Usability Review of OpenMoko GTK+ Applications

[Marcus Bauer]

Hi Thomas,

thanks for your answer!

On Tue, 2008-03-11 at 15:31 +0000, Thomas Wood wrote:
> The problem with using the power button is that it is completely
> unobvious to new users. 

That's true and it took me a while to figure it out but then who would
know about multitouch on the iPhone if Apple wouldn't tell everybody? 

I agree that the hardware buttons on the Neo are badly usable. A future
Neo version will most likely have better buttons. I wouldn't too much
focus on this one example of hardware, as OpenMoko should run hopefully
on many more devices and FIC produces more different phones.


> > The toolbar button on the top give quick access to the most wanted
> > functions: "send sms", "call", "add new contact" - I use them a lot and
> > think they are very useful.
> 
> I would suggest moving them to the details page. As long as the
> switching between list and details is quick enough, I think this
> wouldn't be a problem.

Well, for me this is perfect as it is.

> 
> > > * Switch to a contact details when list item is clicked
> > 
> > When you use your fingers to select an entry you do not always select
> > the right one on the first go, thus the split of actions "selecting" and
> > "showing details" makes a lot of sense to me. I would leave it like it
> > is.
> 
> I think this is a good point. Perhaps the main problem I have is that
> new users find it very difficult to locate the details button.

The folder icon is not very intuitve. I would use the list icon from the
first tab and for the first tab use the list icon without the hand and
the orange border.

I think not everything must be clear immediately to a new user as long
as with a bit of clicking around it becomes quickly clear.


> Perhaps
> we need to make it more obvious. How about replacing the new button with
> edit, and moving new into a menu? Presumable Edit will be used much more
> often than New.

For me the New button is more important than Edit. Especially when the
phone is new.

> 
> > > * Add groups button to toolbar in details page
> > 
> > The groups tab is the only one I would move elsewhere into a better
> > context (i.e. "Add new contact" and "Edit contact")
> 
> I think that means you agree?

Yes.

> 
> > > * Remove communication history page(?)
> > 
> > So far everyone told me that this is a cool feature missing on all other
> > phones. I love it ;-)
> 
> Interesting, I guess I rarely look at my call history anyway. You can't
> do any thing with it, so I don't really see what it's usefulness is.

In a business context it is often very powerful to be able to say "I
called you on XXX at YYY and on XXX and YYY". Additionally I would like
to be able to click on a call and add a note to it.

> 
> > What I mostly miss:
> > - a category "mobile" for the type of phone number
> 
> Probably a one line patch.

Thought so :)

> 
> > - more contact details
> 
> Such as? I didn't want to make it too complicated here. Phone, E-mail
> and Address and Company seemed the most likely used fields to me.

I very much agree with you.

> 
> > - a remarks field
> 
> Personally, I can't really see how this makes sense in a contacts
> application. Keeping it simple as possible was my main goal.

I would even just go with one text input field where I can put address,
birthday, where I met somebody etc... If that field is named Address -
so be it - I'll abuse it :) The version I use (nightly build ~2weeks old
has neither address not company)


> 
> > > Status bar
> > > ----------

> I can't see the link between high resolution and stylus usability.

It is not the stylus usability, but as of now I see few things that need
the 480x640 resolution and with a stylus one simply has finer grained
control for a finer grained screen.

> I find the hardware buttons on the Neo fairly difficult to use because
> of the placement on the case and also the quality of the micro switches.

As I said I agree but hope for better buttons in the future.

> I definitely don't want to see menubars! Also, I want a "application
> menu" button to appear only if the application has a menu. The fact is,
> some applications are bound to require menus to keep their main
> interface clear, so we should provide a convenient place for the menu to
> appear from, rather than having a menubar take up more space in the UI.

I don't like this in maemo and believe if an app needs a menu it should
handle this by itself.


Anyway, you are the developer so it is just my input. So far I like
OpenMoko a lot the PIM applications included.

Thanks and regards
Marcus