Monthly Archives: October 2008

Google’s new G1 phone is many things: sturdy, versatile, feature-packed. But few would call the device pretty–until you turn it on.

Lit up, the G1 is full of polished graphics, snappy icons and elegant transitions, plus an innovative “window shade” menu that slides out and recedes with the swipe of a finger.

Text: Google’s new G1 phone is many things: sturdy, versatile, feature-packed. But few would call the device pretty–until you turn it on.

Lit up, the G1 is full of polished graphics, snappy icons and elegant transitions, plus an innovative “window shade” menu that slides out and recedes with the swipe of a finger.

The sleek look is the work of a Swedish technology and design company called The Astonishing Tribe (TAT). The firm partnered with Google (nasdaq: GOOG – news – people ), phone manufacturer HTC and carrier T-Mobile to fine tune the look and feel of the G1′s software. In the words of Chief Executive Charlotta Falvin, TAT’s mission is to make the on-screen parts of cellphones look better.

TAT’s involvement in the G1 project points to the importance of graphics and user-friendly navigation in the post-iPhone world. “A good user interface is paramount in building a great mobile phone,” says Erick Tseng, the lead product manager on Google’s Android team. “Along with hardware, security and stability, we identified it as an absolute must-have.”

User experience is particular critical for Google, which is distributing Android’s software for free in hopes of gaining more users for its Web services. “People interact more with phones that have superior user interfaces,” notes Tseng. And more surfers on the mobile Web benefits carriers, as well as Google, he adds.

Read the full story in Forbes here

Tips and Tricks: User-centric Design–Simple and Distinctive Designing products with just the right features rather than a lot of unused features is an art.

Designing products with just the right features rather than a lot of unused features is an art. While attractive hardware, easy media consumption and web browsing using touchscreen text is central to the iPhone, the HTC T-Mobile G1 targets Google users with convenient mobile access to services that previously required mobile web browsers. Here are tips and tricks regarding the choice of simplicity vs. quantity. By Dan Grdenfors, The Astonishing Tribe, (TAT)

Simplicity and distinctiveness are essential to usability in mobile phones. To satisfy users, developers of mobile devices must aim for these qualities when deciding which features and applications to include in their handsets.

Device manufacturers and service providers often race to include as many applications and features as possible because they can, and not because people want them. Often the users end up having to navigate through a myriad of extra features to get to the ones they actually want.

One example of this kind of feature race is how manufacturers try to solve the problem of text input. There are several handsets that offer text input through every possible method: hardware keys, touchscreen buttons and handwriting recognition. Does this make text input easier or does it generate a chaotic experience for the user? Who uses all inputs?

Read the full article here

From the Inquirer: Our UI is Absolut TAT. Whilst hanging around waiting for the Symbian Foundation to say something here at the Smartphone show, the INQ ran into TAT. Who hail from Sweden… just like Absolut Vodka does.

Writing UIs for phones is nothing new but TAT (which stands for The Astounding Tribe) has found a new angle. “Squeezing the maximum power out of the processor,” is how CEO, Charlotta Falvin, describes it.

So while the impetus behind UIs to date has been ‘keeping up with the Jobses’, Falvin reckons the trick lies in taking UIs downmarket. “The knack is to make the UI look like it’s doing something clever – even if it isn’t really. ”

This has two advantages. Firstly using the same UI across a range provides a consistent ‘look and feel’. Secondly, it enables handset vendors to create low cost ARM7-based handsets which look good.

And will therefore sell in the one sector of the handset market still expanding rapidly – emerging markets. ARM obviously appreciates this ploy since it was running TAT’s demo on its show booth.

Read the full INQ article here

Taking you up to speed on gesture recognition, which is becoming an increasingly popular way to control mobile phones and other devices. How does the technology work, and where is it heading?

Gestures are essentially movements made with our bodies. Gesturing is a rich and often subtle mode of communication that we all employ, often without even realizing it. From a profane gesture given in traffic to a slouch in our posture, gestures are used to convey emotion, confirmation & negation, or very specific and important messages (think of a crossing guard).

Though it seems obvious, it is important to remember that gestures incorporate some sort of dimensionality. A gesture will occur across one, two, or three dimensions and include time. The time dimension is important as we can make a distinction between the click of a button on a keyboard – close to instant – and turning the scroll wheel on a mouse. The button click doesn’t really have a dimension, and the scroll wheel is just one – but it is the time dimension in the scroll wheel which adds the opportunity for human expression. Typically within mobile UI design and development input has been limited to button pressing. The use of long presses expands the functionality, but there is very little room for rich input. However, with the ever increasing penetration of touch enabled screens into the market, the opportunity for gesture based input and the need for understanding how to use gestures rapidly increases.

What is TAT doing? TAT has worked on numerous interfaces which incorporate gestures. Giving both interaction design and technology support. While multitouch devices have had a lot of focus recently, we are also looking into how to better support and encourage great design with single touch and cursors through the D-Pad or a trackball. On a longer timeline, one of the promising technologies which we are exploring is handsets which combine UI projections through embedded pico projectors and visual gesture recognition. The opportunities for collaborative workspaces are both challenging and exciting.

To read the full story and access live cases on gesture recognition please follow the download links below:

Intro to Gestures