[Sigia-l] It's started

[Will Parker]

On Jun 4, 2007, at 7:38 AM, Jonathan Baker-Bates wrote:

>> Because for the first time in human history a mobile phone
>> manufacturer saw the UI as something much more than an
>> afterthought to the hardware and software feature sets. For
>> the iPhone, the UI is almost certainly the first thing they
>> worked on, not the last.
>
> Oh calm down.
>
> Nokia have a long tradition of very high quality handset UI design
> backed up by equally comprehensive research. If you don't know what  
> Jan
> Chipchase is doing at Nokia, you should:
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6698075.stm
>
> Jonathan

Thanks for the link. It does look like Mr. Chipchase is indeed doing  
very good work.

I have a different take on this. As I see it, up until now mobile  
phone UIs have had to serve multiple masters -- the phone  
manufacturer and the dozen or so truly important national or  
international telecom providers, with the additional strong spin of  
multiple phone manufacturers competing for OEM sales to the telecoms.

Quite simply put, that's not an environment in which a phone designer  
-- any designer in the entire cluste.... err ... conglomeration  
described above -- can build an integrated hardware/software design.

I'm sure Apple will have to compromise over time with AT&T, but at  
least with the iPhone design, everything that isn't Apple designed  
can be turned into a separate widget.

- Will

Will Parker
wparker at ChannelingDesign.com

“I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check. If  
that were the case, then Microsoft would have great products.” -  
Steve Jobs