Media: TheFeature on Mobile Phones and their Complexities

'Advanced Handsets Need Advanced UIs' is an interesting piece from Tom Hume in which he raises a number of issues about the increasing complexity of phone interfaces. For instance: 'An address book, message inbox and call log are clearly linked strongly to one another and happen to map to everyday, real-world artefacts. But analogies with the real world start to break down when your handset starts storing your photos, video clips, media you've purchased, payment details, account history, WAP sites, books and notes.'

As he says, handsets can't currently tell you which of your contacts is pictured in any given photo.

But one of comments is perhaps even more interesting because it starts earlier in the design process and asks about the complexity, not the interface: 'I design phone UIs for a living. I'm working on a cool feature packed product for a client right now that is going to bring music to phones 'just like the ipod'. I just got out of a focus group with these guys and the target audience was decidedly unenthusiastic. There are LOTS of reasons for this but for this conversation, the key point is that some kids 'get it': convergence has lots of problems. They like their ipod having a big PAUSE button on the cover and not having it be a menu item under a softkey. They also like having 2 devices with 2 batteries (gasp!) so when they run their music dry (which they do a lot) they still have a phone to call home with.'

Associated Link: TheFeature: Advanced Handsets Need Advanced UIs

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