom interactions.

Enter mobile devices

On your typical handset we now have…

• a small screen
• a device that’s typically operated with one hand/thumb only
• a wide—yet restrictive—number of keys
  and controls
  • 2-4 (?) soft keys (some customizable, others not)
  • a (5 way) navi-pad
  • the occasional custom key
  • the occasional jog dial
  • a fairly standard set of numerical keys

Pretty different, yet historically, the mobile development process has actually been fairly similar to that of desktop apps.:

• relatively long development time (C, J2ME)
• lots of planning and testing
• develop mostly applications or games (vs content)
• carrier and OEM standards meant even more testing
• upside: after all that time, testing and money—you hopefully had something pretty usable
• downside: you likely had little patience for true experimentation in choice of content, user interface design or functionality (too risky, too high cost)

Now enter rapid development tools for mobile devices. They have many advantages…

• easy and quick to prototype
• freedom to experiment with completely different forms of interaction
• freedom to make mistakes and correct them based on user input
• freedom to develop content or products with more organic functional requirements and interfaces

as well as disadvantages…

• freedom to come up with and release bizarre unusable interfaces
• freedom to barely create an interface at all
• freedom to hijack standard keys for unusual purposes
• freedom to define new audiences or completely forget you have one
• freedom to have an audience of one and not really care
• freedom not to test, document or provide support

In other words, it’s kind-of about re-mixing and user-generated content all over again. (Except I hate the term ‘generated.’ It brings to mind cold impersonal data rather than the type of playfulness, creativity and intent that is required to make something special and personal.) A better example of what i’m getting at…

A few months back an Australian educator told me that certain districts had purchased copies of Flash to begin incorporating mobile content creation into their technology curriculum. Faced with a small blank canvas, a navi-pad and a couple of keys—what will the mobile designers of tomorrow create? What rules will they break? Will they do things we corporate folks have been too scared to do?

What ways will they incorporate location, context and personalization into what they create? And what will they choose to create for an audience of peers?

Whatever it is, it’s bound to be interesting…

“I dream of the day when users will tend to their interfaces like to a collection of beautiful, nimble, integrated, task-focused widgets.

I dream of the day when our mobile networked tools will take full advantage of our playfully messy world-making capabilities.

I dream of the day when our little screens will cease to be aquariums for our data and truly become seamless conduits to our world of relationships with people, with information, with things.”

(via this brilliant post by Freegorifero)